SKODA OCTAVIA vRS

Is there still a place for a quick diesel estate in 2021? Our last report reveals all

- RACHEL BURGESS

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 5336

WHY WE RAN IT

To explore the breadth of the Octavia range and see how it fares as a family car

It’s been 20 years since Skoda’s vRS performance line was launched, after which it quickly gained cult status in the UK. Even those who find Skoda’s mainstream range lacking a certain je ne sais quoi – and I’m not one of them, incidentally – can be won round by vRS models, which typically stand for fast, fun and relatively affordable driving.

The Octavia vRS launched the performance range in 2001 and our fourth-generation car is based on the same principles two decades later. Back then, the only way was petrol – a 1.8-litre four-cylinder, specifically – but the world is a different place now. Today, the vRS line is limited to the Octavia and Kodiaq (although the first electric vRS model, the Enyaq, will come soon), but the Octavia offers a choice of vRS powertrains: there are petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid options this time round.

So, after more than six months with the diesel Octavia estate (including a brief sojourn to the iV plug-in hybrid variant), does it live up to expectations?

Diesel doesn’t excite me in the way that petrol does for performance cars – and that’s true for most fans of warm and hot hatches – but observing the excellent fuel economy our diesel vRS has consistently delivered makes it entirely understandable why this fuel still takes a fifth of new sales, mostly to business drivers.