Rally Sport to family Sport: Skoda Kodiaq RS review

It’s an important time for Skoda. The company is on a growth trajectory, with their sales volume now standing at No. 8 in the list of manufacturers in India. For reference their sister company, VW, is selling half their volume on average. The growth is largely fuelled by their smaller SUVs – Kylaq and facelifted Kushaq. While that’s where the mass growth lies, Skoda realises the importance of being considered a brand that appeals to premium as well as enthusiastic customers. That purpose is being fulfilled by their RS range. First it was the Octavia, which will have a fresh allocation of cars before the end of the year; next is the Kodiaq in its RS 'guise.

Don’t let the gloss black elements you see in the photos fool you into thinking that this is just a cosmetic job. It is the real deal – more power, better braking, more sound, better handling, and sporty elements for exterior and interiors. In fact, you can feel the difference between this and the Kodiaq L&K almost immediately when you drive off.

Skoda Kodiaq RS: changes from Kodiaq

While the essential equipment under the bonnet remains the same – the EA888 2-litre turbo-petrol engine paired with the 7-speed DCT gearbox. To move the weight of the RS badges on the car, this engine has been retuned to now make 261bhp and 400Nm. That makes it more powerful by 60bhp and 80Nm. The claimed 0-100 is 6.3 seconds. In our tests we got 7.4 seconds, but we were shooting it on an uncharacteristically warm day for Pune in June – still fast. Either way, the real details lie in the way the car feels to drive. The car urges itself forward in a way you aren’t ready for when you first take the wheel – a sign of good things to come. A stretch of empty road in the city feels much shorter than you had imagined in this car, such is the acceleration prowess. But when you reach that slow moving cab faster than you expected, the beefier brakes have got your back. The calipers also now sport a red colour, which are very visible from the 20-inch ‘Elias’ (as Skoda calls it) wheels. It also sounds a bit more roarty. In the Sport mode, the exhaust creates a mild roar that tries to befit the RS badge. I say ‘tries’ because we are used to the roar being more aggressive from the performance versions of the VW Group cars. But more on this in the family section of this piece.

The biggest differentiator, however, is the presence of DCC or Dynamic Chassis Control, something we sorely missed in the Kodiaq. This feature on its own transforms the way this car drives and was the reason why we all fell in love with the previous generation Kodiaq in the first place. DCC essentially adjusts the damper stiffness to either stiffen or soften the ride depending on the need. You can adjust its setting from a slider in the screen from Comfort to Sport. All this means that when you approach a corner with vigour, unlike the L&K, the RS stays almost flat and gives you much more confidence to carry more speed. Even the bouncing that the L&K suffers from on undulated roads has gone. Fortunately though, this does not mean that your spine has to lose a year of its life every time you go over a speed breaker. While there is a certain sharpness to it, the DCC softens the ride enough for it to not become jarring.

Skoda Kodiaq RS: how RS came to be

In India, our only real taste of RS comes from the Octavia, which has had the performance version available on all the four generations sold here (Mk2 was sold as Laura). The RS moniker stands for ‘Rally Sport’, and the secret is in the name itself. Born in the 1970s, it became synonymous with Skoda’s production rally entries especially after the 1977 Monte Carlo rally, where the lightweight Skoda 130 RS won its class and became a symbol of ‘punching above its weight’. Interestingly though, the RS badge made way for the LR badge in the '80s because ‘RS’ became popular enough to be associated largely with the earlier cars and Skoda wanted a new badge for their new rally entries.

The brand then went through some tough times and only after Volkswagen took over the brand did the conversation of reviving the RS badge began. The path to its rebirth was paved with the Octavia WRC in 1999. This car competed with the top tier likes of Mitsubishis and Subarus. VW’s ever efficient marketing department dusted off the RS moniker and placed it on the production version, spawning the Mk1 Octavia RS to capitalise on the WRC cars’ relative success. This is the first RS to make it to India too.

These roadgoing RS cars were characterised with more power, edgier handling characteristics and sporty styling bits to give customers a taste of the rallying world in their ‘mundane’ lives. The formula worked and every generation of Octivias (or Lauras) came with an RS version since. As time passed and Skoda ventured into Asian and other emerging markets, the RS badge needed to mean something more than just performance.

These newer markets had very little affinity to the rallying world of 70s-90s and they were looking for more statement vehicles than just performance vehicles. On top of that, emissions regulations meant that manufacturers had to tone down the amount of sound their cars can make from the factory. So Skoda did that just to the level necessary and made their RS brand into a lifestyle brand backing on their motorsport heritage.

Is Kodiaq RS really an RS?

