- What we like:
- What we don’t like:
- Price & Equipment: 7/10
- Performance & Economy: 8/10
- Ride & Handling: 8/10
- Interior & Practicality: 9.5/10
- Service & Warranty: 9/10
- The 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.3/10
2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI Review
Price & Equipment:7
Performance & Economy:8
Ride & Handling:8
Interior & Practicality:9.5
Service & Warranty:9
What we like:
- Amazingly practical and comfortable interior
- Solid ride and handing balance
- Smooth turbo petrol and 8-speed auto combo
What we don’t like:
- Gets expensive with options ticked
- Rear seat isn’t massive on space
- Blind-spot monitoring unavailable
2022-11-27
8.3DiscoverAuto Review:
The reign of the SUV continues to dominate Australian – and global – sales charts. So much so that this year, the medium SUV segment is the biggest selling segment in Australia, and that’s the first time that’s ever happened – they’ve even outsold utes, which is massive. It therefore goes without saying that if you don’t have a mid-size SUV in your lineup, you’re an automotive nobody. Skoda has just updated its Karoq mid-size SUV, and we’ve been testing it. Should you be considering a 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI to whet your SUV appetite? Let’s find out.
The mid-life update for the Karoq focused on giving it a new look – the new tailights with their sharp scrolling indicators look much better, in our opinion – and a wider range of technology, some trim refreshments and in Australia, more standard equipment in the entry-level Style that we’re testing here. Predictably, prices also rose, but Skoda says this is more than offset with the extra standard equipment. Let’s see if it’s all the mid-size SUV you could ever need.
Price & Equipment: 7/10
There are two 2022 Skoda Karoq grades in Australia: the entry-level Style 110TSI that we tested, and the upper-spec Sportline 140TSI 4×4. The entry-level Style is priced from $42,990 drive away.
Standard kit on the Style includes 18-inch alloy wheels, automatic all-LED lighting including sequential rear indicators, auto wipers, roof rails, keyless entry and start, an electric tailgate with kick-to-open functionality, heated, auto-dimming and auto-folding mirrors, rear privacy glass, eight-way manually adjustable front seats, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio, a 10-inch digital driver’s display, wireless phone charging, three USB-C ports (including one for a dash cam), an eight-speaker sound system, four drive modes, dual-zone climate control with rear vents and Skoda’s ‘VarioFlex’ system: 40:20:40-split rear seats that slide, recline and are removable with the middle portion doubling as an arm rest with cup holders.
The usual Skoda ‘simply clever’ features are also present, including a parking ticket holder on the A-pillar, hooks and nets in the boot, a double-sided boot mat, a funnel around the windshield washer fill point, a bin in the driver’s door, straps in the front doors, the ‘Jumbo Box’, a configurable zone underneath the front centre armrest with cup holders with teeth for easy opening on the move and cargo elements with velcro for securing items in the boot.
Safety kit includes nine airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, rear auto braking, adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, driver fatigue monitoring, an alarm, tyre pressure monitoring, a reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors. The Karoq has a five-star ANCAP rating.
The only no-cost colour option for the Karoq is ‘Energy Blue’, with ‘Moon White’, ‘Black Magic’, ‘Brilliant Silver’ and ‘Graphite Grey’ asking $770 extra, while ‘Velvet Red’ and our test car’s ‘Phoenix Orange’ are $1,100. Black cloth is the standard trim for the Style.
There are also a few option packages to choose with the Karoq Style: the $5,900 Travel Pack adds a larger 9.2-inch touchscreen with satellite navigation, Matrix adaptive high beam, LED ambient lighting, lane assist, lane trace assist, traffic jam assist, a 360-degree parking camera, semi-autonomous parking and emergency assist, which will stop the car gradually should the driver not respond.
The $10,900 Premium Pack adds the Travel Pack’s content plus leather upholstery in either black or beige, puddle lamps, 10-way electrically adjustable front seats with memory, heated front and outboard rear seats, headlight washers, a heated steering wheel, a heated windshield and paddle shifters. Further standalone options include a $1,900 panoramic sunroof and $1,200 side steps. All up, a fully loaded Karoq Style is $58,090 drive away.
