Skoda Enyaq Coupé vRS long-term test: report 9

The car Skoda Enyaq Coupé iV vRS Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To see whether the most stylish and powerful Skoda yet can justify its relatively high price

Needs to Live up to its sporty brief by being great fun to drive while still proving easy to live with and having a generous real-world range

Mileage 5585 List price £54,370 Target Price £53,162 Price as tested £54,990 Test range 265 miles Official range 323 miles

28 September 2023 – Singin' in the rain

Most of us have probably found ourselves in this situation. Unexpectedly, it’s raining heavily when you arrive at your destination, but you can’t wait for it to stop; you have to get from your car to wherever you’re going. And as you get increasingly soaked, you wonder why you failed to bring an umbrella along with you, just in case. 

Well, a small number of cars ensure that this is never a problem. Rolls-Royces, for example, come with umbrellas built into the front door apertures; these can easily be accessed before leaving the car and might well be used by chauffeurs to provide protection for VIPs emerging from the back of their cars. Skoda, too, is thoughtful enough to provide an umbrella with many of its models – including my Skoda Enyaq Coupé vRS.

Unlike in those Rolls-Royces, the Enyaq’s brolly is located in the driver’s door itself, with the slot for it on the back edge of the inner door panel, but you can still extract it easily enough before getting out of the car, if necessary. Not surprisingly, it isn’t as large and robust as the Rolls-Royce ones, but the quality of it is still decent. It has a reliable push-button opening mechanism and a smooth action, plus it’s sturdy enough to withstand average gusts of wind without flipping inside out. 

A brolly is such a useful thing to have on hand that you have to wonder why all cars don’t come with one. It’s just a shame you don’t get one in every door for your passengers’ benefit.

Now, I must confess that I haven’t had much call to use the Enyaq’s umbrella myself, but What Car? content editor James Tute is a more regular brolly user and opted to carry it around with him during a recent trip up north in my car to visit his family. Ironically, while there was loads of rain on the drive up to Macclesfield and back, whenever he took the Enyaq brolly with him, it cleared up. Perhaps that’s the secret: when a brolly is always available, it’ll never be needed.

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