Skoda Octavia vRS: Your Weird And Wonderful Questions Answered

We’re just a few days away from handing back our Octavia vRS hatchback and swapping for an estate version (with a manual gearbox and a colour chosen by you guys!), but before we hand over the keys, we thought we’d give something back to you. Upon delivery of the car last April, we asked you guys if you had any questions or requests related to the car, so we’ve done our best to carry out some of them here:

1. "I want to see under the hood" - kWofPowerrrrrrr

Nothing terribly exciting to see under here, just your regular plastic-topped modern engine. However, as we’ve explained before, the engine nestling under that plastic cover is a good’un.

There’s your answer. Don’t say we never test things thoroughly…

3. "Can you fit Alex Kersten in the glovebox?" - Ali Mahfooz

While we were able to fit Alex - and two others - in the boot, it’s fair to say getting even a man of such modest stature into the glovebox in one piece is impossible. I did ask if I could try, but he said no. Moving on…

4. "How far could you travel on one tank with it?" - cosme

The most I’ve managed to squeeze out of the Octavia on a long run is 43mpg (as you can see from the image above, the figure drops significantly when you’re having fun). So, if you’re careful enough, you should be able to do 500 miles on a tank of petrol.

5. "Could you test the anti-understeer ESP versus that of the latest Megane?" - Volvo340_Welded

While we weren’t able to test it back-to-back with a Megane, we can tell you that the ESP - which works in tandem with the XDS ‘electronic differential’ system - is on the whole pretty decent, and fairly unobtrusive. During really heavy cornering, you do just about notice the XDS effectively reducing understeer by nibbling at the brakes on the front wheels.

However, it’s worth pointing out that the front wheels got caked with brake dust much more quickly than the rears. Whether that’s related to the XDS doing its thing, we’re not sure.

5. "Go see the new F&F movie and drive home without crying or hooning" - Hunter Williamson

Failed on both counts. I hooned, and then I had to stop and cry.

7. "Is Skoda a better buy than its VW cousin, the Golf GTI?" - Tom Ewers

We’d say so. At £25,220 for a DSG-equipped Octavia like ours, it’s about £3000-4000 cheaper than a similarly-specced VW Golf GTI. And yet, it’s much larger - particularly in regards to the boot, which is massive - is still just as premium feeling inside as any VW, and will potentially be more reliable. Yep, these days the Czech-built Skodas are often coming out ahead of VWs in reliability surveys.

Stay tuned to see our new Octavia vRS estate longtermer, which will be arriving in a few days’ time!