The Fabia RS Rally2 still continues to compete in WRC and remains an important entry for Skoda’s marketing team to keep the momentum of the moniker going. The road going Octavia RS has grown in size and stature to now mean sporty luxury. RS no longer characterises as the lighter and nimbler version but rather a sporty (read: fancier looking, more powerful with certain technical changes) version of a Skoda without compromising on the premium attributes. This allows Skoda to appeal to a familial customer who still wants to live their life with ‘more’.

So the simple answer is yes, because it’s 2026. The brand RS has evolved and so have their customers. The first generation of the Kodiaq RS came in 2018 and famously set the Nurburgring lap time record for a seven-seater SUV: 9 minutes and 29.84 seconds, driven by the late legend Sabine Schmitz – “Queen of the ring”. Skoda hasn’t officially put this one around the ‘ring, probably because it doesn’t need to. The customers it targets care less about lap time but more about its family friendly nature, with the knowledge that they can take down the pesky young boy in the C-Class revving at the lights.

Skoda Kodiaq RS performance and driving impressions

Among all things, it still doesn’t have launch control to save the clutch. So other than the launch itself, the Kodiaq RS is quick by all SUV standards. At under 7 seconds, it out accelerates all the entry level luxury SUVs from BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Hell, it even out accelerates the Octavia RS by 0.1 second as per their claimed times. As referred to earlier, the DCC elevates the cornering ability by leaps and bounds, but it still is a 4.7 metre long SUV that weighs just about 2 tonnes, as I discovered when I became slightly over zealous with my approach speed. Fortunately the AWD system is continuously working to keep the car pointing the right direction; something you can feel as the power shifts in real time in different ratios among the axles. The Sport seats hold you in place very well, ensuring your body remains stable as the car changes directions. The steering is characteristically precise and weighs up progressively as you speed up, imparting the required feedback. It is a large car and feels so, but never makes a fuss about it and just gets on with the business as you want it to – and that makes the driving experience special.

Among the performance SUVs, Kodiaq RS is actually at the beginning of the list, when sorted by category. The next available performance SUV costs about ₹1 crore in the GLC 43 AMG. That would be significantly more expensive than the Kodiaq RS, but would the Tiguan R-Line, which also has DCC, and is also likely to be much cheaper (₹47.11 lakh, ex-showroom) than this, make more sense? There are two crucial things that the Tiguan R-Line misses out on. Firstly, a third row – something that appeals to a lot of customers. Secondly, and more crucially, the extra power. The Tiguan R-Line gets the same power figures as the standard Kodiaq, which after driving the Kodiaq RS now feels a bit less. The Tayron R-Line is a great choice as well, and drives remarkably better than the Kodiaq, even without the DCC. Overall, if you are more focused on comfort, then the Tayron R-Line is the overall better choice. While the Sport seats hold you well, they are a tad harder and may cause some discomfort on longer distances to certain body types; but if you score performance and comfort equal at least, just go for the extra power from the RS. It’s not everyday that you get to enjoy a thrilling drive with seven people on board.

Skoda Kodiaq RS features

It still has three rows and seven seats, albeit the third row is best suited for children. It still has a 13-inch infotainment screen, digital cluster, wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, 360 degree camera, panoramic sunroof, wireless charger (with vents), 9 airbags, and the Skoda smart features like the umbrella, screen cleaner and more. So it has all the goodies to keep the average mom, dad and children happy. It even looks more aggressive with the black elements and the larger alloy wheels – a definite hit with the children. Inside to make the enthusiast dad/mom happy, the Sport Seats have RS badging and an integrated headrest, the cabin is all black themed with red stitching and the pedals are aluminium. But all this is no good if the car keeps roaring its loud RS presence when the children are trying to sleep in the back after a long picnic day. It is also likely that the family man / woman does not want to be seen as a loud show-off. Which is why the grunt from the exhaust is milder than it is for other RS cars.

Skoda Kodiaq RS verdict

That really depends on how it is priced. The Kodiaq RS like the Octy RS is still a CBU. We expect this to be priced at approx ₹69 lakh (based on our calculation on exchange rates). At this price point you start getting uncomfortably closer to the BMW M340i – the current choice for an enthusiast with a family. But with its SUV body style and performance figures it falls closer to the Mercedes-Benz GLC 300, BMW X3 30 and the Volvo XC60 – all of them brilliant in their own right. But the Kodiaq RS is the only one with seven seats, which not only gives you more seating capacity but also more practicality options for space management when carrying more loads.

Being a CBU also means it will be available in limited units – precisely 50 units. The VW group needs to feel that there will be constant demand for performance versions to be able to commit to a CKD future, which will help with a regular supply and a cheaper price point of this car. At the same time this makes it an ultra exclusive car to have in your garage. We feel it’s time to put our money where our mouth is and give this RS a fair shot at your garage. Your play, Indian consumers.