I’m living with a Skoda Octavia vRS Estate to see if it’s the ultimate all-rounder

This is my new daily driver, a Skoda Octavia vRS Estate, and I’m very excited about it. I’ve long been a fan of Skoda’s sporty models, so much so I used to own a 2005 Octavia vRS.

I think they offer the perfect blend of value, performance, practicality and comfort, all in a handsome yet understated package. It’ll be interesting to see if the latest Octavia vRS lives up to my high expectations.

An introduction to my new Skoda Octavia vRS Estate

Let’s start with an introduction to my new car, starting with the performance. Under the bonnet is a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine with 265hp. It should be able to do 0-60mph in 6.5 seconds, but I might have to put that to the test at some point on the Carwow drag strip.

Seeing as I spend a lot of time commuting up and down the motorway, fuel economy is important. It’s a shame that there’s no diesel Octavia vRS anymore, but this petrol model should return up to 40mpg. I’ve struggled to get more than 35mpg so far, but it’s still early days.

There are quite a few nice options fitted to this car as well. I’ve got the Assisted Drive Package, which includes a remote parking feature you can control from your phone, a Canton sound system, a deployable tow bar, a panoramic roof, and a head-up display.

On top of this there’s the Winter Package Premium, which adds heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel and a heated windscreen. Finally, there’s the Simply Clever package. This gets you some additional storage compartments and a false boot floor.

Once you add up the cost of all the options, and the £855 Royal Green Metallic paint job, this Octavia costs a shade under £50,000. If you spec a Golf GTI to a similar level you’ll pay roughly the same, but the Skoda is miles more practical.

First impressions of my Skoda Octavia vRS Estate

My new car has already been working hard behind the scenes at Carwow before I took the keys. It actually spent a couple of months with Head of Video Jack Scotton ferrying kit and crew to shoots.

The massive boot came in very handy for this, and he also made good use of the deployable tow bar. Not for actually towing anything though, it makes a great mounting place for the drone we use to film tracking shots. You might have seen this car in the background of a couple of Carwow reviews already.

My first few weeks with the car have been positive overall. It’s a comfy cruiser on the motorway, and the adaptive cruise control system is brilliant at keeping you in lane without being overly intrusive.

I have noticed some problems when accelerating from low speeds though, because it seems to really struggle to put its power down. Jack noted a similar issue, and we both reckon this car would be better with four-wheel drive rather than front-wheel drive.

But other than this I’m loving life with the Octavia so far, and I’ve got a lot planned for it over the next few months. My parents have owned its predecessor for a few years, so I’m keen to compare their car with mine and get their thoughts on how the Octavia vRS has evolved. It’ll also see a few roadtrips, as well as tackling the daily grind from Hampshire to London.

Stay tuned for updates on my time with this car.

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