2022 Skoda Octavia review (inc. 0-100)
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00:00G'day, I'm Paul. So I know that some of you love your SUVs but there are some of
00:04you that don't love them. And if you are after a big car that isn't an SUV and
00:08that won't break the budget, Skoda has dropped an entry-level version of the
00:13Octavia on us. This is the 110 TSI Ambition. This competes with things like
00:18the Toyota Camry, the Mazda 6 and the Hyundai Sonata. It's priced at just under
00:23$35,000 drive away. Now if you do want a sportier version we have reviewed the
00:28Octavia RS. You can click up here to watch that. But today it is all about
00:32spending as little money as absolutely possible. Today we're going to do a
00:36detailed review of this car. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the
00:40review you can use the time codes up on the screen or if you're on YouTube
00:43scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already
00:47subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. That way you can find out
00:51every single time we drive a very white car. Okay let's talk exterior. You've got
00:57seven external colors to pick from and all but white is an additional $770.
01:02That is a lot of sevens. I really like the design of the new Octavia. I didn't
01:07love the previous gen that had the split lights and stuff. This recent facelift I
01:12think really does it justice. It looks really classy and it looks a whole lot
01:16more expensive than what it is. You've got to remember this is the base model.
01:19These used to have like hubcaps and stuff on them when you bought the
01:23cheapest one they sold. So this is an impressive setup. I like the fact that
01:26you've got a classy looking grille there with a bit of chrome on the outside.
01:29You've got chrome elements down the bottom there and that's where you have
01:32your fog light built in. Up the top here you have a full set of LED headlights.
01:37These look fantastic and give you excellent projection at nighttime.
01:40Proudly worn Skoda badge over there. Then around the side here with our alloy
01:45wheels you've got a set of 18 inch alloy wheels. Pleasant design. It's nothing too
01:50offensive and it is just sort of basic and straightforward. I quite like this as
01:54well. That shut line comes across the edge of the body so you get this cool
01:58design that runs down the side of the car and kind of gives it a bit of
02:02character. It's not just a boring looking sedan like some of them are in this
02:06segment. I think this is a really neat setup although white, I think white is a
02:10little bit boring. I would just go for one of the other optional colors. Up the
02:14top here you have an indicator built into that wing mirror. You've got privacy
02:18glass. You've got a shark fin antenna and if you come around to the back you have
02:22LED taillights. Now the interesting thing here is it looks like a sedan
02:27because you can kind of see that boot profile there. This is actually a lift
02:30back so slightly different from some of the other vehicles in this segment. You
02:34can get this as a wagon as well for slightly more so you do have a lot of
02:38options there whether you just go for this sort of sedan look or whether you
02:41go for the wagon they really do have you covered for all bases. Let me know what
02:45you reckon about the design. Do you like it as much as I do or do you think they
02:48should have done something a little bit different? I think it's um it's a pretty
02:51smart looking car. We're inside the Octavia so let's start with the key. You
02:55have lock, boot, unlock. I don't know what this material is like a rubber sort of
03:01material which is kind of cool. On the back you have the Skoda logo. Now it
03:06would be a good idea if this was proximity sensing because there is a
03:09push-button start inside the car but it's not. So there are divots on the door
03:13for proximity sensing but for some reason this car doesn't come with it in
03:17the base model which is disappointing. So you have to have the key out to unlock
03:20the car then you can put it back in your pocket when you do start the car. What
03:24about the design? So look in terms of the colors I think it is a bit dreary and
03:27that's kind of typical Volkswagen but you can see highlights like this whiter
03:32sort of silver section here. You can see LED lights that are configurable beneath
03:36that little section and then in terms of the materials it's all very soft rubber
03:40style. There really aren't very many harsh plastics inside the cabin so
03:44despite the fact you have cloth seats it actually feels quite nice and premium
03:48inside here especially with this big infotainment screen and then the digital
03:52display ahead of the driver as well. What about your touch points? So center
03:56it's nice and soft and then on the door it's soft as well. How soft is it? Well
04:00we've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want
04:04to see how this car compares to other cars we've tested before have a look at
04:07the link in the description. Build quality, what's that like? Very good. It's
04:14actually really good. It feels like it's built like a tank. Okay let's talk
04:18infotainment. So you get this 10-inch infotainment screen. It's quite a decent
04:23looking setup. It's that traditional iPad stuck to the dashboard style layout but
04:27the features include things like proximity sensing so as your finger
04:31approaches you can see those extra context menus turn up. You've also got
04:35gesture control which I think is the most useless feature ever but anyway it
04:39does it. I like the fact that you can also increase the volume just by
04:42sliding your finger up and down like that. You don't actually need to tap, you
04:46can tap if you want but it's a much smarter way of doing it then of course
04:49you can do that on the steering wheel too. In terms of radio you have AM and FM radio.
