The Skoda Kamiq is an excellent small SUV with a spacious cabin and plenty of high-tech features that’s dead easy to drive and live with, but is also a bit on the dull side.
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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 stylish Scala hatchback. It’s all very slick and helps make the Kamiq one of the classiest 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 available from SE L 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.
You used to want a Skoda because they were more practical than the alternatives. Now, the Kamiq shows they can be more high-tech and better looking, too.
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. See how much you can save by visiting our Skoda Kamiq deals page or read on for our detailed interior, practicality and driving review sections.
How practical is it?
The Skoda Kamiq is one of the roomiest small SUVs on sale and comes with loads of clever features designed to make it easier to live with. The only thing it’s missing is sliding rear seats.
Boot (seats up)
400 litres
Boot (seats down)
1,395 litres
You’ll have no trouble getting comfortable in the front of the Skoda Kamiq. The large front door openings and raised ride height make it very easy to climb in and there’s enough adjustment in the seat and steering wheel to help you find a comfortable driving position. It’s just a shame that adjustable lumbar support – to help stave off backache on long drives – is only standard from SE trim upwards.
The back seats are pretty roomy so a couple of six-foot-tall passengers can get comfy behind an equally lofty driver. There’s loads of knee room, enough headroom for them to sit up straight without touching the roof and there’s space for them to push their feet all the way under the front seats – even in their lowest position.
There’s a tall lump in the rear floor, but at least it’s quite narrow so there’s space for a middle-seat passenger to comfortably put their feet to each side. They’ll have plenty of headroom, too – even in models with a panoramic glass roof – because the sunblind folds forwards rather than rearwards.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal of shoulder room for carrying three adults in the back at once and the central seat is narrower and firmer than the outer two. There’s enough space for three kids to get comfy, though, and it’s a doddle to fit a child seat thanks to the clearly-marked Isofix anchor points with easy-to-remove covers.
You won’t have any trouble lifting a bulky rear-facing child seat through the Skoda Kamiq’s wide rear door openings, either, and there’s an extra set of Isofix anchor points on the front passenger seat if you need to fit a third child seat in the front.
The Skoda Kamiq comes with a decent number of storage spaces, including a generous glovebox, a felt-lined tray for your sunglasses beside the steering wheel and front-door bins that are big enough to carry a half-litre bottle. There’s also a pair of cupholders in the front and you can get a special storage tray that fits into one with dedicated slots for your phone and car keys.
There’s also a storage tray under the dashboard with an optional wireless charging pad, and in SE and SE L models, you’ll find a little extra space under the front armrest. You can also get a folding armrest in the back with two built-in cupholders, but the rear door bins aren’t quite as large as those in the front.
The Skoda Kamiq has 400 litres of boot space with the back seats in place. That’s slightly more than the VW T-Cross can carry, but, slide the VW’s back seats forward and it’ll swallow almost 15% more luggage than the Skoda.
The Skoda Kamiq’s boot is just as easy to load as the T-Cross’s though, thanks to its wide opening, square shape and optional adjustable floor that almost eliminates the lip by the boot lid.
To carry even larger luggage, you can flip the back seats down in a two-way (60:40) split to boost the Skoda Kamiq’s boot space to 1,395 litres. That’s more than the VW T-Cross and Citroen C3 Aircross can manage, but a few litres shy of what’ll fit in the Skoda Scala hatchback.
You get plenty of handy tie-down points and shopping hooks, a 12V socket and a netted cubby attached to the bottom of the parcel shelf to keep smaller items from rattling around. Additionally, there’s space to store the parcel shelf under the movable boot floor if you need to remove it and there’s a handy removable torch that lights up the Skoda’s boot when open and is automatically recharged when you place it back into its holder.
The Skoda Kamiq is an easy-to-drive small SUV that’s comfortable and fairly quiet, but other equally compact alternatives are more fun and come with a wider range of engines.
You can get the Skoda Kamiq with three petrol engines and with either a manual or an automatic gearbox. Unlike some small SUVs, you can’t get it with four-wheel drive; although you shouldn’t let that put you off.
The 95hp 1.0-litre petrol model is perfectly suited to pottering around in town. It’s smooth, relatively quiet for a small engine – even when you accelerate hard – and its five-speed manual gearbox is easy to use. It isn’t particularly quick – accelerating from 0-60mph takes around 11 seconds – but Skoda claims it’ll return around 50mpg.
If you’re looking for something a little faster to tackle a mix of city driving and motorway journeys, the 110hp 1.0-litre petrol is a much better choice. This model comes with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard but you can pay extra for a seven-speed automatic instead.
The manual-gearbox version is a touch more economical than the auto, returning around 52mpg, but the seven-speed automatic is worth considering if you spend lots of time in heavy traffic.
It can be a little hesitant when you’re pulling out of a turning and it tends to jerk slightly at slow speeds and when you brake lightly, but it changes gear smoothly at speed and responds pretty quickly when you need a lower gear to overtake slow-moving traffic on a motorway.
The quiest Kamiq is the 1.5-litre 150hp petrol, which covers the 0-62mph dash in 8.0 seconds (8.3 wit the automatic gearbox fitted) and can do a claimed 50.4mpg (47.1mpg for the auto).
The Skoda Kamiq’s tall body and large windows make it easy to see out of and its tight turning circle and light steering mean it’s very easy to drive through tight city streets or in busy car parks.
Its suspension does a fairly good job ironing out bumps too, so you won’t feel a jarring thud through your seat if you fail to spot a pothole until too late, but the VW T-Cross is slightly more comfortable over rough road surfaces.
Things smooth out on fast country roads and you won’t hear a great deal of tyre noise at motorway speeds, but there is a little more wind noise produced by the Skoda Kamiq’s bluff windscreen and door mirrors than in a conventional hatchback.
Head off the motorway and onto a twisty country road and you’ll find that the Skoda Kamiq doesn’t feel at all sporty. Sure, you can get it with lowered suspension with firmer, supposedly more sporty settings, but all this does is make the Kamiq less comfortable. At no point does it feel out of its comfort zone on windy road, but neither will it encourage you to sprint from one hairpin to another. If you’re looking for a small SUV that’s good fun to drive, you’ll be better off with a SEAT Arona.
Thankfully, while these supposedly sporty options cost extra, you get plenty of safety kit as standard in every Skoda Kamiq. Lane-keeping assistance and automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection come as standard, and you can get the Skoda Kamiq with adaptive cruise control to take the edge off very long journeys.
What's it like inside?
The Skoda Kamiq’s interior feels very solid and comes with plenty of equipment as standard, but it doesn’t look quite as dramatic as the funky cabins you get in some small SUVs.
*Please contact the dealer for a personalised quote, including terms and conditions. Quote is subject to dealer requirements, including status and availability. Illustrations are based on personal contract hire, 9 month upfront fee, 48 month term and 8000 miles annually, VAT included.
