Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI - Bigger Is Better

Priciest Octavia isn’t necessarily best, but it proves bigger is better.

Charting the Octavia’s almost bashful rise from cheap, three-box Volkswagen Golf clone to serious Passat botherer is a measure of Skoda’s quickening corporate pulse.

Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI

The third generation of Octavia, based on the Volkswagen Group’s extended MQB platform, is duly longer, wider, pricier and more ambitious than ever before. Deftly redesigned to satisfy its broader brief without appearing to have swelled much at all, the car is a packaging triumph - delivering a cavernous hatchback boot and a commodious, impeccably trimmed cabin.

The roomy cabin has a high-grade finish

Just as the latter is plagiarized from the Golf, so are the engines and gearboxes. The imperturbable manners have largely been transplanted, too, based on our first UK drive in range-topping Elegance trim with the 148bhp 2.0-liter diesel and six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. However, because all of the current examples sit on the cheaper rear torsion bar suspension, some of the donor’s finesse has gone missing. On 17-inch alloys, the Octavia feels a touch more brittle than some of its stable mates - not uncomfortable, but noisier and tetchier around town. Smooth urban progress isn’t helped by the DSG’s determination to stay in a higher gear even under duress.

Of more concern is the price. For almost the same outlay as our option- heavy $38,350 test car, you could have a Passat in top-line Sport trim with a burlier output and better refinement. So the range sweet spot is lower down. But the Octavia is now very much in the big boys’ ballpark. And we wouldn’t bet against it.

For almost the same outlay as our option- heavy $38,350 test car, you could have a Passat in top-line Sport trim with a burlier output and better refinement