Five things I love about my Skoda

It’s not often I pull rank (OK, so I do it all the time – but who’s telling this story?).

Nonetheless, when we grabbed a pair of Skoda Octavia RS cars for our recent Czech Mates jet fighter feature, after driving the optioned-up silver RS wagon, I very much pulled rank. And told Skoda I wasn’t handing it back… For a goodly while at least.

The suggestion is you need to be impartial in this job. The truth is you have to be able to be impartial when necessary. When not, you can be a fan of a brand -- after all, everybody in this job is a car nut.

The relationship started with a visit to the company’s plants and engineering and styling teams back in the mid-noughties. The idea of the RS wagon’s mix of hot hatch underpinnings and wagon practicality immediately gelled. And it was no surprise to me that it quickly became Australia’s favourite Skoda.

Then in 2010 and 2011, I grabbed an RS and with the wizards at Alan Heaphy’s motorsport operation turned it into a tarmac rally car. Over two Targa Tasmanias I beat the hell out of it and it came back for more – posting some giant-killing performances along the way.

How much do I like the latest Skoda Octavia RS?

My attitude to the car can be best summed up with the proposition that it would be the car I’d buy if I had to leave this job tomorrow. Sure, it’d fight for garage space with my M3, but it would likely be the car I’d be logging 90 per cent of my miles in…

Here’s why, via five things that I reckon makes this car a keeper…

The Skoda Octavia RS is a space ship. Some cars just get it right, the Octavia is one of those. It manages to retain compact external dimensions but there’s plenty of room within – as long as you’re not looking at three burly boys across the back seat.

For four blokes and their luggage (be it bike gear, racing kit or whatever), it is absolutely right sized. The rear seat has almost a two-bucket shape to it, but the bonus is decent location and comfort and -- thanks to a 60mm wheelbase stretch compared to the Golf platform -- plenty of legroom.

I’m no fan of SUVs but, in contrast, I’m a sucker for the blend of car-like comfort and handling and great versatility that a ‘proper’ station wagon delivers. The Octavia has this blend nailed.

Given the overall size of the Octavia, the luggage space is massive, in both its wagon and sedan/liftback body styles. Over Easter I was able to load a full complement of gear and food, etc (including the big blue esky) for two, and still fit my pushie in (with the wheels off), as well as fishing gear.

That left the entire rear seat free for the mad four-pawed member of our family (don’t worry, it was carefully protected with a nice padded coverall with quilted stitching to match the Skoda Octavia’s Alcantara-upholstered sport seats up front.

The front seats in the Skoda Octavia RS are a highlight.

The general consensus is that Volvo’s XC range goes close to having the best seats on the market, but the bolstered sporty numbers fitted to the Skoda Octavia RS give the Swedes a run for their money.

The look of the seats is very sporty and there’s decent lateral location thanks to that bolstering, but the comfort levels are high. I’m a sucker for the Bentley-style diamond quilting and Alcantara-facings too.

Electronic adjustment and memory functions work as you’d expect and, coming into winter, who doesn’t like a heated seat. FYI, the Octavia RS adds heating to the rear seats too…

The integrated tech makes Skoda Octavia RS a multi-tasker.

There are pluses and minuses that emanate from Skoda’s position within the Volkswagen Group. I’ll let you ponder the minuses on your own, but the pluses include access to some pretty fancy tech.

The centre screen on the Octavia is impressively high-res and offers a whole host of functions, including decent infotainment and large-format maps. That our RS also includes the optional ($700) Skoda variant of Audi’s Virtual Cockpit as its main instrument panel display also raises the amenity and tech bar.

And there are a number of other pieces of technology that make piloting the Octavia RS less of a chore. Active safety tech includes AEB and semi-autonomous driving modes including adaptive cruise and lane-keeping functions.

While I don’t advise you try this at home, on the highway the car tracks along hands-free for a substantial period of time. Use the system as it’s intended (ie: with your hands on) and it’s a very relaxing highway mile muncher.

In town, the auto-parking function is one push of the button and actually works at a pace that won’t get you monstered when parallel parking. It’s one of the best I’ve used.

Other bits I like? One of the biggest panaoramic sunroofs in the business (certainly in this class) and powered rear hatch.

These two items are also optional -- $1700 and $500 respectively. But given even these are included in our $51,090 ‘as tested’ price, they are still boxes I’d tick.

Look up ‘sleeper’ and there’s a pic of the Skoda Octavia RS.

The other tech that appeals are the powertrain and the chassis tuning functions via Skoda’s vRS drive mode system. Here you can choose throttle, gearbox, steering, differential and even exhaust modes to tune the RS to you needs.

And the variation between modes is usefully disparate. In the ‘soft’ comfort mode everything is perfect for brain-off commuting, but jack the systems to full-welly and the Octavia RS transforms into a pukka hot hatch+.

There’s a fair degree of tuning potential in the Volkswagen 2.0-litre turbo four, so a chipping would really liven the RS up.

That said, this is already a properly rapid front-driver. While it won’t compete directly with the likes of a Honda Civic Type-R, it will keep most of us entertained with its pace – especially point to point.

As much as the special seats, extra kit (including optional 19-inch alloys costing $700) and sports packaging give the Skoda Octavia RS a presence approaching semi-prestige, there’s a workmanlike quality to the interior plastics and finishes that appeals to me.

And it augurs well for the longevity of the car – something I’ve experienced via the Skodas of family members and friends.

The Octavia RS doesn’t have the acres of soft-touch plastics that make some small cars so plush but that doesn’t make the Czech wagon a hardship to live with.

In fact, although the slightly more utilitarian surfaces contrast with the Audi-style tech, they are harder to mark and easier to clean. Refer to the previous notation of our dog’s Easter digs…

Mind you, he’s better behaved than my riding mates!