Skoda used to be good honest cars, thedealers were good honest dealers, they were helpful, very helpful.

Now I am not so sure.

We have a Karoq and a Kamiq, both 22 plates.

It's been mentioned before - the Kamiq, you have to control far too much via the touch screen, that for the ventilation is a massive and a potentially dangerous situation and the lag getting it to work or return to where you were times is far too long.

The annual charge of £80 for updates and connected features is pathetic, the maps and speed information are wrong all over the place, satnav giving direction in contravention of a S22 - direction road sign - immediate 3 points. I raised a report about it once, their promise was a 7 day reply - well that was actually a month, then no further reply to my reply.

Voice control - absolute joke!

Of late I have noticed that when listening to DAB radio various stations repeatedly drop out. Now I have noticed this as I've been travelling the same routes in both our Karoq and our Kamiq - a totally inferior listening experience. I just wish I had noticed it in it's warranty.

But I do have a Skoda service plan and an extended warranty. Today I rang the dealership and explained the issue, yes it is something they could look at but then burst the bubble by blabbing on about a possible charge, a not insignificant £130, I asked if the extended warranty would not cover it? We won't know until we look, was their response. So I could end up with a bill then...... Pathetic!

Now I like my Karoq but I had a minor paint issue around the pseudo brake cooling vents in the front bumper, still in warranty then, sadly and from a different dealership just repeated fob-offs, perhaps it should have gone further but with way bigger life and family issues to manage - it is just a bit of plastic.

Overall I am really disappointed and not feeling much love towards Skoda.

I think I might cross the gap to Kia, for starters you get 7 years of updates included and give them a voice instruction and it responds immediately.

Edited Thursday at 21:531 day by John N
I missed a bit at the end.

Tend to agree, not as good as they used to be. I've had various Skodas since 2002 [all purchased new ] starting with a Fabia Elegance TDI estate and now on a 2025 Karoq 1.5 SEL which has already had warranty repairs on some weird problem with the infotainment display. Dont have the same faith in them as I used to.

Skoda are a fantastic manufacturing company but they are tied to VW which was a good thing from the early nineties but for the last over a decade it is not good.

My first Skoda was a Felicia in the mid nineties. Had numerous, more than a dozen VW, several VRSs and L&K as well as normal ones but in the mid 10s the seem to get much more expensive and not really outstanding. From then I mainly bought Renaults / Dacias and they have been the best selling versions of cars and award winning rightfully so IMO. VW is going to lose 100K jobs in the next few years and close several factories. Spain seems to be their preferred manufacturing base and I do like the Cupra brand too. Hope Skoda in Chechia survives as they are a great people and a joy to visit. Cool Skoda trams too.....

Volkswagen has won the European Car of the Year award multiple times. [1]

Winning Models

• Volkswagen Golf Mk3 (1992)

• Volkswagen Polo (2010)

• Volkswagen Golf Mk7 (2013)

• Volkswagen Passat (2015) [1, 2, 3]

On 17/09/2026 at 22:51, John N said:

I think I might cross the gap to Kia, for starters you get 7 years of updates included and give them a voice instruction and it responds immediately.

I've bought 3 new and 1 used Skoda over the past 24 years, and have similar thoughts. Already when buying latest (used) manual diesel vRS back in 2019, I was thinking that this might be my last Skoda purchase, makes me sad because previous 3 new Skoda purchases were fantastic in almost every aspect.

The Karoq used to be my go to choice for the next car right until they stopped equipping it with manual gearbox diesels and the Varioflex seating.

I guess the ownership of Roomster and Mk1 Superb has built up my idea of what a good car should be, and the current Skoda offerings fly far below my level of expectations. Cutting fuel tanks and range while simultaneously making the (larger fuel tank) higher end models too wide and too long for UK daily life also did not help, all parking spots in my area are still the same size as 25 years ago and for long distance travel to Europe, the only manual diesel left in the new car range is the Octavia, with a pathetic 45l fuel tank (Mk1 Octavia vented diesel fuel tank was 64l !).

I am increasingly looking towards Mazda, especially that you can get 3.3l V6 diesels in their SUVs (though automatic only) as well as a large-ish 2.5l non-turbo petrol engine mated to a manual gearbox in a much smaller car that I can still actually fit in (Mazda 3).

I've probably said this before but Skoda have effectively been screwed over in recent years by VW Group taking thier software tech in-house and making a complete hash of it and by forcing their dealers 'upmarket' into fancy glass showrooms. They were better when neither were in place.

I'd consider another Skoda in a few years when they've proved they've sorted software issues out but at present I'm happy with our 2018 Kodiaq and 2017 Citigo.

If they don't get things sorted I'll be back looking at bigger Dacias or Kia / Hyundai or similar. Even a Chinese brand like Jaecoo might be on the list...

After previous good experience with an Aygo I'm switching to Toyota after reading of (and helping tackle) the numerous software problems on Skoda's newer than my 2016 Octavia 3.

VAG software outsourcing has been IMHO an unmitigated disaster which they have simply taken far too long to solve after making owners into effectively beta (or even alpha) testers - Skoda is a victim of that strategy.