Living with a Mk1 Skoda Octavia vRS – why this is better than a Golf GTI

The Mk1 Skoda Octavia vRS is a very special car to me. Back in March 2008, my parents traded in their diesel Ford Mondeo for a 2003 white Octavia vRS, a very rare colour which the previous owner managed to get through some contacts at their local dealer.

It was questionably modified with a massive rear wing and various other stick-on bits of bodywork. If you showed me that car for the first time now, I’d probably laugh – but as a nine-year-old I thought it was the single coolest car on the road. It played a huge part in making me the car fanatic I am today.

It provided the Edkins family with 14 years of loyal service before being sold back to the original owner, but over the next few months I decided that I needed one in my life – so I bought a 2005 example in red.

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Before I get into why I love this car so much, here are some quick-fire facts. Launched in 2001, the hot version of the Mk1 Skoda Octavia was the first car to wear the vRS badge. Overseas it was simply known as the RS, however Ford owns the rights to that name in the UK and so the Victory Rally Sport branding was born.

It shares most of its parts with the Volkswagen Golf GTI of the time, which means it has a 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine with 180hp, driving the front wheels via a five-speed manual gearbox.

That 1.8-litre lump was a great engine. The figures on paper may not seem that impressive, with 0-60mph taking 7.6 seconds, but it feels quicker than the stats suggest. I love the noise it makes as well, especially the induction and turbo whoosh you get when you floor it.

Don’t go expecting this to be a nimble hot hatch on a twisty road though. The steering, while reasonably precise, lacks feeling and you get quite a lot of bodyroll through the corners. That’ll be thanks to its Mk4 Golf GTI underpinnings, because that car wasn’t known for its pin-sharp handling either.

I sort of knew this going in, but one of the main reasons I bought this car was for the way it looks. To my eye this strikes the perfect balance between looking sporty yet understated. The slightly deeper front bumpers, 17-inch alloys and subtle rear spoiler are just enough to give away that this is something a bit special.

It did cause me a fair share of heartache during my ownership. There were all the usual wear and tear items to replace which you expect on a car which is pushing 20 years old – bushes, bearings and the like – but this thing also loved to throw a check engine light.

Nine times out of 10, this was down to a split vacuum line or turbo hose – underneath that plastic engine cover lies a rats nest of 20 year-old plastic lines. I made the mistake of adding up all my mechanics bills over my 18-month guardianship, and I spent in excess of £2,000 repairing this old Skoda. But look at it this way: it works out to around £110 per month, and you’ll struggle to lease a new car for less than that.

You can think of this as being a Mk4 Volkswagen Golf GTI for sensible people. It’s just as quick, is just as mediocre in the corners but it has a massive boot and, to my eye at least, looks way cooler.

These cars are getting rare in 2025 after they were snapped up for cheap about a decade ago and run into the ground, so finding a clean one can be tricky. Values are also climbing, with nice examples fetching up to £5,000 these days.

I was worried that nine year-old Jamie had overhyped this car, and that it couldn’t possibly live up to my expectations as a daily driver. It did though. The humble Skoda Octavia vRS will always hold a very special place in my heart.

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