Published:
14 November 2024Given its wide appeal, the Octavia vRS is offered with a wide range of driving modes, from Eco to Sport.
The everyday sweet spot is dampers and steering set to Sport (still soft enough; responsive steering; a solid cornering base) and drive set to Normal. In Sport, the seven-speed DSG just holds on to the gears for a tad too long for nomal driving.
For a car positioned as the vRS is, all bar Sport - with the exception of the gearbox – feel a bit redundant.
However, on occasion - mainly on a winding B-road, you may need to knock the ’box into Sport mode, which keeps the revs between 2000-3000rpm to aid power response.
It also, thanks to the now-standard Sports Exhaust, increase the engine noise.
There’s little doubt this car is at its best when driven at no more than a committed canter. Were you to pitch it into battle with more driver-centric front-driven hatches, it would find itself exposed painfully early on.
The faint slack in the suspension that makes the car such easy-going company when driven at lukewarm pace slightly undoes the handling somewhat if you really throw it down an interesting B-road.