While the Karoq Style does have a lot of equipment as standard – bar safety features that should be standard, like blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and lane keep assist – we think that there’s too much optional equipment. Plus, to get leather upholstery, buyers must spend more than $10,000 on the Premium Pack – we think it should be a standalone option on the Style, like it is on the Sportline.
We consider the Mazda CX-5 G25 Maxx Sport (around $44,000 drive away, depending on location) and Kia Sportage SX (around $41,500 drive away) to be the Karoq Style’s closest rivals. Both are front-wheel drive and offer comparable equipment levels. The CX-5 and Sportage feature larger infotainment systems with satellite navigation – as well as safety equipment like blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert, lane keeping assistance and auto high beam – over the Karoq.
But the Karoq does have standard keyless entry and start, a power tailgate with kick-to-open functionality, a digital driver’s display, removable rear seats, lumbar front seat adjustment, two extra speakers and the Skoda ‘simply clever’ features over the Mazda and Kia.
Aside from the lacking safety equipment, we think the standard Karoq Style 110TSI is good value for money. The problem is that when you start adding option packages – which do add a lot of equipment, yes – the price starts to increase a lot. Of course, you can spend similar money to a loaded Karoq on a CX-5 or Sportage, but those cars will have larger engines, all-wheel drive and even more equipment.
Performance & Economy: 8/10
Under the bonnet of the 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI is a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that makes 110kW of power (at 6,000rpm) and 250Nm of torque (between 1,500rpm and 3,500rpm). It’s mated to an eight-speed torque converter automatic transmission which sends the power to the front wheels – the warm upper-spec Sportline uses a 140kW/320Nm 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine with an all-wheel drive system, if that’s what you desire.
While the engine is not the newest – it’s been used in this tune since the Mk7 Volkswagen Golf – it’s creamy smooth, has more than ample low-end grunt and it’s very refined as well, unlike the loud, slow and thrashy 2.0-litre engine that features in the Sportage. The peak 250Nm of torque hits at just 1,500rpm – a full 3,000rpm lower than the Sportage – and this makes it very drivable and means that you don’t have to rev it to get the most out of it. With a claimed 0-100km/h time of 9.2 seconds, it’s no rocketship, but it’s only just slower than the more powerful CX-5 and at least 1.5 seconds faster than the Sportage.
The only available transmission on the Karoq Style 110TSI is an eight-speed torque converter automatic which replaced the seven-speed dual-clutch DSG gearbox featured in the first Karoq models that arrived in Australia in 2018. While it’s not as lightning fast as the DSG, the torque converter is otherwise excellent, with none of the low-speed hesitancy that dual-clutch automatics feature and shifts that are barely perceptible at speed. Because of that, we prefer it to the DSG and for its target market, we think it’s an excellent drivetrain.
The claimed combined fuel consumption for the Karoq Style 110TSI is 6.5L/100km with CO2 emissions of 147g/km. In a mix of urban and highway driving, we recorded a reasonable 7.6L/100km – significantly less than the Sportage in our testing, which pushed comfortably past 11L/100km. The Karoq Style 110TSI must be filled with minimum of 95RON premium unleaded and it has a 50-litre fuel tank.
Ride & Handling: 8/10
Based on the same ‘MQB’ platform as a seemingly endless amount of other Volkswagen Group cars like the Volkswagen Golf, T-Roc, Tiguan, Skoda Octavia and the entire Cupra range (aside from the upcoming Born electric car), the Karoq drives well. Despite a cheaper torsion beam rear suspension set up featuring on the Style 110TSI, the Karoq’s ride quality is nigh on excellent – it’s got great body control and handles bumps well. It’s a bit firmer than the pre-updated model due to one-inch larger wheels, but still entirely comfortable and quite solid at higher speeds as well.
It also handles well too. Of course, it’s no sports car – leave handling thrills to the Karoq Sportline – but the Karoq handles in a solid way that we’ve become very used to from the Volkswagen Group. The steering is well weighted with nice feel, the road noise levels are nicely low and the visibility is also quite good. No matter the surface, most drivers will find the Karoq has more than enough grip through corners, satisfying even some keener drivers. The Karoq’s active safety equipment is also quite well tuned, though blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and lane assist should be standard.
