Hello,

 

We are planning on buying a Kodiaq shortly - if we can find one for our budget which would max out at 25k, ideally a bit less (or a lot less :)). 

We have 3 (sometimes 4) kids to cart about, go camping fairly regularlythroughout the summer, sometimes to Wales from the south coast where we are based, when we have a trailer (Anssems GT500 181HT) stuffed to the gills, likely with at least 2 bikes on it, and would probably also use a roofbox too with a full load and the dog squeezed in somewhere. 

That said, for the most part we dont do many miles, but need the space for getting the gang out for dog walks and breaking the bank at the supermarket.

It seems - having done some research - that the 2 litre TSI 190 or TDI 200 4x4 are the choices (but I don't really know, hence asking on here), and honestly would like to keep the car pretty much as long as it will last.

I wonder if the TSI would deal with the load when we are loaded, as it would appear to suit us better for the rest of the non camping year. Or we should hold out for a deisel which seems like it wouldn't mind the load at all but would be more expensive up front and to run the rest of the non camping year.

 

any insight you guys can provide would be very much appreciated

 

many thanks

 

Hello.

Have a look at the power & torque curves of the two engines and see if that sways you either way.

Also, are you looking at manual or DSG gearboxes?

They all seem to be dsg for the more grunty engines as far as I can tell.

Don't mind that if it doesn't break 

We had a Kodiaq for a few weeks on a trip o NZ earlier in the year and on occasions it was fully loaded with 5 adults and all our bags and suitcases (the boot was rammed), which is why we chose it - the boot is huge.

 

We had the 2.0 petrol with DSG and it coped admirably with plenty of power. We encountered some steep hills where I used manual mode otherwise it would hang onto the gears too much and rev it's nuts off which goes against my mechanical sympathy. Rest of the time it was left in auto to do it's own thing and it was nice to drive.

We have a 1.4tdi 4x4 manual and live on the edge of the peak district.  It regularly travels across the peaks fully loaded to the gunnels to Belfast and Lancaster - it copes fine with no issues apart from an occasional need to let it have a few more revs before changing gear...

9 hours ago, VAGCF said:

We had a Kodiaq for a few weeks on a trip o NZ earlier in the year and on occasions it was fully loaded with 5 adults and all our bags and suitcases (the boot was rammed), which is why we chose it - the boot is huge.

 

We had the 2.0 petrol with DSG and it coped admirably with plenty of power. We encountered some steep hills where I used manual mode otherwise it would hang onto the gears too much and rev it's nuts off which goes against my mechanical sympathy. Rest of the time it was left in auto to do it's own thing and it was nice to drive.

I'm surprised there aren't "Steep Incline" & Steep Decline" settings on the vehicle, but I know nowt about them.

A bit of counter-intuitive thinking here, but I wonder if it might be worth trying "Sport" mode as an alternative to "Manual" for the steep hills, to get it to hold low gears for longer, but not as long as manual mode?

Sport mode would probably make it worse? I used manual mode to change up not down as it was revving higher than it needed to. DSG and other autos can be great most of the time but you can't beat human intervention sometimes!

 

Classic was my 2.0 Tdi Passat estate that when going to work there was an island followed by an uphill stretch on a dual carriageway. Number of times I'd pull out to overtake and it would change up just when I needed to accelate and drop me in it! Answer was to use manual mode for that stretch.