<p>Skoda&rsquo;s all-new Kodiaq promises to deliver exactly what Indian luxury car buyers are looking for in an urban SUV. Hormazd Sorabjee gets up close and personal with the Czech brand&rsquo;s biggest car yet.</p>

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Skoda has traditionally been weak in the SUV segment, and in a world madly in love with SUVs, that is a big weakness. Sure, the Yeti has been around for years, and though it’s popular in Europe, it wasn’t a winning formula for India despite being one of the most capable to drive. The Yeti is small, expensive and lacks that all-important road presence. The missing automatic gearbox hasn’t helped its cause either. Yeti sales have trundled along at a piffling average of seven units a month in the past year. Skoda hasn’t pulled the plug on it because it doesn’t want to break its SUV link with our market. We can now understand why.

Skoda’s stakes in the SUV game are about to get higher with the all- new Kodiaq, globally unveiled last month. This full-size SUV which fittingly draws its name from the Kodiak, the largest grizzly bear in the world, measures a substantial 4.7 metres in length and packs in three rows. Skoda’s design chief Josef Kabban has also got the Kodiaq’s proportions spot on. It is a superbly balanced design, blending a fairly sleek roof line in a seven- seat package. “Balancing styling in a seven-seater without making it look boxy at the back was the real challenge when designing the Kodiaq,” says Kabban.

Overall, the Kodiaq is a crisp, clean design with a distinctive shoulder line and sharply cut wheel arches. There are hints of