I spent a weekend with the Octavia!
In a world where sedans are dying, I'm happy to see a truly premium new one make an entry. Its all-rounded nature and the killer powertrain are highlights.
Despite being softer than my brother's remapped Jetta, the Octavia is still the most fun-to-drive family sedan this side of a BMW 330i.
The engine & gearbox combination is d-e-a-d-l-y. You will really enjoy it. The turbo-petrol begs to be revved and driven hard, while the DSG is a willing accomplice. Even your 75-year old grandfather won't be able to keep this car under 5000 rpm. Not too different from its smaller sibling the Rapid & that wicked 1.0 TSI in that regard.
The main bummers with the car = its overpriced by 4-5 lakhs, single-digit city fuel efficiency (
will drastically drop if you have a heavy right foot), that lovely 2.0 VAG turbo-diesel isn't offered anymore, long-term reliability (
just ask any longtime Superb or Octavia TSI DSG owners) and Skodas dealers.
Built for the open road - she simply flies! You'll find yourself making excuses to go out on highway runs. Fast & addictive - I'm still smiling, just thinking of that weekend drive. Runs best with the tyres set to 32 PSI:
Except for the ungainly, low-placed radiator grille, I like the styling of the car. The lines are nice & proportionate. Unmistakably German, but that front grille looks ugly to my eyes. Skoda has always had classy designs so this kind of grille treatment is disappointing. Also, apart from the grille, the styling is very understated. I like it, but the Octavia disappears into the crowd and doesn't have a lot of street presence. The 205 mm tyres look skinny when you view the car from the back (
almost like a muscular male model with toothpick legs). Tail light design is Hyundai'ish.
Build feels satisfyingly solid. The quality is also impressive and it feels like a properly premium car overall. I don't trust Skoda's reliability, but I do trust the VAG group in the area of safety. It's just reassuring to know that you are driving a 5-star safety car.
Ergonomically perfect. You will easily find your "perfect" driving position & also appreciate the supportive driver's seat. As Omkar said, this seat compound is perfect. The minimalist cabin has a feel-good factor too.
2-spoke steering looks even weirder because of that upward protrusion & piano-black panel at the bottom. If the bottom area was a perfect circle, it might have been more palatable. Right now, it looks like someone broke the third spoke.
Like my watches, I prefer analog-styled speedometers too. Yet, this is one of the rare digital clusters I liked. It is very, very well executed.
Cabin is a pleasant place to be. The driver will be happy, and so will his / her passengers. All the touch-points have good materials. I loved the suede-beige fabric insert on the dash (unique!), although I found the buttons on top of the a/c vents (park assist, hazard lights) to be low rent. Operation of the stalks is top class. Lots of storage - a practical cabin.
Badly missed the sunroof. Anyone who says a sunroof isn't fun in India doesn't know what he's talking about. I've owned sunroof-equipped cars for 2 decades now and keep it open at night, early mornings and hill station holidays. Further, on regular days, it's like an additional window on the car - just slide the sunroof cover open (not the glass) to make the cabin airier & brighter. Owners will also miss the ventilated seats which cheaper cars get.
As a personality who lives on music, I enjoyed the sound system. It's literally a disco on wheels.
Hate the fact that there are no physical buttons & knobs for the climate control. It's a pain to control via the touchscreen, despite there being a quick access physical button to take you straight to the menu. Manufacturers should get over their "touchscreen" fascination and understand
that their paying customers prefer physical controls for the crucial functions (Touchscreen / Feather Touch Controls: Boon or Bane?). Brands like Honda have realised it and are bringing back physical knobs / buttons.
ORVMs are a size smaller than they should be. And for 34-lakhs OTR, Skoda should provide a crisper reversing camera display. Not that the one provided is problematic, but I would expect a sharper, crisper display in such an expensive car.
The smartkey is sexy! Fab new design by Skoda.
