What_Car_UK_-_August_2020

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

8 August 2020 whatcar.com


SKODAHASCARVEDitselfoutanicelittleniche
over the past couple of decades. Its bargain-

basement days are long behind it and the


Czech firm now has an enviable reputation for
sensible, comfortable cars that are generally far

more capacious than their direct competitors.


That brings us neatly to the Octavia, a
mainstay of the Skoda line-up and the one that

did the most to lift the company’s image in the
1990s. But it isn’t just a familiar face; it’s also

Skoda’s biggest seller, so the arrival of a new


generation is something of a big deal.
The Octavia Mk4 – which comes in hatchback

and estate guises, as before – sticks to the now-


familiar formula of taking the underpinnings
of the Volkswagen Golf and stretching the

distance between the front and rear axles to


liberate more interior space. It’s a bit longer
than the outgoing car, but that’s so it can

accommodate extra safety and driver aids,


rather than to make it even roomier.
Initially, you’ll have a choice of three engines

in the Octavia: a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol


with 148bhp and 2.0-litre diesels in 113bhp and
148bhp guises. The petrol engine and lower-

powered diesel are paired with a six-speed
manual gearbox, while the top-spec diesel

is available with a seven-speed dual-clutch


automatic only. In the next few months,
the engine range will grow to incorporate a

1.0-litre petrol at the bottom of the range,


plus mild and plug-in hybrids.
Despite having the same power output as

before, the 148bhp diesel fitted to our Octavia


Estate test car has been heavily revised, with
improved CO 2 emissions and fuel economy.

Performance is strong, with acceleration


feeling a fair bit brisker than the claimed 8.8sec
0-62mph time. It helps that there’s plenty of

low-down torque, so you don’t have to thrash


the engine to get a decent uplift in pace.
The automatic gearbox sometimes hesitates

for a moment or two before responding to


presses of the accelerator, but the rest of the
time there’s little to complain about, with

shifts performed swiftly yet smoothly as it


quickly gets into the highest gear possible to
maximise efficiency. Lift off the accelerator

pedal and the Octavia can even ‘coast’ out of
gear to further save fuel.

It certainly seems to do the job; according


to the trip computer, we averaged more than
50mpg on a mixture of roads, including plenty

of motorway driving, and 60mpg was possible


at a steady cruise with a light right foot.
Refinement has been improved, with the

latest diesel engine sounding less coarse than


Skoda Octavia Estate


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FIRST DRIVE


Alan Taylor-Jones
[email protected]
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