Skoda Kamiq Review & Prices

The Skoda Kamiq faithfully adheres to the brand’s ‘Simply Clever’ message by offering all the things buyers need, but without much of a fanfare.

So, while compact SUVs such as the VW T-Cross, Citroen C3 Aircross and Renault Captur are all about funky styling, groovy lights and just being a bit loud, the Skoda Kamiq has turned up in a neat suit and is getting on with making them look all a bit unnecessary.

The two-piece headlights, for example, look just like those on the bigger Kodiaq SUV while the posh Skoda lettering on the bootlid is a clear nod to the Scala hatchback. It’s all very slick and helps make the Kamiq one of the classiest and understated small SUVs around.

Things don’t look quite so cool inside, but you do get a decent number of posh-feeling plastics and some metal-effect trims on the door handles and air vents. You can even jazz up the Skoda Kamiq’s cabin with some faux-suede trim on the doors and seats in a variety of colours.

The Skoda Kamiq’s 9.2-inch infotainment system is another highlight. It’s standard from SE Drive trim upwards, looks slick, is pretty easy to use and can be had with digital instruments instead of analogue dials – just like an Audi, BMW or Mercedes. It does mean paying extra going for models from the mid-level upwards though.

Thankfully, all these fancy features don’t encroach on passenger space so there’s still plenty of room for you to get comfy. The back seats are very generous for a small SUV, too – even without the sliding rear seats like those you get in a VW T-Cross and Citroen C3 Aircross.

That said, the Skoda Kamiq can’t muster up quite as much boot space as these cars, but at least its loadbay still comes with plenty of cool features, including a removable torch and a neat hidden net under the parcel shelf.

The Skoda Kamiq’s engines aren’t quite so clever, but they’re still smooth, fairly punchy and pretty economical – if not particularly exciting. The same goes for the way the Skoda Kamiq drives – it’s pretty comfortable around town and easy to manoeuvre, but you won’t find yourself searching out twisty country roads for a quick Sunday afternoon blast.

It feels much more at home cruising along motorways and A-roads than most small SUVs, however, but you’ll still hear a bit of wind noise coming from its bluff front and. That said, at least the Skoda Kamiq comes with a decent number of standard safety systems, including automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assist.

Sure, you do have to pay a bit extra for adaptive cruise control, but even with a few options added, the Skoda Kamiq is still an affordable small SUV that strikes an excellent balance between comfort, practicality and style.

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Skoda keeps the Kamiq’s pricing very competitive. It undercuts the similar Volkswagen T-Cross, although not by much.

You get a decent amount of kit as standard, too, even if you stick with the entry-level SE car.

SE Drive is the next rung up the ladder, and for our money it’s the sweet spot for value and equipment. By all means, splash the cash on the SE L Executive for more luxury, or the Monte Carlo for a sportier vibe inside and out. But this is a sensible car for sensible people, and SE and SE Drive cars are all you really need.

For the Kamiq, comfort is the priority, but this focus means it's not that fun

In town

The Kamiq drives really well around town. Even the slowest model with the 95hp 1.0-litre engine is reasonably nippy at low speeds, and the 150hp 1.5 TSI is very lively. The 110hp 1.0-litre sits between the two, and like the 1.5 it can be ordered with a smooth-shifting DSG automatic.

Skoda has put comfort ahead of entertainment in the way the Kamiq drives, so the suspension smoothly soaks up potholes and other lumps and bumps in the road surface.

Big windscreen pillars can get in the way a bit when you are looking for other traffic at an angled junction, but otherwise all-round visibility is pretty good. You don’t sit as high as you do in some SUVs, though – you’re eyeball to eyeball with folk in regular hatchbacks rather than looking down on them.

A tight turning circle is a big plus if you take the wrong road and need to make a sneaky U-turn. It helps when parking too. SE cars have rear parking sensors, while SE L Executive cars have front and rear parking sensors as well as a rear-view camera.

On the motorway 

Don’t go thinking the Kamiq is too small to be a good motorway car. It will happily rack up the miles.

All of the engines are capable enough at motorway speeds, but if you want something in reserve, the 150hp 1.5 TSI is the best of the engines. It will soon get you back up to 70mph if you’re stuck behind slower traffic.

Of the two 1.0-litre engines, we’d favour the more powerful 110hp version. That’s not just because of the extra 15hp, but because it has a six-speed gearbox rather than the five-speed fitted to the less powerful model. The extra gear makes for less engine noise and better fuel economy at 70mph.

Originally the Kamiq was available with a diesel engine which really suited long motorway journeys, but today you have a straight choice between the three petrol engines.

On a twisty road

Show the Kamiq a twisty country road and it grips and goes well enough, but if you enjoy driving there’s something missing. It just doesn’t have the alert steering or agility that make a Ford Puma so much fun to drive, even if you pay for the optional sports chassis. So if you want to grin from ear to ear every time you drive a B-road, the Puma is a better bet.

If you tend to drive steadily and are more concerned with avoiding car sickness than clipping apexes, the Kamiq is just fine. It’s tidy, comfortable, and thoroughly sensible. But even the sporty-looking Monte Carlo model doesn’t do much to get the heart pumping.

Skoda continues its trend of being super-sensible, but there's not a lot of design flair in the cabin    

One of the first things you notice when you climb into Skoda’s smallest SUV is that you don’t climb into it at all. It’s barely any higher from the ground than Skoda’s Scala hatchback and the seat is relatively low to the floor on its lowest setting. So don’t shop for the Kamiq and expect to sit above other drivers, big SUV-style.