Very, very IMPORTANT: Drop the tyre pressure to 32 PSI. Then, ride quality is very good & sorted. It is not too soft like my Superb, nor is it too stiff like a Tiguan. I'll say the suspension tune is just perfect for India. At 32 PSI, I absolutely loved the suspension and it even handles broken roads & potholes well. Owners will find the ride comfort to be very endearing. No Octavia owner should run the car on the stupidly high 38 / 39 PSI recommendation which led to some bounciness & firmness.
Onboard computer had no problem with 32 PSI:
I'm happy with the car's high speed manners. It is safe & sorted (again, at 32 PSI) and will be even better once BHPians get stickier 225 tyres. Get superior + fatter tyres and you'll have all the grip you need. That said, my brother's Jetta does feel more solid and teutonic on the expressway at high speeds.
I feel the suspension tune is perfect for India, offering a great balance between ride and handling. End of the day, Indian roads are mostly imperfect and you can't have it too firm on our broken roads. That being said, driving enthusiasts will surely say that the Octavia's suspension is 20% softer then they would have preferred. No doubt, again, my brother's Jetta has an advantage at high speeds.
Body roll is more than the outgoing car through fast corners. Controlled, but higher.
Recovery from expressway dips (by the rear end) is satisfactory, and far better than what you see in some Japanese and Korean cars. Mid-corner bumps don't upset it, just as you'd expect in a European car.
I found the electric steering to be a level too light @ 120 kmph. Skoda needs to firm it up more. I understand the market demands lighter steerings and that's fine in the city, but at high speeds, you need a tight steering wheel. Quite baffling why the Octavia doesn't have a "sport" mode that would firm up the steering. It's explicable - far cheaper Hyundais, Tatas & Mahindras give you a sport mode.
The engine sounds absolutely fantastic at high revs! In fact, I would prefer it to be more audible! The sound is too well insulated for my tastes. I'd love to hear more of that sweet symphony!
On the highway, you'll easily hit incredibly stupid speeds without even realising it. This car flies on the open road. Sedans might be a dying breed, but they will always have their fans (myself included). No same-price SUV or crossover can match the Octavia 2.0 TSI DSG's driving experience.
Driving hard, I even saw 5 kmpl!! Turbo-petrols are very sensitive to throttle input, especially the larger-sized ones like this 2.0. This is where we miss the awesome VW-Skoda 2.0 TDI. Even if driven hard, my brother's remapped Jetta TDI with similar horsepower gives me 10 - 11 kmpl. Driving hard on the expressway, I'm seeing 9 kmpl on the Octavia where my brother's remapped Jetta will easily give 13 - 14 kmpl (driving hard). Drive easy and the Jetta gives 12 kmpl in the city and 18 - 20 kmpl on the highway. Turbo-petrols can only dream of such figures.
If you drive hard in the city, this is what you'll see (or lower). With a light foot, you'll get anywhere between 7 - 9 kmpl in a city like Bombay:
After a combined high-rpm city & highway run on empty roads. LOL. Hard-driving, of course. Heavy users will miss the 2.0 TDI. Of course, relaxed expressway cruising in the Octavia might results in 14 - 15 kmpl as a few Superb 2.0 TSI owners are reporting:
The way the car rev-matches on downshifts is too much fun! It'll have you giggling like a child.
Car is surprisingly easy to drive in the city (considering its size). The controls are light & the overall feel is butter-smooth. Will be a hit with people of all ages & backgrounds. While many will approach the Octavia keeping its inflated price-tag in mind, a test-drive will convert several customers. It just "feels good". Ask Vid6639 if he ever regrets spending that 4 - 5 lakhs extra on the similarly overpriced Kodiaq.
Good attention-to-detail. If you open the door with the gear position in "D", the parking brake engages for safety. That being said, it should instead engage "Park" position on the gearlever as my BMW does. Anyway an electronic shifter, so it's easy to implement.
