Well, the Kodiaq was full of all sorts of gadgets, such as door bumpers that stop you damaging cars in carparks if you open your door too wide!
The doors had umbrellas stored in them, which is fantastic for keeping them out of your footwell!! The driver's front door pocket has a little bin in it, which is genius as that's where all the rubbish gets shoved in our family car!
The front door pockets were large enough to hold my large refillable water bottle and wallet. The rear door pockets were equally well-sized but had a hidden cavity near the back of them that would be great for concealing your wallet when you head to the beach!
The central console storage box and cup holders were combined and had a caddy in there that would hold a key, cards, coins and lipstick. So very good for organising all your little things that usually get distributed around the cabin!!
The glove box is actually two! The normal glove box is quite small but has a cooling element so you can use it like an Esky and then above it, the dashboard opens up and there is another storage compartment I could fit my wallet and iPad in.
In the back there is a cup holder in the third row and in the second row are map pockets and cup holders in a fold-down armrest built into the central seat back.
The second row also gets entertainment device holders on the headrests which are a great feature if you have children that watch in the car.
And my favourite feature is the built-in window shades in the rear doors! Brilliant!
Storage in the boot of the Kodiaq was quite good as well; there was room for 15 shopping bags when you are only using five seats.
The Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller fitted with seven shopping bags.
The Britax Flexx tandem stroller fitted with nine shopping bags and the Britax Flexx single stroller fitted with 10 shopping bags.
The Britax Holiday compact stroller fitted with 13 shopping bags.
When using all seven seats, the boot storage was much more limited and I could get just six shopping bags in there, or five bags with the Holiday compact stroller. The Britax Flexx single stroller fitted with two bags.
The media system in the Kodiaq had very cheesy icons that took me by surprise! It does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and the screen for the reversing camera is clear and crisp.
When it came to installing child seats I realised some downsides to the Kodiaq and discovered that Skoda's clever design stopped there really!
Being a seven-seater, passengers need to be able to climb through to the third-row seats and being a family car you need to presume there will be child seats installed. But the Kodiaq does not allow you to access the third-row seats without uninstalling a child seat!! WHY!!!! I don't believe that Skoda could have missed this vital point!!
There are two ISO Fix points in the second row outer seats and top tethers across all three second-row seat backs. There are none in the third-row seats.
I found I could only install two child seats in that second row; the rear-facing Britax Unity infant capsule in one outer seat and the forward facing Maxi Guard Pro in the other outer seat.
Space in the cabin of the Kodiaq felt very tight, as though it was too small to be a genuine seven-seater. Legroom was minimal and I think the Kodiaq is more of an occasional seven-seater when you have visitors rather than an everyday seven-seater family car.
The Kodiaq was nice to drive but visibility was very poor out of the rear and the side corners in the back were huge blind spots.
The Kodiaq scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017 and has nine airbags as standard. The side curtain airbags go all the way to the third-row seats.
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
With only five seats in use, you can get 15 bags of shopping in the boot.
With the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller in the boot, I can get seven shopping bags in around it.
With the Britax Flexx tandem stroller in the boot, I could get nine shopping bags in with it.
With the Britax Flexx single stroller in the boot, I could get 10 shopping bags in with it.
With the Britax Holiday compact stroller in the boot, I can get 13 shopping bags in with it.
With five seats in use you could fit a large dog in the boot but with all seven in use, I wouldn't put a dog in the boot.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres ia not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
When all seven seats are in use, the boot space is much smaller! When empty it would hold six shopping bags.
With the Britax Flexx single stroller in the boot, I could fit two shopping bags.
With the Britax Holiday compact stroller in the boot, I could fit five shopping bags in around it.
Being an SUV, the boot floor is higher off the ground so lifting things in and out was simple as you are not bending down so low.
The boot has an underfloor storage area for the cargo blind which is easy to put in place and store away. When you do not have the cargo blind away then that area can be used as extra storage too!
