Happily, that’s the only real gripe I’ve had with the interior over the past few months. Maybe excepting the touch slider for controlling the volume, which I can’t believe has survived a whole generation of Volkswagen Group products, so tricky is it to use. Fortunately there’s a nice clicky roller on the steering wheel for me to use instead.
My favourite of Skoda’s practicality-boosting Easter eggs is the pair of shelves that are neatly integrated into the sides of the boot – perfect for stopping loose bottles or breakables from rattling around the boot on the way home from the shop.
But the hammock-esque secondary parcel shelf deserves a shoutout too: I was struggling to find a use for it until I needed to separate some flowers from some heavy shopping bags the other day, and now I think every car should have one.
And how many cars do you know that come with a full-size plant pot in the back? It might not have been conceived as such, but the deep tray in the middle of the rear footwell was absolutely perfect for bringing my new Devil’s Ivy home and then keeping it alive for a few days until I found somewhere in the house for it.
Update 3
My local Chinese takeaway is a hidden gem: great value, authentic flavours and rapid service with a smile. Generous with the complimentary prawn crackers too.
The only problem is they don’t deliver, and it’s just outside of viable walking distance; I shudder to think of my cashew chicken being exposed to the crisp autumn evening air for more than a few minutes.
So I tend to order over the phone then trundle over in the car, embarrassing as that is to admit for a 1.5-mile round trip. But I don’t feel all that bad about doing it in the Elroq. Partly, of course, because it’s electric, but also because it’s so undemanding and fuss-free (especially important when I have to return because my partner has accidentally ordered a prawn dish she doesn’t recognise).
Yes, at 4.5m long and weighing more than two tonnes, it’s hardly the ideal suburban runabout on the face of it, and indeed I would think twice about using an ICE-powered equivalent for so short a journey, but it’s just so supremely manoeuvrable and energetic that you can forget all about its size and heft.