I don't think the ground clearance is as bad as its 137 mm rating would suggest. I am currently revamping my driveways and I took it over 4 unfinished areas...she didn't scrape. Further, there is some road work going on around the 5 Gardens area. I purposely drove the car over the broken patches slowly, and then at speed. Didn't scrape. Of course, we were just two people onboard and I am sure the GC will be a limitation with 5 + luggage. But I don't think it'll be a deal breaker. My C220 had just 145 mm of clearance on paper, but the real world usability was more than that. I took the Benz all over Maharashtra without issue.
The brakes are simply fantastic. Very confidence inspiring.
OEM Goodyears slip & slide a lot on wet roads. These tyres aren't suited to a premium car at all.
This car with a sports exhaust, 225 mm tyres and a remap would really be something else.
The Octavia's current competition consists of the Superb (no price difference from the Superb Sportline after discounts), A4 (massive discounts have made it a 40-lakh car) and some SUVs like the Compass (hopeless AT lets the Compass down), Citroen C5 Aircross (damn good car) & Tiguan AllSpace. Am reading many good things about the next-gen Tucson, it might be a worthy contender in the same price range.
If you like to drive, buy this car. If you can spend more, wait for the RS
which is coming next year. If you can spend even more, get the 330i.
The Elantra is not even in contention here. They are competitors only on paper. As I mentioned earlier, the cars I'll compare this to are the C-Class & A4. Yes, the Octavia L&K is overpriced by 4-5 lakhs, but I would still buy it over the C-Class & then get a Thar with the money saved. Note: my comments are based on the current-gen C-Class and not the new generation which could possibly be vastly superior.
Because Skoda has gone overboard with the pricing, discounts will come. They are inevitable, in my opinion. A couple of months after the initial euphoria settles down, we'll see deals being offered.
As I told my kid brother who recently bought a Superb DSG, be prepared for a breakdown or two. IMHO, there is no such thing as a reliable dual-clutch AT. Over & above that, the Octavia will not be fuss-free to own over 100,000 km. You will have electronic issues, parts failures etc. Just see the threads of DBHPians Hayek & Sahil and the nonsense they've had to endure with their TSI DSGs (DSG failure, ABS modules for 2 lakh rupees, water pump failure and lots more). Take the extended warranty so you are okay for 6 years. Once the car is out of warranty, you would do well to have a good independent garage on hand. But again, be prepared to face problems and their idiotic dealership network. If that isn't acceptable to you, buy something else.
Skoda should really come out and offer a 7-year extended warranty option too. Many other brands do it, including sister Audi.
Someone on the forum asked why do you need more revs & why are we complaining about the ~6000 rpm limit. One, because it's more fun to redline to 6,500 or 7,000 RPM than 6000
. Second, during downshifting, the car will allow you to downshift more aggressively when revs are available. In the Octavia, with just 6000 revs, the car doesn't allow downshifts as aggressive as I'd prefer. To give you an example, multiple times at 3900 - 4000 rpm, it wouldn't give me a downshift command because the resultant RPM would've been too high. Aggressive downshifting brings more engine braking as well. Then, when you're overtaking, there's a certain purity in completing your overtaking in the same gear. I don't like upshifts in the middle of an overtaking manouveur. Next up, if you have more revs to play with, that means you'll be able to attack a mountain road much better. For instance, I can take a fast sweeping corner in the same gear from 5000 all the way to 6500 rpm (or 7000!). The last thing I want mid-corner is a damn upshift which can unsettle the car!! A car with less revs will always upshift more mid-corner than the one that has more revs available. Finally = an engine which sounds awesome at 6000 rpm (like this 2.0 TSI) will sound even better at 500 / 800 / 1000 more revs.
But the number one reason, of course, is because it's more fun to take an engine to 7,000 RPM than 6,000 RPM. Heck, give me 6600 rpm and I'll be happy. But 6000 is just too low. My diesel sedan does 5400 - 5500, as did the tiny Fiat 1.3L MJD motor in Dzires.
Roof lights look like they're out of a fashion studio! So very classy: