Trip to Goa in a Skoda Kodiaq: How we managed to fit 8 people’s luggage

January 22, 2024

We did a trail again – stuffing pillows into the our luggage bags making it look full to see how many bags could be accommodated in the 270 liters of the Kodiaq’s boot with 3 rows up.

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Bangalore – Goa Road trip on the Skoda Kodiaq – 4 Adults & 4 Kids and how the 4 x 4 aced the trip

This is a post on one of my trips from Bangalore to Goa. A friend of mine & family together with ours decided on a Goa trip last Christmas (Dec 2023), travel starting from Bangalore. One week trip taking the route – starting from Bangalore – Haveri (1 Night stop), Hubli – Belagavi – Goa (4 nights) – and while return Goa – Karwar – Murudeshwar (1 night) – Jog Falls – Shimoga – Bangalore.

With kids aged 7, 9, 12 & 14, the question in mind before starting was two cars or one? Though we intended to have kids sit in the 3rd row, the rest of the adults too tried occupying the 3rd row seats and we took a short trip in Bangalore itself and all felt fine – for all of us. Then the concerning question moved from people to accommodating the luggage of the two families. We did a trial again – stuffing pillows into our luggage bags making it look full to see how many bags could be accommodated in the 270 liters of the Kodiaq’s boot with 3 rows up. We could accommodate 4 medium to large-size bags in the Kodiaq’s existing boot and we were confident to accommodate a few smaller shoulder bags more. This was actually good enough for us and we took a call and decided to do the Tour-de-Goa on the Kodiaq. A few days prior to the trip, one more idea stuck exploring the Kodiaq’s boot.

Increasing the Kodiaq’s boot space from 270 Liters to 320 Liters.

Step 1 – Remove the i) Grey Boot cover and ii) The Retractable Boot Load Cover.

Step 2 – Once you remove these two items from the boot, the only delicate thing that u find is a set of taped wires going to the subwoofer. To avoid keeping luggage straight on top of this and to ensure nothing bothers this cable I gave it a flexible but strong cable cover protection. Pic below: –

Step 3 – The luggage could be placed straight in this area, but yet, I discovered a spare white plastic sheet in the DIY area of my house, which I cut out as per the boot shape – as shown below. This was a sturdy sheet, not so flimsy and bent only if you force to bend it.

Once in position, it looked as shown below – giving you a flat surface, neatly tucked in making the spare tyre and the subwoofer cable protected and invisible. We were ready to load our luggage, started off with some soft duffle bags with clothes to start on top of the plastic sheet.

You realize that the dimensions of this hidden space (below the grey hard covering and above the spare tyre) are on average around 100 cms in length, 42 cms wide and almost 12 cms deep. Note that we are not tampering with any electronics or touching any delicate part of the vehicle that can cause any electrical issues to the vehicle. We are making use of the space that Skoda had left vacant above the spare tyre.

We get an additional 50000 cubic cms of space. That’s 50 liters additional space added, increasing the boot space of the Kodiaq from 270 liters to 320 liters.

This is just a jugadu arrangement and use it only if required. I decided to anyway give it a try on our 1500Kms Goa trip, with luggage loaded starting from the top of this white plastic. Once the luggage was loaded, the rear view was still visible and the boot from outside looked somewhat like this – ready to cruise, the 4 x 4 carrying 4 + 4 + 4 (Adults, Kids, Luggage)

The trip started with the Front tyres at 36.5 PSI and the rear tyres at 38.5 PSI. The 1500 Kms round trip ended with hardly 0 to 0.5 drop in tyre pressure. Somehow, I am not convinced with the Kodiaq’s default suggested tyre pressure ratings (39 PSI & 45 PSI with 5 adults & fully loaded luggage) which I feel makes it a lot bouncy on roads with undulations, and don’t feel this as apt for Indian Road conditions. Our entire trip went well with 3 kids easily enjoying the 3rd row seat, sometimes elder kids and sometimes adults taking up that space, and as expected the spare & hidden space of the Kodiaq was well utilized too. Whether it was the highway stretches or the ghat section roads we experienced, we felt no dearth of power. Once or twice heard the grunt sound when it was a continuous upward climb for some stretch and this was when I tried experimenting with the paddle shifters. Felt I should have avoided that and the DSG did its work automatically. Once the tour was over, the grey lid was placed back in its place and is good to be removed if such a need arises at any later day. That was the latest trip that we made with some space modifications done in the car and allowing two families to be accommodated in one car. Kodiaq – bringing families together.

Overall experience driving the Kodiaq for 6000+ Kms and some pics

Some of the previous drives undertaken on the Kodiaq and the feedback:

Bangalore – Mysore – Bangalore
Bangalore – Mysore – Wayanad – Bangalore
Bangalore – Mysore – Bangalore
Bangalore – Kochi – Trivandrum – Bangalore
Bangalore – Goa – Murudeshwar – Bangalore

With the completion of many such out-of-city drives, I can only say that the Kodiaq has been a fine performer, exceeding expectations, and has given no issues so far. The hunt for XP95 is one thing that bothers and the IOCL app which allows search for specific pumps with XP95 helps. The drives have been extremely comfortable and even after a single stretch drive of 3-4 hours, when you step out of it, you don’t feel exhausted as I have experienced in my earlier vehicles. I experienced maneuver breaking twice and thanks to members of this forum, I didn’t bother much as we should not thanks to this beautiful technology.

Be it the Monocoque chassis or the DCC that is at work, the end result – Driving comfort has been awesome with the Kodiaq. Have used XP95 from IOCL throughout or HP Power95 once or twice on highways. Once when the vehicle was new (around 1000+ Kms) added Shell V Power (assuming it to be 95 octane), only to realize later that it was 91 Octane. Kodiaq with the 2-litre TSI Turbo engine with the DSG DQ 381 gearbox combination pulled it off like a charm. After that one episode, I try to stick on consistently with XP95 only.

With better highways coming our way, the urge to push her hard has always been there. The need for additional power has never been a question with the Kodiaqs’ 2 Lit TSI engine in any of my drives with all 7 seven seats occupied & with loaded luggage to the brim.

Mileage – Sedate driving at around 75-85 KM/hr on highways has given me a mileage of up to 14.4 Km/Lit, an aggressive drive-taking speeds in the range of 120+ Km/Hr have dropped the mileage to 10 Km/lit on highways and Bangalore city drives with heavy traffic have restricted it to 7-8 Km/Lit as well. As you press the accelerator, you reap the mileage would be the best way to put it as far as the mileage goes.

Overall, apart from the niggles covered in my previous post (Post#1581), this is a beautiful beast. The exterior design of the Kodiaq is such that it will age with grace. Sharing some pics taken on these trips:-