Skoda Scala 2019 first drive

Not that any of this should be considered a deal-breaker. For the money Skoda asks for the Scala – just £16,595 for the entry-level 1.0 S – this is a nice cabin, with a thoughtful design and very strong ergonomics. The dashboard has a fair bit of interest to it and mirrors the Scala’s rakish new face, and our test car’s red pinstripes give the place a lift. Neither is it difficult to find a good driving position. Visibility is also excellent thanks to substantial C-pillar cut-outs, and the optional 9.2in (and commendably crisp) central display of our test car is mounted usefully high – in line with the optional digital instrument binnacle. In short it’s spacious, comfortable and unpretentious, and very Skoda.

Exceptionally spacious, in fact, not least because this is a long wheelbase for the class – 10cm longer even than a Volkswagen Golf. You’ll get a six-foot passenger sitting behind a similarly tall driver without issue, and rear headroom is unusually generous, even with the optional, full-length panoramic roof. Unless you’re in the middle seat, that is; here both the seat base and back protrude awkwardly, and so it’s a berth best left for children.   

In truth, you might well get away with the Scala if your original plan was to buy something Golf Estate-sized. The boot is cavernous – class-leadingly so, at 467 litres with the rear seats up – with a low lip and square sides.  

Then, of course, there’s Simply Clever, which is Skoda-speak for all the useful things most manufacturers forget or chose to ignore. The ticket-holder mounted on the A-pillar is a classic of the genre, but in the Scala the cap for the screen-wash also folds out to become a funnel, and there’s an ice-scraper that doubles up as a tread-depth gauge stored within the fuel-filler cap. Much more useful than logo-projecting door lights, we say, and far more endearing.

Like the interior, the driving experience is unpretentious. Don’t expect much in the way of weight or feel through the controls, but the combination of this VW-sourced 1.5-litre four-cylinder TSI and dual-clutch gearbox is predictably slick, if not quite the most clinical around. You get a slight rattle on ignition, but thereafter progress is easy-going and impressively refined, at least so far as the powertrain is concerned. This is a nice gearbox calibration, being neither too keen to bolt for the highest, most economical gear possible nor desperate to downshift unnecessarily under power. Overtaking is a cinch, too, so long as you anticipate when to make your move.

The Scala doesn’t ride like a Volkswagen Golf, though – nothing like, as obvious as that might seem. On sensibly sized 17-inch wheels, our test car was serene enough on smooth dual-carriageways but poorer surfaces saw the ride become conspicuously choppy. At times it feels like a car in the class below, which is interesting because this version of the MQB platform – dubbed A0, which Skoda is actually now is charge of developing – is the same used for the Seat Ibiza and Volkswagen T-Roc, rather than the Golf and Audi A3. As an aside, the use of MQB has also allowed Skoda to fit a range of assistance systems, including lane keeping and blind-spot detection programme that can spot overtaking cars as much as 70 metres away.

But what if you happen upon a nice set of bends? Unfortunately the Scala never really gets going dynamically. There is some weight in the steering, but it only reveals itself after you’ve ventured through a slow, numb swathe of lock around the dead-ahead, and by that point you’ve little confidence in the front axle anyway. The car’s balance is reasonably good, and body control adequate, but try to splice quicker corners and unless the road is glass smooth the rear axle constantly tampers with any stability that brings.

Does any of this matter? Well, yes, a bit. This is Autocar, and it would have been nice to discover another an unexpected handling gem, similar to the Seat Leon. As it is, we’re not surprised Skoda has no intention of building a vRS model, and the deft Ford Focus can rest easy as the class benchmark for dynamism.