SOUND PROPOSITION

Even without its artificial growl, the Kodiag vRS is a hoot to drive, writes Sean O’Grady and its bite lives up to its bark

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“Hello. What’s this, then?” I’d hopped up into the cabin of the new Skoda Kodiaq vRS and pressed the start button. I expected it to start. It burbled. Like a proper old American V8, as you might find even now on a Ford Mustang, say. Surprise!

Could it be, I wondered in my reverie, that VW Group, successful custodians of the Skoda brand for a quarter of a century, had decided to slot the firm’s excellent V8 motor, as fitted to their sporty Audis and Bentleys, into, erm, a sevenseater Skoda SUV? Had the petrol-heads taken over again? Had someone at head office with a lot of letters after their name developed a sense of humour? Decided to perform an appropriately Kafkaesque experiment on the normally humdrum Kodiaq, just for lols?

Sadly, not quite. The redolent growl is in fact generated artificially, and is quite believable on casual acquaintance, emanating from speakers inside and outside the car. I have to admit that I actually liked the fake symphony it produced. Not Dvorak, but stirring nonetheless, and not something that always works on a car (it’s a far cry from the “injured cow” noises the electric Abarth 500 used to make, for example).