India-Bound Skoda Kodiaq spotted testing

Skoda's Fortuner rival, the Kodiaq, has finally been snapped testing in the wild. There's an interesting story on why the SUV is called the 'Kodiaq', read all about that by following this link here.

Looking at the pictures, we can safely say that the Skoda will be a big grizzly bear, with proportions generous enough to scare off hatchbacks and our desi rickshaw-waalas. We're happy to see that the prototype hasn't diluted the VisionS concept it is based upon. The concept itself is 4.7-metres long, 1.91-metres wide and 1.68-metres tall. We expect the production-spec version to have near identical dimensions.

The spy shots do not give away a lot of design details. However, one can spot the trademark Skoda family grille, a sloping roofline, a pair of roof rails and a sharply raked rear windscreen. We expect the Kodiaq to carry a lot of design elements from the Skoda Superb, such as the razor-sharp character lines, sleek headlamps and the LED-taillamps. While there's no spyshot of the interiors, we think it will borrow heavily from its sedan sibling here as well.

Just like its rivals such as the Toyota Fortuner and the Ford Endeavour, the Kodiaq will be a seven-seater and will feature a 4x4 transmission. Essentially a sister to the soon-to-be-launched Volkswagen Tiguan, it is based on the Volkswagen Group's MQB platform, that underpins a lot of modern VWs and Skodas. On the engine front, we expect it to borrow the 2.0-litre TDi diesel motor from the Superb that produces 177PS of power and 350Nm of torque.

We recently pit the Superb against the Endeavour, do read that in case you are in the market for a 30 lakh rupee car right now. We know the Kodiaq will be a better rival to the Ford, and we cannot wait to put it to the test!

Source: CarDekho