Skoda Octavia long term review final report

What I liked most, however, was that the Octavia remained an absolute peach to drive hard. The steering is a bit light, and there is a touch of roll as you flick the car into a corner, but then it settles down, grips hard and rockets out as you flatten the accelerator hard. What a joy! In August, we drove our car down to Chennai for our track day, where it set a blistering time of 2m10.75s. Even Narain Karthikeyan simply loved the setup of the car and the way the clever front differential helped put power down.

Over the months that we had the car, we did find that the 178bhp engine can get thirsty if you are always on the gas, the 4.66-metre length makes it difficult to park at times, and then there’s Skoda’s improving but yet less than ‘thrilling’ aftersales service to contend with.

Still, if you like to drive and are looking for an executive car in the Rs 20 lakh bracket, we wouldn’t even consider looking elsewhere.

SHAPUR KOTWAL