Skoda Kodiaq 2025 review: RS - Australian first drive

RS - two consecutive letters that mean so much to car enthusiasts around the world.

For the likes of Audi and Porsche it stands for RennSport or ‘racing sport’ while Renault links it back to its Renault Sport performance and competition division.

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It’s a full-size, seven-seat SUV powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine sending 195kW and 400Nm to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and two coaxial multi-disc clutch packs.

It’s claimed to sprint from 0-100km/h in a decently rapid 6.3 seconds which is more than a second quicker than the standard Kodiaq 140TSI.

In line with Skoda RS tradition, car-spotters should look out for a bunch of gloss black elements, from the D-pillar to the roof rails, window trims, wing mirror covers and radiator grille surround. The grille is illuminated, by the way.

The tailgate badgework is black, even the 20-inch polished alloys include black sections. The front and rear bumpers are RS-specific with stainless steel exhaust trims at the back.

The interior is suitably racy with neatly bolstered electric front sports seats with integrated headrests, a flat-bottomed perforated-leather steering wheel, alloy-accented pedals and contrast red stitching highlighting the dark grey partial-leather seat trim (perforated in the centre panels).

Cost-of-entry is $69,990, before on-road costs, which puts it in the same ballpark as the Ford Everest Black Edition, Kia Sorento HEV GT-Line and Mazda CX-80 G40e GT, not to mention its mechanically aligned corporate cousin, the VW Tayron 195TSI R-Line 4Motion.

Standard equipment includes matrix LED headlights with adaptive high-beam, keyless entry and start and a power tailgate with hands-free function. There’s also a 10-inch digital instrument display, 13-inch multimedia screen, a windscreen-projection head-up display, adaptive cruise, 13-speaker Canton audio, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and more.

While it’s $600 cheaper than the first-gen Kodiaq RS that left the local market early this year, Skoda says it’s added around $8000 worth of additional value to the standard specification. Trusting Skoda’s extra-features arithmetic, that's a super-competitive package.

The emphasis here is on performance, but suffice it to say the RS retains all the thoughtful features and clever packaging of its Kodiaq stablemates.

Plenty of storage and lots of room including a generous second row, two kid-friendly positions in the third row and heaps of boot space. For all the details check out our Kodiaq Select and Sportline reviews.

The official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel consumption figure for the Kodiaq RS is 8.1L/100km which equates to a driving range of 715km. On the roughly 350km launch drive, covering urban, freeway and B-road running we saw a dash indicated average of 8.9L/100km. Not exceptional, but not horrendous, either.

The Kodiaq measures around 4.8 metres long and this RS weighs in at roughly 1.9 tonnes but it drives easily. The 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine delivers peak torque from 1650-4350rpm which makes for a healthy mid-range with peak power taking over at the top end (5000-6500rpm). It’s smooth, refined and power delivery is impressively linear.

Suspension is by struts at the front and multi links at the rear and the RS comes standard with ‘Dynamic Chassis Control’, an adaptive damping system using dual valves to control compression and rebound and manage pitch and roll.

It’s a schmick system. The launch covered some decidedly ordinary secondary roads - pock-marked, patched, potholes, the whole bit - and it just glided over them.

It means that even in the Comfort-oriented settings (it can be dialled though various modes) the car still responds promptly and the remains stable and balanced.

The steering is variable ratio and road feel is good. The car points accurately without being nervous and rubber is grippy (235/45) Hankook Ventus Evo SUV tyres.

Heavy rain also made its presence felt and we pushed through some tight, twisty sections. The car remains planted and predictable. Confidence-inspiring in terms of the steering precision and cornering grip.

Braking is by ventilated discs all around, which is what you’d expect - two piston calipers up the front. We hit some prolonged downhill sections, leaning on the brake pedal regularly and stopping power proved consistent and progressive on application.

If you wanted to have a red hot go I don’t know whether the two pistons would be the ultimate for that kind of driving but in what we experienced the brakes were great.

In terms of general observations, the sports front seats with integrated headrests look and feel great. They keep you nicely located.

And the car is quiet. We went over some coarse-chip B-roads and even with the big 20-inch tyres road noise is modest and wind noise is barely noticeable, even on the freeway. So, along with the performance and terrific dynamics you get excellent refinement to boot.

The second-gen Kodiaq has been given a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment and there’s a swag of new or upgraded crash-avoidance tech on board including lane assist with adaptive lane guidance, improved auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, turn assist, traffic sign recognition, recalibrated driver fatigue detection, a 360-degree camera view and traffic jam assist. If, despite all that, a crash is unavoidable there are nine airbags fitted, including a front centre bag.

The Kodiaq is covered by Skoda’s seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is ahead of the mainstream five-year warranty pack, although a little short of some, like MG, Mitsubishi and Nissan at 10 years.