Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI DSG Elegance

It’s the third-generation Skoda Octavia, the ever-popular family hatch which the Czech manufacturer confidently believes will break into the top 10 global best-sellers when sales of this all-new version get up to speed later this year.

Designed to appeal to car buyers regardless of whether they dwell in Beijing or Bromsgrove, the new Octavia majors on practicality by offering cavernous interior space and some clever design touches, and all for a competitive price – even if Skoda is by no means the budget brand it once was.

With the recently released Skoda Rapid now slotting into the range beneath the Octavia, this car – based on the longer-wheelbase version of the VW Group's modular MQB platform – has grown in size to accommodate its new sibling in Skoda’s product range.

Compared to the outgoing model, the new Octavia is 90mm longer, 45mm wider and has a wheelbase that is 108mm longer. Skoda is proud of the fact that its models often blur car class boundaries, and the Octavia is no exception. The company claims it has interior space comparable to a model from the next class up: the total interior length is 1782mm and the seats-up boot capacity is a cavernous 590 litres. By comparison, a Ford Mondeo’s is 528 litres.

Despite the car’s growth spurt, Skoda maintains that the Octavia’s key rivals remain the Volkswagen Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Ford Focus. However, it is not hard to imagine the keenly priced and well equipped Octavia turning the heads of car buyers looking at vehicles in the Mondeo class.

Late last year we got an early drive in a Skoda Octavia 1.8 TSI DSG SE Plus, but that petrol variant won’t be coming to Britain when the Octavia goes on sale in March. Instead we’ll get two smaller petrols – a 1.2 TSI and 1.4 TSI – and a brace of diesels.

A 1.6 TDI is likely to be a popular seller, but here we get our hands on the oilburning range-topper, the Octavia 2.0 TDI, equipped with the DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox and in the top Elegance trim.

Skoda has endowed its latest Octavia with a precise, technical design, eschewing curves for sharp angles and taut-looking body surfaces. It is appealing and modern, although to our eyes lacks a little character compared to previous generations of the car.

But the way Skoda’s designers have succeeded in masking the car’s vast interior dimensions from the outside is impressive. That’s hammered home when you lift the rear hatch – no mean feat, it has a considerable weight due to its size – and survey the continent-size storage space within.

It’s not a smoke and mirrors trick where useable boot space is much smaller than the manufacturer’s claims either; the boot is commodious enough to take most objects, the hatch opening is massive, and the loading sill is at a comfortable height.

When you also consider the host of deft touches Skoda includes – a double-sided floor mat for clean or muddy goods, for example – it reinforces the Octavia’s practical stance.

Rear passengers also feel the benefit of that elongated wheelbase. Knee room to the back of the front seats has increased by 47mm to 73mm. Headroom has gone up, too, although the very tallest of passengers might find that the angle where the roof meets the rear hatch is positioned directly where their head is.