New Skoda Octavia Combi review

Is the new and improved Octavia still king of the hill in its class, or has the competition finally caught up?

37w ago
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If you had a young family, buying an Octavia and especially the Combi version, was an easy choice to make. Affordable, safe and most importantly big. With this new model, Skoda has taken that formula, added some more tech to it, made it even bigger and sent it into the world. So is it any good?

Well to start of, the new Octavia is bigger than its predecessor in all dimensions, including the boot, which now measures 640 litres or 30 litres more than the car it replaces and keeps the Octavia at the very top of available boot space in this segment. There is still more than enough room in the back for two child seats and with up to three ISOFIX anchors, the Octavia is as practical as ever for carrying children.

Moving up front, the Octavia received a raft of new tech, same as its VAG brethren. You now get an electric parking brake with Auto hold, an optional digital dash is cleaner and more informative than before and that new infotainment screen blows the old one out of the water. With its clean UI and excellent placement on top of the dashboard, it's in my opinion one of the best at this time.

The new Skoda steering wheel is another thing the designer simply nailed. While the Germans at VW are trying their hand at touch controls, Skoda took their previous design and just made it better and more premium than ever. And don't worry if the two spoke design isn't your cup of tea, Skoda will add a third spoke to the bottom, for a reasonably small fee. The standard equipment is a mixed bag of good and bad. All cars come as standard with LED lights front and back, but there are not parking sensors fitted to the front as standard. The stock seats are great, but the interior mirror doesn't have automatic dimming. The one thing I actually really missed from the test vehicle was ACC, Skoda's radar guided cruise control. Since the rest of the car is built to make long journeys a breeze, the lack of ACC was really obvious, so one bit of consumer advice, spend a little extra and order it, you'll thank me later.

While we're on the topic of driving, let's quickly talk about that. Will the new Octavia set any records around the Nordschleife? No. But will it get you where you need to go in comfort and allow you to have a bit of fun when you leave the kids at home? Absolutely! The 7-speed DSG automatic gearbox, is a great every-day companion and when controlled by the steering wheel mounted paddles, is very responsive. As is the 2.0 litre diesel with 150 horsepower. With plenty of poke and 5.0l/100km consumption, it's hard to find a fault with it. If you really want to nitpick, yes it does get loud when at higher RPMs, but not nearly as much as in the old model. The Octavia also features a ton of other styles and engine combinations, from the off-road focused Scout, to the 245hp Octavia RS. Add to this the iV plug-in hybrid versions and all the available optional equipment, you'll be hard pressed to find an Octavia that doesn't suit your needs.

In my opinion the Octavia is one of the easiest cars to justify buying, if you're looking for a family car and its sale numbers speak for themselves. Hats off to Skoda for taking what was an excellent car and improving it in all the right places to make it even better. The prices for the new Octavia start at around 18,700€ for the estate and 18,000€ for the hatchback variant.

What do you think about the new Skoda Octavia? Let me know in the comments!

Huge thanks to Avto Slak for lending me the car for the day!

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