It is a carpeted floor and when there are only five seats in use there is plenty of room on the boot floor for nappy changes!! With all seven seats in use, the boot floor area is small, but you could JUST do an emergency nappy change!
On the right in the boot there are bag hooks, a 12V socket and lever to pull forward the second row of seats.
On the left-hand side, there is a bag hook, a removable torch and a lever to pull forward the second-row seats.
Storage inside the cabin of the Kodiaq is epic!! Skoda has put everything you could ever imagine in here, starting with the doors that have umbrellas stored in the ends of them! Fantastic BabyDrive feature!! This keeps them out of the footwells where they get trampled on and broken and when they're wet you can pop them in there so they don't make the interior of the car wet! Also great for the tempestuous weather of Melbourne!!
The door bins in the front are lined and would hold my large refillable water bottle and my wallet. On the driver's side, there's a little rubbish bin which is fantastic as it is always where rubbish ends up being shoved in our car and my daughter is always giving me her banana skins or apple cores while I'm driving!!
By the drivers, right knee is a felt lined coin drawer.
In the central console is a rubber-lined well in front of the gear lever with a sliding lid. In there is a 12V socket, USB and AUX socket. I found this the best spot for my phone so I could charge it.
The armrest is the lid of the central console storage area. In the front of this are the two cup holders which will hold a disposable or reusable coffee cup, a 600ml water bottle fit in there, there is also a storage caddy for the key fob, a lipstick, a couple of coins, a card (a great place for your drive thru coffee loyalty card!!)
Behind that is a small rubber-lined space which makes up the rest of the central console storage area.
You actually get two glove boxes in the Kodiaq! The normal glovebox and then the dashboard above it also opens up into another storage box with a rubber grip base. My wallet fitted well in there and so did my iPad.
The lower glovebox is small, so an iPad wouldn't fit. It is cooled though! There is a dial in there to adjust the temperature.
There is a large sunglasses case in the ceiling but it is not lined.
In the second row of seats, there are map pockets on the back of both front seats that are big enough to hold an iPad.
On the back of the headrests are iPad or portable device holders. These would be great for forward-facing passengers that like to watch while they're travelling.
There were also aeroplane-style blankets attached to the front seat backrests in the model I tested.
Personally I think the logistics of these would be a nightmare! They would end up strewn all over the car and filthy but that's just me being honest about what my family car really looks like!!
The door pockets in the back are enormous too and lined. There are hidden cavities in the door bins that I found I could completely hide my wallet it which was an interesting feature, good if you're heading to the beach for example. They will also hold an iPad and a large refillable water bottle.
There is a 12V socket in the back of the central console storage box.
In the central seat backrest is a fold-down armrest with three cup holders in, but they are all very small. A 600ml or Pigeon baby bottle fitted well, as did a disposable or re-usable coffee cup.
In the third row, there is a cup holder on the left that fits a disposable coffee cup a little storage well too.
On the right, there is a long thin well I presumed was to hold an iPad but mine didn't fit although a smaller tablet would.
The Kodiaq is like a VERY well thought out change table when it comes to storage! Skoda has tried to think of every possibility! I reviewed this car at a showroom so I didn't get to live with it for a week, but I would LOVE to live with it and see how practical these things really are and whether I actually use them!
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
The rear camera system in the Skoda Kodiaq allows you to view the car from different angles, I find the birds-eye view useful for parking within the white lines but I don't know how much time I'd get in reality to use any of the other views other than entertaining a toddler in the car for five minutes!
In front of the gear lever is a panel of buttons to turn the rear camera on and off manually, also the auto engine cut out can be turned off here too.
In the digital display in front of the steering wheel, you can adjust or turn on/off the assist safety features like blind spot warning, lane assist, rear traffic alert and front assist.
The media system in the Kodiaq has the most awful stock images as the logos. They are so cheesy.
You can adjust the sat-nav announcement volume through the media screen when on the map page; as you bring your hand to the screen an announcement icon appears at the bottom that allows you to adjust the volume and mute it! It is a very simple way of doing it. I found the sat-nav really nice and easy to use in the Kodiaq. The Skodas also have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
You can scroll through the digital display to find out your fuel's distance to empty, which is a fantastic feature!