04:54There is no digital radio which is a little bit disappointing. I tend to use
04:57it a fair bit and it's just nowhere to be found here so I would like to see
05:01that. There is an eight speaker sound system. The sound system is okay but not
05:04amazing. It could be just a little bit better and then you also have the
05:09ability to bring up these extra context menus on the infotainment for shortcuts
05:13and also notifications. You do have satellite navigation but you have to
05:19have your smartphone paired and the frustrating part is that it just shows
05:23this screen that says the function is unavailable starting navigation the
05:26entire time even though navigation will never start because it doesn't have
05:29inbuilt satellite navigation. So on that front in terms of smartphone mirroring
05:33you have wireless Apple CarPlay. I'll show you what that looks like. There it
05:38is. So full screen integration, nice and sharp and very quick as well and this is
05:44what Android Auto looks like. Android Auto is wireless as well which is
05:48excellent news so you can have just the map there or if you go back to the main
05:52menu it pushes the map over onto the left-hand side. A tiny bit laggy there
05:57actually it's quite laggy so I don't know what the story is with that. That's a
06:02little bit disappointing I reckon. Move on to the screen ahead of the driver. So
06:05another TFT display and then you can also change what the display looks like.
06:10So you've got a number of different options here to choose from and then you
06:14can also configure what sits inside each of those sections. So you really do have
06:19a stack of configurability there and I think it's a really cool setup
06:22especially for an entry-level car. Moving on to safety you have autonomous
06:27emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. You've got radar cruise
06:31control, you have a lane departure warning and a lane keeping assistant.
06:34Unfortunately though there's no blind spot monitoring which is pretty
06:37disappointing for a car in this day and age but on the parking front you have
06:41reverse parking sensors and a rear view camera. I'll show you what that looks
06:45like. There it is there. It's a pretty grainy image it's not the best picture
06:49in the world but you do have the ability to go to a super wide-angle view and
06:54then you have a top-down view here with the sonars as well. Let's talk
06:59practicality and we'll start with your connectivity options. So down here two
07:03USB C ports which is nice and clever. You also have a wireless phone charging
07:08pad. This is great because when you have wireless smartphone mirroring you really
07:13need a wireless phone charger to prevent you having to plug it in and get your
07:16phone charged. So love that setup. In terms of phone storage you can whack it
07:20down there on the wireless charge pad where it fits nicely inside your cup
07:23holders. Cup holders. Coffee. How does it go?
07:26Excellent. Look at this. Slots in there nicely. No risk of spillage which is good.
07:31Same story with the bottle slots in there. Actually no that's quite small.
