All generations and engines together · 38,354 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 71k
Better than most SUVs for its age, though about average per mile driven. Watch suspension and emissions/leaks. A solid used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating suspension advisories.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
On some 1.5 TSI petrol Kodiaqs the car hops or hesitates for the first minute or so after a cold start, most noticeable pulling away from a stop. Honest John logged several separate owner reports through 2018 and 2019, including a June 2019 car where the dealer called it a known software issue and said other owners had reported the same thing. One owner described the car simply refusing to move for 15-30 seconds. We found no confirmed factory recall for this on the Kodiaq specifically, but dealers have offered software updates as a fix case by case.
Owners of both the original 2017-2019 Kodiaq and the redesigned 2024-on car describe the dual-clutch DSG gearbox pausing or feeling reluctant when pulling out of a junction rather than responding straight away to the throttle. What Car's review of the current model calls it "a little frustrating" at junctions, and Honest John's early-car owner reports describe the same hesitancy, in one case stretching to a near stall. It is not usually a fault that needs a new gearbox, more a trait that catches drivers out, so judge it for yourself on a test drive.
A small number of owners have reported an oil leak between the engine and gearbox, traced in one case to a bad batch of flywheel bolts and fixed under warranty, and a separate report of a rear differential failure on a 2017 2.0 TSI DSG 4x4 costing around £5,000, with Skoda covering half. These read as isolated cases rather than an established pattern, but the bills are big enough to flag if one lands on you outside warranty.
Reviewers of the latest Kodiaq have flagged the three rotary climate control dials as feeling "a little flimsy" for the money, and Honest John notes the more advanced infotainment features are locked to the top trims. This is more a durability worry for later years than a proven fault, since there is no long-term data yet on the redesigned car, but switchgear that already feels loose new tends to get worse with age.
Skoda as a brand placed 16th out of 30 manufacturers in the 2025 What Car reliability survey, and Carbuyer notes that in Driver Power feedback the Kodiaq's engines ranked near the bottom of the powertrain category, with around a quarter of Skoda owners reporting some issue in their car's first year. That is a broad-brush figure rather than one named fault, so it does not point at a specific part to check, but it is a reason to budget for the unexpected rather than assume the drivetrain is trouble-free.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 16,973 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Family & large SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.