The distance to empty display becomes extra important as a mum because getting fuel with a baby is a whole new world of difficult. If they are screaming in the car you definitely do not want your journey prolonged with a fuel stop! If they are asleep the turning off of the engine, doors opening and locking and unlocking, then re-opening the doors and closing, starting the engine again, beepers going off because you haven’t got your seatbelt on when you start the car or because you blink in the wrong direction, do you take them out of the car when you go in to pay? If you do will you get them back in the seat again or will they have a complete meltdown and you’ll be stuck on the fuel station forecourt with a screaming baby!! Hopefully you are starting to gather the anxiety that what was once a simple fuel stop can be for a mum!!!!
For this reason the distance to empty display can let you know if you have enough fuel to make it home with bub and then go out and get fuel another time when you will not have to take bub with you.
The indicators have a nice quiet tick-tock that would not disturb a sleeping child.
The windows in the Kodiaq have quite a loud mechanism and they close with quite a thump too. The doors are quite quiet but close with a thump!
If you open the driver's door when the ignition is turned on then you will hear a loud beeping noise until you close your door!
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
There are ISO Fix in both the outside seats in the second row of the Kodiaq.
There are three top tethers in the Kodiaq, one in each of the second-row seatbacks. You can access the outer two by reaching your arm through to fasten them. With the central seat, you have to climb in to attach it.
Although there is physically room across the seat base for three child seats the back rests' shaping don't really allow it.
I have installed the Britax Unity rear facing infant capsule on one side, the forward facing Britax MaxiGuard Pro in the centre and because of the shape of the backrest, I could not get the rear facing Britax Graphene to fit properly. So I have to conclude it will only hold two child seats even though it's a seven seater! It may fit three different child seats but if that is important to you, make sure you try your child seats in the car first.
To access the third row of seats there is no mechanism in the second-row seats that allows you to get through without having to uninstall a child seat!? This seems CRAZY in a car with retracting door bumpers and hidden umbrellas that they have not designed fold-out steps that you walk through to the third row on or something equally impressive!!
On a practical level as a BabyDrive, you do not want to be uninstalling child seats at the start and end of every journey just so passengers can climb into the third row!
Space in the Kodiaq is tight, it feels very small for a seven seater. With the two child seats installed in the second row, the legroom is tight in the third row and it feels small and cramped back there.
With the second-row seats in the furthest back position and the forward facing Britax MaxiGuard Pro seat installed, the front passenger has 30 cm of legroom.
With the second row seats slid halfway forward, the driver's seat in front of a rear-facing capsule only has room for a 162cm driver!
The Kodiaq feels like an occasional seven-seater rather than an everyday one! Perhaps more for when people come to visit or a friend comes to play.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
I'm 162cm tall and I just find the Kodiaq's seat base is too long for me. It pushes in the back of my calves which gets uncomfortable after a while. Apart from that, the seats are comfy and firm and you have electronic controls on both front seats. You can have a ponytail in the driver's seat!!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get it just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
In the second row of seats, the base is split 60:40 and slides for legroom adjustment. The second-row seatbacks are split 40:20:40 so you can bring the seatbacks down independently.
In the third row, climbing in and out is really tight for space and once you're there legroom is minimal! The seats themselves are quite comfortable.
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
The aircon controls in the Kodiaq are really simple to use and are located in a good place on the dashboard. The flow is quite gentle but I found it ample to cool the cabin on a warm Queensland day!
There are four large air vents across the front of the dashboard, two in the centre and one at either end.
There are two small air vents in the back of the central console storage box for the middle-row passengers too but none for the third row.
Within the media screen, you can lock the rear aircon vents which is good if you have children that are likely to fiddle with them. Which is a fantastic BabyDrive feature!
