ITravelNomad

Design

The new Skoda Octavia 2021 certainly looks the part. A large front grille and bulging bonnet but slightly smaller headlights compared to the previous version because of switching to full LED.

Interior

The interior trim is taking a lot of tips from the design framework of VW Golf 8. The car is nice to look, quite to drive and comfortably-cavernous inside, has a well balanced range of engines for all types of drivers. Skoda interior trims now have more interior lights all over the car to make it a more pleasing drive even after dark.

Exterior

It is quite nice looking car also from the outside, with a new style body with new long creases which run from front to back. If it was a sedan version and the back would be a bit lower down than it is, and in this blue color from a bit of a distance, this would be easily confused with a BMW 3 series.

Value comparison with market

Of course there are some better looking cars or even electric cars in similar size like Audi A4, Mazda 3 Sedan, Mercedes-Benz C, CLA, Jaguar XE, BMW 3 Series, Tesla Model 3, Volvo S60. Still, you have to consider the fact that this car brings a lot of additional value to the table by focusing on the basics like size, economy and comfort, having a lot of the capabilities of higher priced cars in the same size class, at a fraction of the cost.

Engines and transmission

It comes with a range of engines starting with a manual speed drive with a 1.0 turbo 110 HP engine, 5 seats and a 600 litre boot with a hatchback like tailgate even in the sedan.

In case you want a bigger engine, more comfort inside with sports seats and improved driving ability from the suspension then you can go for the vRS model – 2.0 turbo – 245 hp.

Recently Skoda has added to the engines options Mild and Plugin Hybrid. Plugin Hybrid version is a 1.4 and Wan electric engine which deliver 204 HP. With 13KW\h battery it is expected it will run 60km of full electric driving and after that fallback to hybrid. There is also hybrid version of the car on the 245HP vRS model.

The automatic version of the car is still a DSG dual clutch fast and economical one, only now they changed the shifter to a more elegant and smaller version like you find in more sporty and expensive automatic cars.

New features

The big touchscreen in the middle of the touchscreen dash is available on all versions of the car and is quite a big change from the previous version of the car where, compared to the VW Golf, the Skoda always had an older version of in car entertainment system, but this is no longer the case. The touchscreen has larger screen sizes as optional also coming with a few more features, including Navi on higher end models. You also get Apple Carplay and Android auto and connection can be made wirelessly to your phone.

Some people could complain that because of digitalization provided by this new dash screen, a lot of features which were available at a touch of a button, are now hidden behind a maze of menus and options. Features like mute the radio, setting the temperature and fan speed or selecting the driving mode for the car are now available only through the touch screen.

Practicality and space

The car should be practical and comfortable as a family car even for longer drives with 5 people. Also it should be quiet enough as even the vRS model no longer has a “shouting exhaust”.

It has an amazingly large 600 litres boot in the hatchback version, just 10 liters under the estate version of the car and possibly the largest in the class in 2021.

Conclusion

In the end, I think there is no other car in its niche class that compares with it on the European market. It is priced and sold like a hatchback but it is actually a family sedan or estate which are the best looking Octavias so far. This is my proposal for a mid size family saloon with great value.

Pictures: Skoda official website