Skoda Kamiq Review & Prices

The Kamiq is Skoda’s smallest SUV, and it’s about as sensible a car as you can buy. It’s practical, spacious inside and comes with a range of small, fuel-efficient engines, but it’s not fun to drive nor is it very stylish.

It really is the blue jeans of the small SUV world, because it’s a dependable choice that can suit most day-to-day situations without ever turning heads. The Peugeot 2008, Toyota Yaris Cross and Ford Puma are all more attention grabbing. Even the electric Skoda Elroq is more attractive.

That’s not to say the Kamiq is ugly, it’s just uneventful to look at. There are plenty of crisp, straight lines and it has straightforward proportions, but if you want to stand out in traffic then this isn’t the car for you.

It’s much the same inside, with a simple design that’s not particularly striking. All Kamiqs come with a 9.2-inch infotainment screen in the middle of the dash and a 10.3-inch driver’s display behind the steering wheel. Even the base SE Edition comes with a funky fabric-trimmed panel on the dashboard and sporty looking seats, but that’s about it for interesting features.

The Kamiq’s USP is its spacious interior. With plenty of space up front and a highly adjustable seat and steering wheel, you won’t struggle to find a comfortable driving position. There’s loads of room in the back for such a small SUV, and a pair of tall adults won’t have any trouble getting comfortable.

A 400-litre boot puts the Kamiq behind its alternatives for cargo capacity, that being said, with the Ford Puma, Peugeot 2008 and Volkswagen T-Cross all having space for more junk in their respective trunks.

You can’t opt for a Kamiq with a diesel, hybrid or electric option - it’s a petrol-only car. The engines are all small, too, with 1.0- and 1.5-litre units in various states of power with manual or automatic gearboxes.

Around town the Kamiq is a breeze to drive, even with the entry-level engine and manual gearbox. The steering and clutch are both light, while the tight turning circle helps when navigating tight car parks. The automatic is preferable in stop-start traffic, however.

Getting up to speed is a bit of a chore with the lowest-power engine fitted, so you’ll want one of the beefiest units for regular motorway journeys. Otherwise the Kamiq is quiet and refined, and it tackles country lanes with ease. It’s grippy and secure, even if the small Skoda is far from fun to chuck into corners.

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The Kamiq starts at around £25,000 in entry-level SE Edition trim, fitted with 17-inch alloy wheels, a rear-view camera and LED headlights as standard. The Ford Puma is similarly priced and similarly equipped, but while the Peugeot 2008 and Toyota Yaris Cross are more expensive, the former is more stylish and the latter has an efficient hybrid engine.

Design Edition comes next in the range, with metallic paint, a black contrast roof, diamond-cut alloys and privacy glass as standard. The SE L Edition gets heated front seats, parking sensors front and rear, keyless entry and go and 18-inch alloys.

The range-topping Monte Carlo edition gets model-specific 18-inch wheels, Matrix LED headlights, adaptive cruise control, a panoramic glass sunroof and gloss black exterior details for some added sportiness - as well as red accents in the cabin.

For the Kamiq, comfort is the priority, but this focus means it's not that fun

In town

The Kamiq drives really well around town. Even the slowest model with the 95hp 1.0-litre engine is reasonably nippy at low speeds, though the two more powerful options are available with an automatic gearbox. It's a bit clunky and easily confused, but it's still easier in traffic than the manual option.

Skoda has put comfort ahead of entertainment in the way the Kamiq drives, so the suspension smoothly soaks up potholes and other lumps and bumps in the road surface.

Big windscreen pillars can get in the way a bit when you are looking for other traffic at an angled junction, but otherwise all-round visibility is pretty good. You don’t sit as high as you do in some SUVs, though – you’re eyeball to eyeball with folk in regular hatchbacks rather than looking down on them.

A tight turning circle is a big plus if you take the wrong road and need to make a sneaky U-turn. It helps when parking too. All models get rear parking sensors, and you get a reversing camera on top-spec models, which are also the only versions that have rear parking sensors available as an upgrade.

On the motorway 

Don’t go thinking the Kamiq is too small to be a good motorway car. It will happily rack up the miles.

All of the engines are capable enough at motorway speeds, but if you want something in reserve, the most powerful option is your best bet. It will soon get you back up to 70mph if you’re stuck behind slower traffic.

Of the two 1.0-litre engines, the more powerful version is more motorway-friendly. That’s not just because of the extra oomph, but because it has more gears over the five-speed manual fitted to the less powerful model, which reduces noise at 70mph and improves economy.

Cruise control is fitted as standard, but you have to pay extra for a driver assistance package if you want adaptive cruise, which maintains your speed and distance to the car in front. The pack also includes active lane-keeping assistance.

On a twisty road

Show the Kamiq a twisty country road and it grips and goes well enough, but if you enjoy driving there’s something missing. It just doesn’t have the alert steering or agility that make a Ford Puma so much fun to drive, even if you get the Monte Carlo model with its sporty drive mode. So if you want to grin from ear to ear every time you drive a B-road, the Puma is a better bet.

If you tend to drive steadily and are more concerned with avoiding car sickness than clipping apexes, the Kamiq is just fine. It’s tidy, comfortable, and thoroughly sensible. But even the sporty-looking Monte Carlo model doesn’t do much to get the heart pumping.

