Hi all. Just took delivery of my 2.0 TDI 4x4 Karoq. Here are my first impressions.

 

When I drive over gravel or when I drive over a patch of new asphalt I hear load noises in the driver compartment. It's really interesting because my old car (Subaru Forester III) did not make so loud noises while driving the same roads. While specing the car there was an option for noise reduction for "hard roads". What do you think, could that fix it? 

 

The boot opening button on the key fob seems to work only 50% of the time. When I push the button the car lights go on but the boot does not open. Same thing when I hold the button down. I found out that the solution would be to first open the doors with the fob and then press the boot button. But then again 50% of the time when I press just the boot button the boot opens. 

 

I love the active cruise control but it has scared me a couple of times. I don't mind when I drive by myself but when I've got my 4 month old son in the car I like to drive as smooth as possible. I've experienced a few times when the ACC breaking kicks in just a bit too late and I need to manually hit the break pedal myself. Hope it's a software bug that gets fixed. 

 

BTW, what do you think about the colour? I've had the car for two days now and I think I'll want to change the colour but my wife seems to love it. 

hello ron, love the car mate , I nearly chose the same colour, the missus wanted it, however I opted for moon white in the end. In my opinion , a black pack for the mirrors and grill would look great on these cars. maybe something that will appear on a sportline edition. enjoy ur car !!! 

I do like this colour.

 

As jimhem81 says, a bit of contrast would lift it again.

 

Probably do it with wrap plastic stuff initialy.

 

Colin 

Hmm, black mirrors sound interesting. Any photoshop masters here that could colour the mirrors black and/or chrome so we could see what it would look like?

 

Looks great 

 

I'm waiting on a meteor grey Superb myself and I agree with the above comments, some  black trim would add contrast and make it look even better. 

 

Enjoy your new car, it really does look good. 

Edited 26 April, 20188 yr by penguin17

Ok, it's a Kodiaq but to give you an idea..

 

 

Also had my Karoq Edition 1.5tsi DSG for two days and I really like it so far, although it's by far the most technically challenging car I have had in 50 years of driving. I am going to have several tutorials from my dealer, who warned me at  handover that there would be a significant learning curve. His advice was to get used to the feel of the car and not to try anything too complicated at first. I haven't even attempted to use the park assist but it will be covered in one of the practical sessions. Likewise, the Columbus system is very different to the one on my old Superb and much of it is still a mystery., but that will also be covered in a tutorial. 

I love the ACC, it makes motorway driving a lot easier, but I am also using it in built up areas to keep below speed limits. I had a speed limiter on a couple of previous cars, but never really liked it and preferred using the cruise control. With the ACC I can almost drive without touching the pedals for much of the time and as long as there is a car in front the ACC will stop the car without my intervention at traffic lights or traffic holdups. I haven't found the ACC braking too violent, but I don't have any tiny children on board. I also find the blind spot hazard warning very useful, as my neck is not as supple as it once was for looking over my shoulder.

I really like the higher driving position and this morning in a supermarket car park was able to see an MX5 coming down the road towards me  by looking over the top of the car parked next to me that had heavily tinted windows. I would not have seen it in my previous car, which had  much lower driving position.

Jury still out on lane assist, I haven't had much chance to judge its usefulness yet. Traffic sign recognition is very useful. I initially found the map very cluttered, then found out how to remove all the petrol stations, supermarkets, hospitals etc and am now very happy with it. I haven't used the satnav yet, but don't expect it to be too different to what I already know from previous vehicles.

Heated seats a lot better than they were on the old Superb, but it's a shame that only the driver's seat is electric (both front seats were on the Superb). I would have paid for this if it had been an optional extra. However, the seats are very comfortable and the drivers seat is easy to adjust. I haven't had any passengers sitting in the back seats yet, but did find the loops used to unlock and pull down the seat backs a bit of a fiddle compared to the buttons on  the Superb.  

The electronic boot opening/shutting is very useful and I see very little need to pay for the expensive optional virtual pedal. I would have liked more storage space for tools in the boot. I managed to get the fire extinguisher and first aid kit into the side pockets in the boot, but not much else. In the Superb estate I also had room for a foot pump, jump leads a hazard warning triangle, a few tools and a hi-viz vest in the side pockets. I was able to get most of these into the spare wheel well, but if I ever need to use the spare wheel, I will have a lot to unpack to get to it. I suppose I'm trying to compare a good sized boot in the Karoq with something which resembled a cavern in the Superb, so probably being picky.

All in all the car was worth the wait and I just hope it will be as reliable as the Superb. 

 

Tenchfisher, did you have the driver key personalisation feature when you ordered??

 

Good review too, thanks.  

Edited 27 April, 20188 yr by Macdemon

No didn’t bother with that, I’m the only one who will drive the car.My wife dislikes auto gearboxes.

We're moving with the family at the moment. Yesterday managed to fit a large size city bike into to Karoq. We needed to remove two Varioflex seats. While removing the seats I noticed that the middle seat was not properly attached. I don't know what are the red things called but they were not secured fully. Unfortunately I managed to scrape the leather from one of the seats but hey stuff happens. Tonight we will try to pack the car to the max with boxes filled with our stuff. 

 

The problem I have with ACC is noticable in the city. It sometimes takes a while for the car to "notice" the car in front so it breaks really late and as I mentioned before I can't have that happening while I've got my son in the car. All in all I really like the car and thanks to the photo @penguin17 posted I think I will opt for the black (or chrome) mirrors. 

Ron, have you tried increasing the distance between you and the car in front on the ACC? If you haven’t look for the slider button on the top of the ACC stalk, which has a plus and minus sign on either side of I it. If you push the slider it will bring up a display on the information panel showing a series of lines between you and the car in front. I suspect you may have the distance set to short, which will make the car brake later and hence more d braking is quite gentle. 

Sorry seems to have chopped the last sentence of my post. Should read “ more strongly, I have mine set to about 6 feet between me and the car in front when stopped and the braking is more gentle.

You can set the gap using the stalk or if you go into the infotainment you can change the default setting.

 

The louder noise could also be due to the big rims with lower tire sidewalls?

Yes i've changed the distance.

@Ron_EST, congrats! Is it a Business Grey?

I'm in the process of ordering a 2.0 TDI, 4x4, DSG, with some extras, in that colour.