Overview

As estate cars go, the Skoda Octavia Estate is a firm favourite family car here at Parkers. Put simply, if you need a car that can carry five and their luggage with the minimum of fuss, it’s all the car you could ever need.

Previous Octavias have fallen short of the commanding Volkswagen Golf, but the fourth-generation Skoda has addressed this issue by adding more tech and sharper styling, while bringing a new commitment to comfort.

The Volkswagen Golf is a chief rival to the Octavia Estate, although the latter’s 640-litre boot shades the 605-litre Golf by a decent margin. Other rivals in the compact family class include the Ford Focus Estate, Toyota Corolla Touring Sports, SEAT Leon Estate, Peugeot 308 SW, Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer, Kia Ceed Sportswagon and Proceed Shooting Brake, and the Hyundai i30 Tourer.

If you’re more focused on carrying capacity than prestige, then the Octavia is a value alternative to premium rivals such as the Mercedes C-Class Estate, Audi A4 Avant and Volvo V60. In fact, perhaps the closest rival to the Octavia in most regards is the even larger Skoda Superb Estate.

The Octavia Estate line-up mirrors that of the hatchback, so there are 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 TSI petrol engines, 2.0 TDI diesels and a 1.4 TSI plug-in hybrid in the Octavia iV. These all come with either six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmissions and most are front-wheel drive.

The main difference between the Octavia Estate and the hatch is that the top-spec non-vRS diesel version of the former can be had with four-wheel drive. We rate the PHEV as one of the best hybrid estates currently on sale.

The fourth-generation Octavia Estate is hardly basic, because all models come with LED lights front and rear, alloy wheels, two-zone climate control, rear parking sensors and a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless smartphone connectivity.

Other kit that’s available includes Virtual Cockpit digital dials, adaptive cruise control, a panoramic sunroof and even heated seats front and rear. At the top of the range the Octavia vRS which gets its own review.

Click through the following pages to read everything you need to know about the Skoda Octavia Estate including its practicality, how much it costs to run, what it’s like to live with – and whether we’d recommend buying one.