The second-row windows have in-door blinds! Yay! Such a good BabyDrive feature!! No longer will I have suction cups coming unstuck and sun pelting in on my little passengers!
Visibility in the Kodiaq with all the child seats on board is pretty limited and I think the side mirrors are small for an SUV. The third row has nice big windows but the headrests and the child seats just fill that whole corner and the driver can not see out of at all, which means you rely heavily on the camera when reverse parking.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread when we get the big cars and utes as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Kodiaq was quite tricky to reverse park but enjoyable to drive!
There are lit vanity mirrors in both visors in the front.
There is a button in the front interior light panel that allows you to turn on and off all the rear lights too which is a great BabyDrive feature.
There are handles above both rear doors that are well positioned to hang a baby toy from.
There is a 12V socket in the boot, another infant of the gear lever and another in the back of the central console storage box.
There are carpet floor mats throughout the Kodiaq.
The Kodiaq I tested had keyless entry and a powered tailgate that was silent as long as you pressed it from the boot (if you used the button in the cab or the key it beeped). This was great for being able to access things in the boot if Bub had fallen asleep in the car without waking them up!
The seats are all leather in the Kodiaq, which is easier to clean than fabric seats. However, the first two rows are perforated with little holes trap sand, food, spills etc and are harder to clean!
The doors of the Kodiaq have a bumper protection to prevent you damaging the doors or other cars when you open them in tight car parks. They pop out onto the doors when you open them and they hide away as you close them. Great peace of mind for kids swinging the doors open in car parks!
The Kodiaq feels like a practical, hardwearing and well-designed car but some of the interior plastics feel so cheap and nasty, especially the door handles?!
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
The Skoda Kodiaq scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2017, with an adult occupancy protection score of 92%, and rating of 35.26 out of 38 points.
It scored 7.07 out of 8 for the frontal offset test, and 8/8 for the side impact test and 7.97/8 for the pole test.
For child occupancy protection the Skoda Kodiaq scored 77% (38.21 out of 49).
The crash test performance for a 6-year-old scored 11.68 and the crash test performance for a 10-year-old scored 9.87.
In the frontal offset test, readings of neck tension in the 10-year dummy indicated poor protection. Otherwise, protection of both dummies was good or adequate in this test. In the side barrier test, protection of all critical body areas was good for both dummies.
For child safety features and child seat installation the Skoda Kodiaq scored 6 points for safety features and 10.67 points for installation check.
For pedestrian protection, the Skoda Kodiaq was scored 62% (26.1 out of 42) and for safety assist it was scored 54% (6.5 out of 12).
The Skoda Kodiaq has nine airbags as standard, dual frontal and side airbags in the front, drivers knee airbag and curtain airbags for the front and rear side passengers and rear side airbags.
The Skoda Kodiaq comes with electronic stability control (ESC) and hill hold control, front assist with city emergency brake, anti-lock braking system (ABS), anti-slip regulation (ASR), extended electronic differential lock (EDL), engine torque control (MSR), hydraulic brake assist (HBA), driver steering reccomendstion (DSR), rain braking system (RBS), multi-collision braking (MKB), front and rear parking sensors, rear view camera, emergency fuel supply cut-off, automatic flashing brake lights in an emergency, electronic engine immobiliser, tyre pressure monitoring system, passenger protect assist, fatigue detection, rear for lights, light assist, rain sensor, LED daytime running lights, front LED fog lights with cornering function, LED brake light, activation of warning lights on impact in collision and activation of warning lights on impact all as standard.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
Thanks for review. Why does this kodiaq not fit 3 car seats and in the 2020 kodiaq review you could manage to fit 3 car seats? Did they change the layout or did you try different car seats? I didn’t realise they’d changed the kodiaq with a new model in 2020. I also wondered whether you think 3 narrower car seats could work in Kodiaq? Thanks,
Yes we tried a different seat combination, a skinny booster fitted in between when we tried the 2020 model. Here’s dimensions and models of seats we use for testing: https://babydrive.com.au/articles/will-my-child-seats-fit-in-my-car/