Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: No data available
Frugal, refined engine, practical, well-built.
Not particularly agile, numb steering.
There are better-handling hot hatches, but as a 'sporting' diesel there are few credible rivals.
A hot hatch usually means high running costs but this is where the diesel vRS plays its ace card. The new engine runs more efficiently and is kinder to the planet than the old version.
It returns 49.6mpg on the combined cycle - a 1.7mpg improvement. It also emits 1g/km less carbon dioxide, lifting it from VED road tax band D for the pre-facelifted model up to band C. Company car users will appreciate the 21% benefit-in-kind tax banding.
The vRS isn't that bad for insurance either, sitting in group 14 - a better proposition than the petrol version and other hot hatches such as the Ford Focus ST (group 17).
Latest Readers' Drives About the Skoda Octavia vRS
wrote on 02 01 2009