Happy birthday Skoda Octavia
Skoda celebrates 20 years of the no nonsense Octavia - we'll raise our brew to that!
The self congratulatory press-release (we'll give them that) Skoda has issued today reveals it has sold 5m Octavias over three generations, development for the first seemingly starting just a year after VW acquired the brand in 1991. Production then started April 3 1996. The pattern of building unpretentious, no-nonsense cars on VW group platforms and benefitting from the shared development in powertrain tech that comes from being part of a bigger entity has worked well for Skoda too. Sure, the badge doesn't have the prestige and those who haven't left the Jasper Carrott era of TV comedy may still snigger at the image. But from minicabbers on up there are many fans, the ability to drive a car with the same engine, gearbox and infotainment gadgets as much posher brands from within the group at a fraction of the price never losing its appeal.
With the vRS range PHers have long had something to get excited about too, the combination of cheap entry cost, easy tuneability and huge luggage capacity endearing the Octavia to many. Scouts meanwhile make for useful all-weather rural runabouts popular with the outdoors set and the steady improvements in quality, technology and all-round refinement mean you no longer need make excuses for driving a Skoda. Little touches like the ice scraper hidden under the fuel filler flap underline Skoda's fit for purpose image, a 'does what it says on the tin' honesty very much in keeping with the PH mindset. With the new vRS230 there's now a properly spicy one in the range too, combining Golf GTI tech and pace with wardrobe swallowing space.
Which is one of the reasons we're taking delivery of our own for the PH fleet later this week. More on that in due course. For now happy birthday Octavia!
From Shed money to brand new vRS models browse all the Octavias in the PH Classifieds here!
20 years of mediocre crap with awful seats. Good news for chiropractors.
Vauxhall do make some chiropractic friendly seats though. Drove a Corsa for a couple of hours and that hurt for almost a week.
Jeez, it's not an Elise. For a cheap, sturdy FWD hatch with a decent boot, it's a good steer.
I wouldn't describe mine my dream car but it's combined the ability to carry people and their stuff with occasional fun very well. I don't regret buying mine at all.
276 bhp and 4wd from a big anonymous estate? Yes please.
Yes you can find faster cars, but they won't be bigger and cheaper, ditto the other measurements.
I'm on my third now.
First one, 2010 2.0Tsi vRS, bbs, weitec coilovers and stage 1 map:
Second one, 2012 2.0Tsi vRS, Neuspeed forged wheels, H&R coilovers, brembos, H&R anti roll bar:
Third one, 2016 2.0Tsi vRS "230" - ie the "performance pack" version with the special diff:
On a twisty road though, especially if its a bit damp you really notice the difference - feels like it's pulling you in the apex and round the corner without any of the that normal fwd scrabble/understeery feeling.
Even then, they werent that bad relative to Ladas, FSO's and the like and now I dont think you can really buy anythign quite as crap, not very exciting, a bit slow, not very nice to look at but nothign like the old days of the Lada Riva, always driven by fat old blokes as you could get a fully spammed up version with headlight washers and everything for three grand.
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