The old days of sticking bits of
plastic to your headlights when driving in Europe
are in the past. There’s a vehicle settings menu for that instead now. Being
asked for AdBlue has been a regular feature of our year with the Kodiaq,
though it’s a small price to pay (literally) for better fuel consumption and a
cleaner diesel engine. The trip computer (an optional extra, and at £90 one
which you’d be mad not to choose) also informed us halfway through France
that we needed to top up on engine oil, which was a bit of a surprise. Nice to
know your car’s looking out for stuff like that, though
W
hen we fi rst started talking
to 7koda about sending us a
/odiaU 7cout on long-term
test, we didn’t think they’d
ask for us to haZe it for a whole year. But their
rationale for doing so was Zery sound it’s a family
x built to do all things in all weathers, so we
should be able to report on using it through all
four seasons.
;e weren’t going to argue with that. 7o haZing
enNoyedendured a particularly blistering summer,
we found ourselZes looking forward to making
the most of the /odiaU’s undoubted tractability in
some really nasty winter weather.
It was due to go back to 7koda at the end
of ebruary. 7o for its fi nal hurrah, we decided
to organise a long-range trip that would see
us off-roading it on Zery non-British trails in a
sand-coZered landscape in the foothills of the
4yrenees ̄ but battling through snow, ice and
storms to get there. =ou might remember an old
Crowded ,ouse song called our 7easons in One
(ay this was going to last more than one day, ob-
Ziously, but the idea was indeed to take a trip that
would feature four seasons’ worth of weather.
;ind, rain, snow, warm sunshine and a complete
spectrum of roads and trails© this was going to
be exactly what the /odiaU is all about.
7o here we are en route to (oZer. It’s the mid-
dle of *ebruary and what’s this# ;arm sunshine#
This time last year, we were approximately one
week away from being struck by the Beast from
the East, and here we are on shirt sleeZe order.
Not to worry, when the alarm goes at 2.0am
and we stagger out into the cold of the night to
embark on an early morning ferry, it’s going to be
back to normal for sure.
The less said about a 2.0am alarm the better.
But, after a surprisingly decent fry-up on board as
we sailed out across the Channel, we were feeling
ready for the Nourney ahead as we pointed the
/odiaU’s nose into the gathering light of a north-
ern *rench morning. It was going to be a long
one, too ̄ all the way from Calais to Nust short of
the 7panish border, which our sat-naZ adZised us
would take around ten hours. Bring it on©
A note on the subNect of light. The days of
getting stickers to put on your headlamps for
driZing on the wrong side of the road appear to
be receding. In the /odiaU, we simply brought up
a Zehicle settings menu on the media screen and
swapped it oZer. Things you neZer thought you’d
fi nd yourself doing while sat waiting to embark on
a /entish Uuayside.
7o, here we are. *rance is a big country and
there’s plenty of scope for eUually big changes in