25 Apr 05
So, you want a family-sized vehicle with four-wheel drive, but can't face being seen in a high-riding, chromed-up monster truck, held responsible for global warming, pedestrian-killing and the depletion of the world's natural mineral resources. Or maybe the likes of the Freelander, CR-V, RAV-4 et al are just too, well, suburban school-run mum these days? This doesn't leave an awful lot of choice: there's the excellent but rarely-seen Subaru Legacy (thirsty petrol engines only, a bit too oddball for many), the Mazda6 Sport AWD (woefully underpowered), four-wheel drive versions of the Volvo V50/V70, Volkswagen Passat and Audis A4/A6 (all rather expensive) and not a lot else, unless you start looking at obscure Japanese imports or left-hand drive Mercedes-Benz and BMW models not offered in the UK.
Thumbs-up to Skoda, then, already commended for bringing us Volkswagen-Audi engineering in a more affordable package. The Octavia range is a large, roomy variant on the Golf-platform theme (Audis A3/A4, 2005 Seat Leon, Volkswagen Touran etc.), now riding on the much-improved Golf Mk5 underpinnings, and the newly-launched estate versions, if not cavernously huge, are very practical, user-friendly good-value station wagons. And no-one could accuse you of being ostentatious and image-obsessed in a Skoda.