07:36It's sort of a little too small just for a standard size bottle which is a bit
07:40weird but it does fit inside the door. The doors are carpet lined. You've got a
07:44cute little bin there as well. See if our big bottle fits inside the doors. Yes it
07:50does. Fantastic. That is great news. On other storage you have a bin just here
07:55next to the driver's knee. Center console that moves forwards and backwards with
08:00even more storage inside of there. You have a glove box down here which is
08:05reasonably sized and has air conditioning as well which is cool. And
08:09then finally a sunglasses holder up the top. What about comfort? So you access all
08:14of the climate controls through the screen here. You can either click clima
08:18or you can press it just here and it'll bring up your settings. Now it is pretty
08:23clever because you have smart AC where you can just tell it what you want it to
08:26do. You can just select one of those options or you can go classic which is
08:29basically you choose what you want. It has a dual zone automatic climate
08:33control system and in terms of the seats themselves they are really quite
08:37comfortable despite the fact that they're cloth. They sort of hug you in
08:40nicely and keep you in place. They are fully manually adjustable so no
08:45automatic adjustment. Steering wheel is pretty cool. It is a very sporty wheel
08:48with that flat bottom and it sits nicely in your hands. The paddle shifters are
08:52easy to reach. It also has tilt and reach adjustment and then on our reach test
08:57yes easy all easy to reach no dramas at all. So we are in the second row of the
09:04Octavia. What's it like here? So my seat is pretty far back. You can see there I
09:08have a reasonable amount of knee room. Toe room is okay but not amazing and head
09:13room is pretty good. You've got several tiers here for the mat pockets and then
09:18you may be wondering what this is. It is a mobile phone or iPad holder and it is
09:24adjustable so that will keep the kids nice and busy and off your back about
09:27how long the rest of the journey has to take. You also have climate vents just
09:32here. You've got a little bin down the bottom there as well. There is no USB
09:37connectivity in the back here which is a little bit disappointing. In the center
09:41you have a center armrest with two cup holders that sort of folds out that way
09:45and our bottle fits in there randomly but doesn't fit in the front. You also
09:51have storage inside the doors as well. They are carpet lined. I should also
09:54point out that you have a ski port here to get you into the boot which is a
09:58handy addition. Isofix points on the two outboard seats and you also have top
10:03tether points along the back there too. So it is a pretty nice place to be
10:07seated here in the back. Okay cargo space being a liftback you actually get a
10:12decent amount of cargo volume so power tailgate which is good and the good
10:16thing about the liftback over a sedan is if this was a sedan it would kind of
10:19open like that. You wouldn't have a huge aperture here but this opens up and you
10:24get plenty of room. So you've got 600 litres of cargo space here in this
10:28configuration but I like the way that Skoda does things with this car. So you've
10:32got features like your hooks on the side which a lot of cars have but got this
10:36retractable hook here for holding shopping bags. All of these side sections
10:40come out. You have nets that you can deploy and if we have a look under the
10:45cargo floor you have a full-size spare tire with a jack nestled into there so
10:52that's not eating into your boot room which is good. You've got more hooks down
10:55the side here as well and then finally you have an ability to drop the seats
10:59which I'll show you in just a second but bag goes in just there. Now I forgot our
11:05suitcase so unfortunately we've only got this one here. This is around the size of
11:09a carry-on bag for a plane so you can see there there is absolutely acres of
11:13room. I'll move this out of the way and I'll show you what it looks like when you drop
11:18the second row. So you drop the second row just by pulling these levers here
11:26and this one as well. This expands the space to a little over 1600 litres. We've
11:34hit the road in the Octavia. Before we get started on the engine I just wanted
11:38to run you through this really annoying rattle that's coming from the boot. We've
11:41removed pretty much everything from the boot. We've taken away the cargo blind,
11:45the jack, the floor cover, everything and it's still there so it must be coming
11:51out of the the latch mechanism or something in that tailgate. We had a
11:54similar issue with the Kia Stinger we used to own ages and ages ago so yeah
11:59a little bit frustrating but anyway. Powering the entry-level Octavia is a
12:031.4 litre turbocharged petrol engine, makes 110 kilowatts of power, that's the
12:08110 TSI and 250 Newton meters of torque. The excellent news is Australia has
12:14kind of become a bit of a dumping ground for some manufacturers with their older
12:19engine and gearbox combinations and the good news for us is that it means we
12:24don't get the entry-level with the dual clutch with this engine and that's great
12:27because I have driven the entry-level Skoda Scala with a similar engine and
12:31that had dual clutch and it really wasn't a very impressive gearbox so I'm
12:35glad that instead we have an 8-speed torque converter automatic and that
12:38means that it is incredibly smooth, you don't get that jerkiness and that
12:42sort of hesitancy that you get sometimes with dual clutch gearboxes so big bonus
12:47there. What does it feel like behind the wheel? So give it a little kick here,
12:51it's nice, it's super eager, the gearbox is very smooth and it's attentive as
12:57well so if you do get stuck into it it drops down a gear nice and quickly.
