MODEL ON TEST: SE L 2.0 TDI DSG AUTOMATIC – MILEAGE – 18,599

No, before you ask, the Octavia hasn’t been back to Skoda yet, thanks to availability at the workshop. We’ve also completed some decent miles this month,so the Race Blue estate is now asking for its first service. We like long service intervals. It’s yet another feather in the Octavia’s already fluffy cap. I was going to go to my local dealer to test them out in sorting out the overactive collision warning, but with a service now on the cards, it’s heading back to Skoda UK and the press garage. That’s cheating, I know, but I will be sure that the issue will be researched extensively and solved. The car is going in tomorrow, so by next month I’ll be bursting with information from its time in the service bay.

The automated braking activated again this month, in a similar way to the incident outside Ikea, but less severe this time, but it still did it. I was driving through Birmingham and there was a cyclist on the pavement waiting to cross (emphasis on the pavement). I can only assume that was the cause as there was nothing else in proximity, and once again there was a beep, the red flash on the dials and on came the brakes to a near total stop, and then it released. As I say, it wasn’t as severe as last time, and a few error messages flashed up on the screen about front assist, so that’s proof enough to me that something is wrong. We will wait and see what the diagnosis is by the car doctors.

I’ve been meaning to mention something else, but I always forget about it until I’m sat back in the car, or someone new jumps in and says ‘urgh!’ Let me explain…The interior is a nice place to be, especially in our SE L specification car. It’s cool and fairly sophisticated. The design is good, the colours are nice, and the materials are of decent quality – or rather nearly all the materials are. There’s one fairly prominent place that I can’t understand what the interior designers at Skoda were thinking of, and that’s the piece of trim that runs along the entire length of the dashboard. It looks really good, until you touch it. It looks like it should have a textured ‘woody’ or ‘rubbery’ feel, but it’s a hollow piece of plastic that is smooth. It plays with your mind and doesn’t feel like it looks.

Ooh, and I found something new on the Octavia this month, when I was once again fiddling with the
array of customisable options on the touchscreen. You can select the car to lock automatically when you walk away, and open again when you approach the car. You can even just select it to do one or the other – lock automatically but not unlock or vice versa. I’ve not seen that before, but I thought that it was pretty cool.That’s especially as I keep forgetting to lock the car when I get home with my hands full of camera gear.

I’ve definitely mellowed a bit as I’ve got older, driving more sedately and going with the flow – or traffic – rather than trying to get past everyone in my way, so generally I don’t explore the upper echelons of the performance of the car too much. And besides, have you seen the price of diesel? But, every now and again when I wake up and have that urge to ‘drive’ or get past some slow coach, it’s nice to have a good bit of ‘oomph’. And oomph we certainly have in the Octavia, as it’s surprisingly quick, and to my mind feels faster than the 148 horses that Skoda insists it has harnessed under the bonnet. It’s a nice problem to have, that’s for sure.

SIMON THOMPSON

WHAT’S HOT: We have the standard LED headlights on the Octavia rather than the optional matrix offerings. But we’re not short changed, they’re really good at lighting the night.

WHAT’S NOT: The main beam light on the binnacle has (I’m sure) always been at top centre so it’s easy to see. Not on the Octavia, it’s at the bottom so easy to miss and blind oncoming people.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL OF OUR LONG-TERM REPORTS ON THE SKODA OCTAVIA

FACTS & FIGURES

ARRIVED: 22nd September 2025

PRICE WHEN NEW:  £37,070

PRICE AS TESTED: £41,025

ECONOMY: 61.4mpg (official WLTP) 58.8mpg (on test)

COSTS: None

FAULTS: None