DT Garage: Our Skoda Octavia vRS Estate's been doing cliched wagon things
What do you do when you've a massive estate car? Fill it with stuff!
Sometimes all you need in life is a little space.
Whether it's because you're enduring month 15 of lockdown with a group of housemates who still haven't discovered the toilet brush, or you're a multi-billionaire who's bored of oppressing your workers' rights in a jumped-up online book shop – sometimes space is just the answer.
It's certainly a requirement if you've had kids. No, we're not talking about buying a house so large that you never have to see, hear or smell them (although that is a very tempting proposition) – rather the space you need in a car.
Somehow no one really tells you how much boot space you'll need when you productively bump uglies. Essentially the rule of thumb is that the smaller your kids are, the more space they need in the boot. When you have an especially small kid (under one year old), you need a ginormous pram, a nappy bag that seems to swell to three times the size of an average rucksack, spare nappies, toys, 'just-in-case' spare clothing and god knows what else. It's a lot of stuff.
Not an official Skoda marketing image, oddly. Arriving at the Festival of Speed to a cavalcade of poo – the vRS provided a bit of dignity from onlookers for Tiny Baby Rodie while she had her bum wiped
This need for space, to be honest, is part of the reason we're running a Skoda Octavia vRS Estate. The boot is a vast 640-litre cave (that's bigger than a BMW 5 Series Touring's boot), and it's already proved its worth over the course of three family holidays with two adults and two kids. Prams go in easily, as do the myriad bags of toys and distractions you need to successfully raise human spawn. It takes the stress out of packing, because you can pretty much take everything including the kitchen sink.
It's when you flip the rear seats down, however, that the Octavia vRS Estate really comes into its own – you're left with a whopping 1,700-litre space. Which, being a journalist, means you can use it to run errands that you can't run when you're hacking about in two-seater sports cars like a wanker.
My long-suffering other half shows how easily you can turn the Octavia vRS Estate into a camper… or just move single mattreses about with ease
So far the Octavia's been put to use moving an unused mattress to Essex to boost my mother's guest bedroom's AirBnB rating (or something). With a wheel removed I even managed to fit an old mountain bike into the boot with a child seat still in place – perfect for the trip to the local bicycle recycling charity. The Octavia's standard split-folding rear seats meant I could slightly fold half the rear seat down a bit to help the bike slide in. Little things like the remote seat-folding levers in the boot make life so easy.
Even with a child seat fitted, you can easily get a mountain bike into the boot
Octavia life is the easy life…
A sudden rush of UK holidays, weddings and press events means we've put 2,600 miles on the vRs in two months of 'ownership' – and its ease of use still makes it a pleasure for long drives. There's something about the smooth-shifting DSG gearbox and torquey power of that 2.0-litre petrol engine that means it's very easy to make decent progress without thrashing the knackers off it.
It's not been entirely smooth sailing, however. We've had a few quibbles with the infotainment system crashing, as well as an intermittent popping noise from the speakers. It may have to visit a Skoda retailer for a quick electronic health check if they persist. But as much as we lambast the Volkswagen Group's latest infotainment system, it really hasn't taken the shine off the newest member of our family.
Two months in and the vRS is really impressing us. Its main selling point is space, but as we'll find out in the coming months, there are more strings to its bow than interior room…
40mpg average, before you ask. Pretty decent for a 245hp petrol!
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Comments (2)
For a second, I thought you removed a wheel of the car to fit the bike in, then I scrolled to the picture and it made sense.
Had 1 of the 1st mk2 vrs estates in 2006 because it fits better than an SUV in the UK. It was a great family car loads of space for pushchairs etc. Good choice hope it serves you aswell as ours did. Right colour also 😁