Skoda Kamiq long-term test: report 6

The car Skoda Kamiq 1.5 TSI 150 SE L Run by John Bradshaw, chief photographer

Why it’s here To find out if a small SUV can deliver a decent blend of comfort, practicality and economy 

Needs to Tackle long trips with ease, carry bulky loads and be frugal at the pumps

Mileage 8254 List price £29,980 Target Price £48,252 Price as tested £31,175 Official fuel economy 47.5mpg Test fuel economy 46.8mpg.

28 October 2024 – Growing pains

When living with someone – or something – for a long time, one often grows tolerant of their faults and habits. Just like one half of a couple might eventually give up complaining about the other leaving the toilet seat up, these days I just tune out the fact that my Skoda Kamiq's automatic gearbox is occasionally hesitant. It's just one of those things.

It does have some shortcomings, though, that – if left unchecked – could sour the mood at home.

Not long after taking delivery of the Kamiq, it developed a rattle from the shroud between steering wheel and dashboard. In isolation, it's nothing serious enough to tax our relationship, and turning the stereo up drowns it out, but once I notice it, I can't hear anything else. And when there's a pause in the music, there's that damn rattle again.

I tried various remedies to alleviate it; adjusting the steering wheel away from my preferred position made no difference, nor did administering a swift blow with the palm of my hand. Eventually, though, I found a cure – if not a particularly elegant one.

I found the noise to emanate from where two plastic panels join, and if I stuff something soft of exactly the right thickness into the gap, the rattle is silenced. The soft case for my sunglasses does the trick, albeit with its bright yellow material clashing horribly with the black of the dashboard. What to do with my sunglasses, though? Well, it seems almost ironic that the Kamiq possesses a sunglasses holder adjacent to the interior mirror; with my sunnies stashed in there, their case was unemployed anyway. It's almost as if Skoda envisaged that rattle during the design stages.

There have been other gripes, but these seem to have been teething troubles that the Kamiq has grown out of. It went through a stage when it was hit and miss as to whether the infotainment system would link to my phone. I like to use Google Maps on my phone, with the map ported onto the Kamiq's central display via Apple CarPlay. On those occasions when the infotainment system and the phone didn't see eye to eye, I'd just use the system's inbuilt sat-nav instead, so no harm done.

However, there have been half a dozen or so occasions when I've started the car and the infotainment screen has stalled while showing utter nonsense, or failed to switch on altogether. The "fix" for this is pulling over, switching the engine off and then starting up again to reboot the system. Again, though, it hasn't happened recently.

I'm more concerned now, though, that the Kamiq has entered its surly teenage years early. A few weeks ago, it threw a brief tantrum when I pulled away from the traffic lights in London traffic, and the Automatic Emergency Braking slammed on, bringing the car to an abrupt halt even though the road ahead was perfectly clear. The Kamiq had never previously done this, and it's now planted a concern that it could do so again. Let's hope it's just phase it's going through, and that it'll be over soon.

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