The Latin for traffic jam is fluxus interclusio, writes Brian Byrne. No, that doesn't refer to ancient Rome's stone streets crowded with ox-drawn plaustrums and essedums powered by horse — carts and chariots for those of us without a heavy classical education. It's a modern phrase in the special dictionary, Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis, updated regularly by scholars in the Vatican, the only state where Latin is still the primary working language.
I was thinking of that recently when driving Skoda's current Kamiq small crossover. Not because of the car itself, but its manual transmission. While caught in some of those 'fluxus' traffic situations and having to do the stop-go thing with gear stick and clutch. As we move through the next few years, that's a thing fewer motorists will be experiencing. In the last three years, automatic transmissions in new car sales have gone from two in three to more than eight in ten. That will be gradually feeding through the used car system until eventually the bulk of the national car parc will be automatic.
The Kamiq was also unusual in these days in that it comes as petrol-only in our market. With that kind of engine in third place of preference, behind battery-electric and hybrid, it might seem on the extinction road. But no, the engine still has a solid 20 per cent share of the powertrain type. As the brand says these days, 'there's a Skoda for that'.
The Kamiq has been around since 2019, with a facelift in 2023, and is styled as a straightforward small crossover, related to the other VW Group cars SEAT Arona and Volkswagen T-Cross. Skoda always does something different though, and in the Kamiq's case that difference is more interior room. Making it a good option for a family on the grow but not wishing to go as far as a larger and more expensive C-segment alternative. The facelift sharpened up the front and rear and there were some upshifts to the interior trim and instrumentation. My review had a pack option replacing chrome trims with black, which, paradoxically, added a style strength to the whole thing.
The interior look in some ways has a lot going on in the trim design, yet the various elements do work together. The centre screen is small by today's general standards, but with good, intuitive graphics, and there are knobs and switches for climate, seat heaters, and audio volume. I liked the modern styling of the driver information cluster, and impressive too is the clear labelling on the steering wheel remotes.
The seats in the review car were a mix of artificial leather and suede, all seeming very practical. The Kamiq is wider, taller and longer than its cousin Arona I drove some time ago, and that extra space is given mostly over to the comfort of the rear occupants, via a longer wheelbase. It makes a significant difference, the Skoda accommodating full adults rather than the mostly child-sized accommodation in the SEAT. There's 400L of cargo capacity in both. Up front, for this awkward taller, less supple than I used to be, driver, I found my space and ergonomics to be quite Goldilocks in suitability.
The engines in the Kamiq are a 1-litre 3-cylinder with 95hp available in the base Essence grade, or 115hp in the Selection and Monte Carlo trims that offers a quite respectable 0-100km/h in under 10 seconds. Perfectly adequate — nobody buys this kind of car for a hot rod experience. The DSG automatic option is a 7-speed.
Handling is par for the course in this level of car, which again is exactly what it should be for the kind of use it will get. As for that manual transmission, even in the 'fluxus interclusio' situations that I encountered on some of the usual commuter gridlocks in my area, it was a tidy shifter to manage, with a nicely balanced clutch action that took some of the hardship out of the equation. I'd still always prefer the now more common autobox, though.
PRICE: From €29,270; Review car €34,170. WHAT I LIKED: Understated style can still make a statement.