13:01Everything happens as you'd expect it to, there are no surprises here so yeah
13:06it's a really nice and competent package. Now what about fuel economy? So the
13:10official figure is 5.7 litres per 100 kilometres, let's have a look at what
13:14we're sitting on, we are currently on 5.8 so it's pretty much bang on exactly
13:21where it needs to be so impressive effort there. It is worth noting there on
13:24fuel economy that does require 95 on premium unleaded petrol. Now we don't
13:28have any drive modes so to speak but you do have the ability to shift gears
13:32manually using the steering wheel, you just pull that lever back and you can
13:35see it starts diving back through the gears or you can put it into sport mode
13:41so one pull of the gear lever there puts it into sport mode and immediately it's
13:45far more eager with gear shifts and it's ready to downshift earlier, hold gears
13:49longer as well so that you can sit higher in the rev band to get out of
13:52corners so it's a good setup and I think it suits the characteristics of this
13:56gearbox. Skoda doesn't have an official 0-100 time but we've put it up
14:01against our stopwatch and this is how it went.
14:14Let's talk about ride, so you don't have any adaptive damping but what they've
14:18been able to do is give this an incredibly cushy ride and it's cushy to
14:23the point where if you do get sort of those continuous undulations on
14:26country roads like we have here it kind of sits up for a little while so it is
14:31on the more comfort side of comfortable and that's not such a bad thing with a
14:35vehicle like this you do want it to be nice and comfortable as opposed to being
14:38sort of firm or harsh they've really dialed in all of the comfort that you
14:43need. Now what about your handling so pop this back into sport we've got a couple
14:47of corners coming up here I don't expect this to be an amazing handler and with
14:52the suspension as soft as it is it kind of has a fair bit of body roll but
14:56it's very predictable so even as the pace picks up it sweeps along nicely
15:02nothing untowards happening and the engine is really eager it has all the
15:06punch that you need it's happy to lean on the torque band when it needs to and
15:10it's always there for you to pick you up out of corners steering's nice and
15:14direct as well and the brake pedal feel is good so even though you won't be
15:18using this as a sports car dynamically it's actually quite impressive. Now what
15:23about road noise I've spent a fair bit of time in the car now I've done a lot
15:26of highway driving as well and the road noise in the cabin is pretty good so
15:30there is a bit that comes in through the tires on coarse chip surfaces but for
15:34the most part it's a pleasant environment to be seated in with the
15:37exception of that annoying rattle out of the boot. Let's talk visibility so out
15:41the front it's excellent wing mirrors could be a tiny bit bigger and there is
15:45no blind spot monitoring either which is disappointing you really have to just
15:49mind your P's and Q's and make sure you get your head checks done nice and early
15:52out the back it's a super narrow window that's one of the downsides of this
15:56hatchback setup so it is a little bit tricky to see out the back with that
16:00tiny little envelope. Finally if you do need a tow there's a 1500 kilogram
16:05braked towing capacity and a turning circle of 11.1 metres. 11.1 metres is
16:11okay it could be a little tighter for a front-wheel drive car but that should be
16:14fine for getting in and around the city. Okay Skoda Octavia look to be honest
16:18this is gonna sound like a bit of a cop-out but I found this car incredibly
16:22hard to fault outside of maybe I don't know the infotainment system being a
16:26little bit fiddly for this kind of money it feels significantly better than the
16:30competition you just get everything inside the cabin and if you do want a
16:34little bit more you simply step up a notch to the next level up but if you
16:38are on a budget and you are conscious of how much money you're spending this uses
16:42barely any fuel it's got stacks of room inside for the family you can get it as
16:45a wagon as well if you want and it drives beautifully with that 8-speed
16:48auto so I don't know it's just a really nice car so if you are in the market for
16:53one it gets Paul's tick of approval let me know in the comment section below
16:57have you bought one did you go and buy an RS or did you go down at the entry
17:00level like this one here or if you have an older Skoda what's it been like in
17:05the long run I'm really curious to get your feedback let me know down there in
17:08the comment section if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it
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