Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £16,966 to £16,966
Volkswagen engineering and quality in a better-value package, ample space with a huge boot, economical and high-tech engines, keen handling and an excellent ride.
Styling is staid to some eyes.
This is effectively a roomier Golf at a lower price. The Octavia is a complete and very capable car, and a very smart buy which should bury any lingering Skoda stigma for good.
The extra size over the old Octavia is felt mainly in the rear cabin, which now has good leg- and headroom. The boot remains unusually cavernous, and can be had with various systems of nets and damped-action pull-down hooks. The rear seats' backrests fold forward onto the cushions, but the resulting load floor isn't quite flat. Oddments space includes a dashtop box (no lid on the Classic) and an optional cooled 'Jumbo-Box' between the front seats.
All Octavias have an in-dash CD player, able to swallow six CDs in Ambiente and Elegance versions, and the display screen incorporates park sensor and air-con temperature information as appropriate. Manual air-con is optional in the Classic (around £500), standard in the Ambiente which can have the Elegance's automatic Climatronic system at extra cost, but even the Classic gets front electric windows and central locking (as you would expect in a new car nowadays). The most luxurious, leather-upholstered versions are badged Laurin & Klement, after Skoda's founders, and their spec sheets, along with the full Octavia options list are loaded with creature comforts.
As for comfort, the Octavia shines. It has an impressively supple and quiet ride, experienced to the full over the disintegrating roads of the Greek launch venue, and noise levels from wind or powertrain are also low. The rear seat is quite hard, though.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Skoda Octavia Estate
wrote on 13 09 2007
wrote on 12 05 2007