Skoda again tried to make a compact crossover. This time seems to work out

Remembering the Mirabeau: driving through the passes with the Skoda Yeti Monte-Carlo

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Ten years later, no one is surprised one and a half Lyama in the column “starting price“, And why be surprised or, there, be indignant – the retirement age has since been raised slightly, so there is time for a new Skoda to earn. Now they don’t laugh at the Czechs at all, of which not only, of course, is the merit of my tireless (sincere and disinterested) propaganda of their car industry – they themselves are doing great work.

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Even here the stale, in general, Karoq was slightly corrected for us – to better match the image of the Beautiful that is in the head of a Russian person. What is it if not daily and nightly customer care? It is she.

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Yeti, by the way, I didn’t mention for a red word – Karoq replaced him. But he took into account all the many mistakes of his predecessor. Very, it must be said, shameful mistakes. Yeti with any engine and drive rode like a god, but he did not have a cabin and trunk. And this is for a car with a Skoda nameplate (which means “Moravian”The Most Spacious And Thoughtful Cars In The World“) – shame and despair. “Karok” has a salon and a trunk. People with legs and broad shoulders can sit in the cabin, and the largest Samsonite wheeled suitcase is removed from the side to the back of the seats in the trunk.

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Another one is freely cleaned next to it, plus two can be piled on top – for a total of four suitcases, while in Yeti, I recall, only an overhead bag was placed – like the “shuttle” from the Chinese market. Therefore, all my friends along with Yeti immediately bought a box on the roof, so that at least something with them could be taken away. In addition to Karok, you don’t need to buy any box.

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Not far from Yeti, the entire multimedia part has gone. So far, at the start, there is neither a large screen media system, nor a virtual dashboard. There is a familiar set of elements from the previous Octavia, which is why Karoq is not perceived as a novelty: we have already seen these dials and all the other buttons.

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Some will look and say – “accordion“, Others will intelligently correct:”Classic“. Both are right: customers from 2020, buying a car in 2020, probably have the right to wait for novelty – in terms of visuals, decoration materials, multimedia options. On the other hand, VAG does just about everything with a large margin. And things from 2013 are well preserved in 2020. So I’m still inclined to the “classics.”

According to the classics, they decided to formalize the technical side of the issue. If in Europe the Karoq has liter and one and a half liter turbo engines, then we got an old aspirated 1.6 liter (110 forces, it will be later) and a little less old 1.4 TSI – 150 forces, already modernized, with a timing belt instead of a chain and an exhaust manifold built into the cylinder head – that is, the car after 30,000 km does not get up with the chain jumped off, plus it will warm up much faster in winter.

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But if a rollback to the past for motors for the Russian Federation was expected, the new eight-speed automatic surprised. On mono-drive turbo versions, it replaced the “dry” seven-speed DSG. Why this happened is obvious: robots with two clutches have a reputation as a leper, a manufacturer goes to meet customers and gives them a mass-converted torque converter. Why is this so-so an undertaking – it’s not so obvious: it’s not 2011 in the yard, the DSG had more than one revision and modernization, and even without it, with all its shortcomings, it’s a great thing that switches seamlessly and at the same time really saves fuel . I speak as a person with a pre-reform 1.4 TSI and a dry DSG in the garage: you can go to the gas station once a month.

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And here, then, a 150-strong 1.4 TSI and an eight-speed automatic. And I physically feel how he changes gears from I to VI. This happens with a barely noticeable, but hitch, and the same barely noticeable, but poke. You can call me a snickering esthete, but after a lightning-fast gear shift at DSG, I perceive all these microtypes as a huge step back. There was a linear and quick acceleration without breaking the power flow, it became no less nimble, but not so linear and with a power flow break. At this point, I will take back all the nasty things about Yeti and ask you to return me his 1.8 TSI with a robot: there were as many forces there, there was more feeling of speed gain.

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Manageability against the background of the predecessor did not get any better: Karoq was heard on all fronts, it became a little heavier, therefore – more impressive. Like all of us, we are rebels up to 29 and a little lazy right after the 30-year threshold. That is, of course, you can pile on and dance, but why, when there is a sofa and a book? Here Karoq is the same: the sharpness in the response to the steering wheel is less, the elasticity in the gait is greater, the banks are a little deeper, the desire to accelerate at the sight of a turn is minimized.

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But this, of course, is by no means bad – all with an eye on the goals and objectives of the machine. Yeti was an egoist’s tool (more than one didn’t fit there anyway), Karoq jumped in the direction of family values ​​of the era of getting out of the demographic pit: he promotesBe fruitful and multiply, and I will help you all to place and carry“.

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For which definitely Karoka is worth praising – it is for assisting electronics and sound insulation. The latter is a fire in general: tires cannot be heard at all, the wind begins to annoy after 130 km / h. That is, law-abiding drivers will never hear him. As for assistants, in modern cars I’m driving less and less myself myself, more and more often I give this process to electronics. So here: Karoq perfectly clings to the car in front – and to another, if the previous one decided to change the row – and it also keeps speed and distance perfectly. You just have to hold the steering wheel and go about your business. For example, to admire the surroundings.

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Asking for this package 53,600, and it’s definitely worth it. Like Karoq its money in general: for 1.5-1.7 million give an excellent European car with dynamics, sound insulation, a boot and an adaptive cruise. To understand the difference, you can look in the neighborhood of Qashqai without dynamics and an adaptive cruise, or “Arkan” – with dynamics, but without a trunk and an adaptive cruise. And when (pretty quickly) you take a good look, you will understand why this proposal draws on the best in the class.

Though you recall with sadness the times when everything was asked for Skoda lam.

Skoda Karoq: conclusions and performance characteristics

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