Skoda Octavia review (15/05/2013)

IS SKODA losing the plot? The Czech marque has blitzed the Irish market in recent years, and has become a favourite with all manner of drivers — families, farmers, taxi-men, and so on — with a range of cars that punched above its weight.

The Octavia is a case in point. First seen in 1998, it was based on the VW Golf platform, but it did not, like the Golf, compete in the small family-car segment, but against larger rivals in the repmobile/family-car class. That was how the market treated it and it has been a massive success through two generations.

Now, we welcome the third generation of the Octavia. Skoda has pulled off this small-car/big-car trick in other market segments, too — just look at the Superb — and I have revelled in their success since the VW Group turned it from a post-communist Eastern European industrial wreck into a post-modern success story with a world profile.