Skoda Octavia Review

The Skoda Octavia’s exterior is all about clean and crisp lines with the quad headlight arrangement introduced in 2017 adding some flavour to the design. The Octavia is a large car and you experience the benefit of its size on the inside – there’s acres of space in the cabin. Seat comfort is excellent too and the overall ambience in the cabin is very upmarket. Another Octavia highlight is its cavernous 590 litre boot.
The Octavia’s entry level 150hp, 1.4 turbo-petrol offers fair performance but also suffers from low-end turbo lag. The larger 180hp, 1.8-litre turbo-petrol that comes allied to a dual-clutch automatic gearbox, on the other hand, is an absolute cracker. It’s smooth, refined and exciting but, like other sporty turbo-petrols, will also drain its fuel tank quickly if you drive with a heavy foot.
As for the diesels, the 143hp, 2.0 diesel engine delivers on economy and performance but it does sound gruff at times. The dual-clutch transmission equipped diesel-auto is nice but the diesel-manual is prone to stall at low speeds. While only the petrol-auto versions feature an independent rear suspension setup, poised high-speed manners and an absorbent low-speed ride are common to all Octavias.