Every Kamiq has a height-adjustable driver’s seat, and SE Drive cars and up have height adjustment for the front passenger’s seat as well. You get a wide range of adjustment, and the steering wheel moves in and out as well as up and down. Tall or short, you should be able to get comfortable in the Skoda.

The cockpit layout is typical Skoda – expect sense and logic rather than lots of quirky features or eye-candy design. All the controls are sensibly positioned and easy to use.

Storage is taken care of by large door bins and a reasonably big glovebox. There are two cupholders between the front seats, although they’re not large enough for a big bottle of water. Smaller bottles will fit, though, and there’s a protrusion in the middle of each cupholder that holds a bottle still so you can take the top off with one hand.

Space in the back seats 

The Kamiq doesn’t take up a lot of space on the road, so you might expect the rear seats to be a bit of a squeeze. But no, this is a surprisingly roomy car, with enough space for a couple of grown-ups in the back. Head and legroom are both generous for such a small car.

Rear-seat passengers won’t be quite so happy if a third person comes along for the ride. The cabin is quite narrow, and everyone will be a bit squashed.

If children rather than adults will be travelling in the back, then the wide-opening doors and ISOFIX mounting points will come in handy for securing child seats. Even big rearward-facing chairs should be no trouble.

Boot space 

With the back seats in place there’s a 400-litre boot, which makes it pretty average among its competitors. It’s bigger than the T-Cross, which has 385 litres, but smaller than the C3 Aircross and Captur, which have 410 and 422 litres respectively.

Unlike those cars, the Kamiq doesn’t have a sliding rear bench, so you can’t trade rear legroom for extra luggage space. Sliding the rear seats forward increases the T-Cross to 455 litres, C3 Aircross to 520 litres and the Captur to 536 litres.

However, you can tip the back seats forward if you need more room. This increases boot space to a healthy 1395 litres.

A variable height boot floor is an optional extra, as is a two-sided floor with a wipe-clean finish on one side.

You get an impressive infotainment system that works smoothly, but it's got a more conservative design than in alternatives

Inside, the Kamiq is – we’re going to use that word again – sensible. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact it’s mostly a good thing. But if you want friends to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ the first time you give them a lift in your new car, have a look at the Citroen C3 Aircross instead.

What you do get with the Kamiq is good build quality, with soft-touch plastics on the top of the doors and dash that make you question whether a VW T-Cross deserves to be the more expensive car. Yes, some of the plastics on the sides of the centre console and lower on the doors are cheaper in look and feel, but that’s no great surprise.

The starting point for the range, the SE, has an 8.0-inch screen for the infotainment. It’s okay, but the 9.2-inch screen fitted to the rest of the range is a lot better. As well as being bigger, it comes with satellite navigation, web radio, voice control and traffic sign recognition.

The screen is bright, clear, and easy to use, and there are shortcut buttons for quick navigation without getting lost in a maze of on-screen menus.

Temperature controls are separate from the touchscreen, but some other air-con functions need to be accessed through the screen menus, which takes some time.

Another clever bit of tech is the Virtual Cockpit. Pioneered by Audi, this replaces conventional dials with a screen that can be configured to show different information. It’s really handy and allows you to show mapping directly in your line of sight. It’s a standard feature if you choose the SE L Executive or Monte Carlo models. You don’t necessarily miss out if you choose a more affordable trim as it can be specified as an option.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on all models except the SE. You can add smartphone mirroring to the SE, but only if you also pay extra to upgrade the infotainment.

There are no hybrid versions of the Kamiq, although the 1.5-litre petrol engine does have a clever feature that switches to using two cylinders rather than four to save fuel when the engine isn’t working hard.

This means there’s not a big penalty at the pumps for choosing the more powerful engine. With a manual gearbox, it returns up to 51.4mpg according to the official figures. You should be able to get reasonably close to that in normal driving.

The same engine with the DSG auto is a little thirstier, achieving 48.4mpg.

Your other two engine choices are the 95hp and 110hp 1.0-litre petrols. There is almost nothing to choose between the two, with the entry-level 95hp model returning 53.1mpg and the 110hp version achieving 53.2mpg. The 95hp car only comes with a manual ’box, but you can have a DSG auto if you go for the 110hp, in which case economy worsens by around 3mpg.

Remember, there’s no diesel version of the Kamiq anymore, so if you want the motorway economy of a good turbodiesel you’ll need to consider a different small SUV or shop for a used Kamiq.

Reasonably low emissions mean the first year’s Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) payment isn’t too painful – it’s included in the on-the-road charges you pay for a new car, so you won’t really notice it.

The Kamiq is a safe car. The experts at Euro NCAP ran the rule over it in 2019 it scored the maximum five stars. The Skoda earned a 96% rating for adult occupant protection, and 85% for child occupant. The score for pedestrian protection was 80% with a 76% rating for the car’s safety assistance systems.

Every model including the most basic SE comes with a lane keeping system to stop the car drifting out of position on motorways and dual carriageways. Front assist is also standard. This is Skoda’s name for autonomous emergency braking, which hits the brakes hard if there’s about to be a collision and the driver doesn’t react.

An alarm and central locking are fitted to all Kamiqs, and keyless entry is an optional extra on SE L and Monte Carlo models.

While the Kamiq is still quite a new car, most of the engines and mechanical parts are well proven and have been used extensively by Skoda and other VW Group brands.

Skoda usually finishes close to the top of both customer satisfaction and reliability surveys, so you can buy a Kamiq with confidence.

If anything does go wrong with the car, Skoda’s standard new car warranty lasts for three years. For the first two years, mileage is unlimited, but for the third year the mileage is capped at 60,000. The cover can be extended up to five years and 100,000 miles at extra cost.