Interior & Practicality: 9.5/10
As with the pre-facelift Karoq, the 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI’s cabin is easily the most practical in the mid-size SUV space – and that’s despite the Karoq’s smaller exterior than most rivals. It features good materials, solid build quality as you’d expect from Skoda and plentiful supply of Skoda’s ‘simply clever’ features that aren’t on rivals.
The Karoq’s cabin is quite practical with big door bins, a big glove box, a tray on top of the dashboard, a tray to the right of the driver’s knee, a wireless phone charger that amplifies signal, a big box underneath the adjustable arm rest with the ‘Jumbo Box’ configurable storage zone and even a bin the door pocket. The only complaint we have with the Karoq’s practicality is that the centre console cup holders are somewhat small.
Centre of the Karoq’s cabin is an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and digital radio, but our test car was fitted with the Premium Pack, which adds a larger 9.2-inch screen with satellite navigation as well. The screen itself is great quality, it’s easy to use and it’s quite responsive as well. We also like how it has separate air-conditioning controls below the screen and not integrated integrated into the screen like the newer-generation Volkswagen Group products.
The rear leg room of the Karoq is perhaps its downfall as it’s just not as roomy as even the CX-5, which is not huge in itself. But that’s because the Karoq is smaller on the outside than most rivals, and it’s still excellently packaged. The back seat of the Karoq can carry two six-footers in total comfort with excellent headroom, though the knee- and legroom isn’t amazing.
The rear seats are awesome, though – they slide and recline individually for more cargo space or more passenger space, and the middle seat folds down to create an arm rest. The middle seat can also be removed, and the two remaining seats can be moved inwards. The rear seat is otherwise well featured with door pockets, map pockets, air vents, a 12V socket and if you choose the Premium Pack, heated outboard seats – but still no USB charging ports, unfortunately.
The boot of the Karoq is huge for its size, at 588-litres with the rear seats up – more than the 432L CX-5 and the 543L Sportage. It’s quite deep and the load lip is low, which makes loading heavier items in easier. The rear seats fold, tumble and can be removed altogether, which opens up a massive 1,810L of space, and the boot also features hooks, nets, side storage, cargo elements for securing items, a dual-sided mat, a 12V socket and a space saver spare.
Service & Warranty: 9/10
Skoda gives its new cars a recently-upgraded seven-year/unlimited km warranty with up to seven years of roadside assistance if serviced at a dealership. The Karoq’s service intervals are once yearly/every 15,000km (whichever comes first) and the first five years/75,000km of servicing costs $2,358 ($471 per service) – though buyers can choose a service pack for $1,550 ($310 per service).
Kia offers the same seven-year/unlimited km warranty as Skoda, with up to eight years of roadside assistance if serviced at Kia, while Mazda gives you five years and unlimited km of coverage. Five years/75,000km of servicing the CX-5 costs $2,073 ($414 per service) and the Sportage costs $2,435 ($487 per service), which puts the Karoq in a good place for service and warranty.
The 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.3/10
Overall, we quite enjoyed the 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI. It’s got the usual modern Skoda qualities like excellent practicality, good quality, solid driving dynamics, great refinement, a refined and punchy engine and did we mention how practical it is? Trips to Ikea are a breeze in the Karoq – just remove its rear seats and several Poang chairs are now yours! What makes that extra impressive is how small the Karoq’s exterior footprint is – at 4,390mm long, it’s only 106mm longer than a Volkswagen Golf.
Of course, the Karoq isn’t perfect. We think that there’s just too much optional equipment and especially safety equipment, like lane keeping assistance which should be standard for its asking price. Ticking option packages quickly makes the price skyrocket as well, making a loaded Karoq worse value for money than the standard car. But aside from the value equation, we think the Karoq is a great entrant to the mid-size SUV segment. It’s thoroughly underrated and it’s a great advertisement for not designing excessively.
Keyword: 2022 Skoda Karoq Style 110TSI Review