Skoda continues its trend of being super-sensible, but there's not a lot of design flair in the cabin    

One of the first things you notice when you climb into Skoda’s smallest SUV is that you don’t climb into it at all. It’s barely any higher from the ground than Skoda’s Scala hatchback and the seat is relatively low to the floor on its lowest setting. So don’t shop for the Kamiq and expect to sit above other drivers, big SUV-style.

Every Kamiq has height-adjustable front seats so you can get comfortable, with a wide range of adjustment, and the steering wheel moves in and out as well as up and down.

The cockpit layout is typical Skoda – expect sense and logic rather than lots of quirky features or eye-candy design. All the controls are sensibly positioned and easy to use.

Storage is taken care of by large door bins and a reasonably big glovebox. There are two cupholders between the front seats, although they’re not large enough for a big bottle of water. Smaller bottles will fit, though, and there’s a protrusion in the middle of each cupholder that holds a bottle still so you can take the top off with one hand.

Space in the back seats 

The Kamiq doesn’t take up a lot of space on the road, so you might expect the rear seats to be a bit of a squeeze. But no, this is a surprisingly roomy car, with enough space for a couple of grown-ups in the back. Head and legroom are both generous for such a small car.

Rear-seat passengers won’t be quite so happy if a third person comes along for the ride. The cabin is quite narrow, and everyone will be a bit squashed.

If children rather than adults will be travelling in the back, then the wide-opening doors and ISOFIX mounting points will come in handy for securing child seats. Even big rearward-facing chairs should be no trouble.

Boot space 

With the back seats in place there’s a 400-litre boot, which isn't terrible among its competitors, but you can certainly find more space elsewhere. It’s smaller than the Ford Puma and Peugeot 2008 at 456 and 434 litres respectively.

The Volkswagen T-Cross has a sliding rear bench, so you can trade rear legroom for extra luggage space. Sliding the rear seats forward increases the T-Cross to 455 litres from 385 litres in its standard configuration.

However, you can fold the Kamiq's back seats forward if you need more room. This increases boot space to a healthy 1,395 litres.

A variable height boot floor is an optional extra, as is a two-sided floor with a wipe-clean finish on one side.

You get an impressive infotainment system that works smoothly, but it's got a more conservative design than in alternatives

Inside, the Kamiq is – we’re going to use that word again – sensible. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact it’s mostly a good thing. But if you want friends to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ the first time you give them a lift in your new car, the Peugeot 2008 will be more successful.

What you do get with the Kamiq is good build quality, with soft-touch plastics on the top of the doors and dash. Yes, some of the plastics on the sides of the centre console and lower on the doors are cheaper in look and feel, but that’s no great surprise.

The starting point for the range, the SE, has an 8.0-inch screen for the infotainment. It’s okay, but the 9.2-inch screen fitted to the rest of the range is a lot better. As well as being bigger, it comes with satellite navigation, web radio, voice control and traffic sign recognition.

The screen is bright, clear, and easy to use, and there are shortcut buttons for quick navigation without getting lost in a maze of on-screen menus.

Temperature controls are separate from the touchscreen, but some other air-con functions need to be accessed through the screen menus, which takes some time.

Another clever bit of tech is the Virtual Cockpit. Pioneered by Audi, this replaces conventional dials with a screen that can be configured to show different information. It’s really handy and allows you to show mapping directly in your line of sight. It’s a standard feature if you choose the SE L or Monte Carlo models.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on all models for seamless integration with your phone apps.

There are no diesel or hybrid versions of the Kamiq, although the 1.5-litre petrol engine does have a clever feature that switches to using two cylinders rather than four to save fuel when the engine isn’t working hard.

This means there’s not a big penalty at the pumps for choosing the more powerful engine. With a manual gearbox, it returns up to 49.7mpg according to the official figures. You should be able to get reasonably close to that in normal driving.

Your other two engine choices are the 95hp and 116hp 1.0-litre petrols. There is almost nothing to choose between the two, with the entry-level 95hp model returning 51.8mpg and the 116hp version achieving 52.2mpg. The 95hp car only comes with a manual ’box, but you can have a DSG auto if you go for the 116hp, which has a very small negative effect on fuel economy.

Reasonably low emissions mean the first year’s Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) payment isn’t too painful – it’s included in the on-the-road charges you pay for a new car, so you won’t really notice it. However, Benefit-in-Kind is quite high for company car drivers – you're much better off looking at plug-in hybrid or electric alternatives, such as the Peugeot E-2008 or Ford Puma Gen-E.

The Kamiq is a safe car. The experts at Euro NCAP ran the rule over it in 2019 and it scored the maximum five stars, though it's worth noting that the test has become stricter since then. The Skoda earned a 96% rating for adult occupant protection, and 85% for child occupant.

Every model including the most basic SE comes with a lane keeping system to stop the car drifting out of position on motorways and dual carriageways. Front assist is also standard. This is Skoda’s name for autonomous emergency braking, which hits the brakes hard if there’s about to be a collision and the driver doesn’t react.

An alarm and central locking are fitted to all Kamiqs, and keyless entry is standard on Monte Carlo models or optional on other trims.

Skoda came 12th out of 31 brands in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, which places it in the top half of the table. It’s a good, if not great, result.

If anything does go wrong with the car, Skoda’s standard new car warranty lasts for three years. For the first two years, mileage is unlimited, but for the third year the mileage is capped at 60,000. The cover can be extended up to five years and 100,000 miles at extra cost.

Kia and Hyundai both have better warranties as standard, but Toyota and Suzuki still leads the way with their 10-year, 100,000-mile warranties - so long as you regularly service the car at an approved garage.