Skoda Octavia Estate Review & Prices

The Skoda Octavia Estate is one of the largest load luggers you can buy, yet is sensibly priced and won’t cost the Earth to run, stacking up well in comparison to estate versions of other family cars such as the Seat Leon, Ford Focus, VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra.

The crease that runs down the side of the car makes it look more imposing than previous generations of Octavia – like shoulder pads in a 1980s suit jacket – and you can now have wheels up to 19 inches in size, even on non-vRS models. The new look is finished off with crystal-style rear LEDs.

Skoda has made a big effort to make the new Octavia feel more upmarket than the previous car, with soft-touch plastics, textile padded trim finishes and thickly stuffed seats that could rival your armchair at home for comfort. Even so, it’s still blander inside than a Focus or Leon.

That said, there’s an exception. The interior is dominated by a large central infotainment touchscreen, even on entry-level models, while the majority of physical buttons are found right in the centre of the dash. It looks modern and is easy to use, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto standard. Lovely digital driver’s dials come included too.

If it’s space you’re after, then look no further than the Octavia Estate. There’s a huge amount of it for adults no matter if they’re sat in the front or back, while its hefty boot is among the largest you can buy in any estate car. It comes with plenty of practical touches, too, and the rear seats fold for those trips to the tip.

There’s a generous range of efficient engines to choose between in petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid flavours. The usual rule applies – if you’re often in town, the 1.5 petrol is best. Often on the motorway? Go for the 2.0-litre diesel. Company car drivers will find the plug-in hybrid the cheapest to run, plus there are powerful vRS models on offer too, reviewed separately.

The Octavia Estate is easy to manoeuvre and park in town, although its suspension can be a bit noisy and abrupt over bumps – a VW Golf is better here. The Octavia isn’t going to set your pulse racing in twisty country roads, either (a Ford Focus is more fun), but it has plenty of grip and precise steering nonetheless. On the motorway, it proves a comfortable cruiser.

So, if you’re after a seriously spacious and practical estate car, head to our Skoda Octavia Estate deals page to see how much you could save, and don’t forget to browse our latest used Skodas.

The Skoda Octavia is cheaper to buy than the Volkswagen Golf Estate and the Ford Focus Estate, but also has more rear-seat space and a bigger boot than those cars. Take a closer look at the car’s specification and you’ll notice the Octavia doesn’t have as generous a list of standard features as the Golf, missing out on adaptive cruise control and front parking sensors, for example.

The Skoda Octavia is like a pair of slippers – comfortable but not very dynamic

In town

The Skoda Octavia is an easy big car to drive around town. It has light steering and a gearbox that’s smooth once you get up to speed. The brakes are powerful but not grabby and the suspension is soft and comfortable, although it can get a little bit bouncy over potholes and cobbles. Even the Skoda’s manoeuvrability impresses – it has a tighter turning circle than a Ford Focus Estate.

Parking? That’s so easy it's boring. The Octavia doesn’t suffer from big blind spots, you get a decent-sized back window, the rear pillars aren’t too thick and the Octavia has rear parking sensors fitted as standard, which are joined by front sensors on SE L models. A reversing camera is also optional. Any complaints at all? Well, the gearbox can be a teeny bit jerky at lower speeds.

On the motorway

If you’ll be doing lots of motorway miles then it's worth considering the 150hp diesel which has lots of shove when accelerating from 50-70mph and is very quiet once you settle into a cruise.

Generally speaking, all Octavias are relaxing cars to travel in. The Skoda doesn’t suffer from too much wind or road noise and all of the engines are quiet once you’re cruising.

Having said that, the Octavia isn’t quite as quiet as the Volkswagen Golf Estate that sits above it in the VW Group pecking order. The Volkswagen scores another hit because it comes as standard with adaptive cruise control, while the Skoda has to make do with basic cruise control.

On a twisty road

The Skoda Octavia delivers a vanilla driving experience in bends. There’s a little bit of lean, but it grips the road well and while the steering doesn’t give you any feedback, it’s direct and makes it easy to position the Octavia on the road. Enjoyable? No, but neither is it unpleasant. If you want a fun-to-drive family estate car, the Ford Focus Estate might be more your thing.

The Skoda Octavia has lots of adjustment in its driver’s seat and steering so you can yank the seat up if you’re small or stick it down low if you’re tall – even bigger drivers will have plenty of headroom. The front passenger seat also has height adjustment, plus both front seats also get lumbar support.

Electrically adjustable seats are an option on SE L models and they’re worth considering if you have trouble moving the seat yourself. They have a memory function that means it’s easy to return the seat to your driving position after someone else has used the car. Unfortunately, to get the electric seats, you also have to specify Skoda’s Blind Spot Detection system and the upgraded wing mirrors (which have kerb lights and automatically tilt when you’re reversing), making this a relatively pricey option.

Need heated seats? Then you’ll need to go for an SE L model or above or go for the Winter Pack which adds heated seats, a heated steering wheel, heated jet washers and a heated windscreen that clears fog in seconds.

In terms of interior storage, the Octavia has a decent-sized glove box, a small storage cubby under the front centre armrest and a couple of cup holders that can grip your drink so you can unscrew the lid one-handed. You also get a tray for your phone that’ll swallow big-screen models and has two USB-C plugs for charging, and four whopping great storage bins in every door, and there’s also a smaller storage space under the steering wheel

Even the back seat gets two cup holders moulded into the rear-centre armrest, a couple of USB-C plugs and pockets in the backs of the front seats for maps and a smartphone.

Space in the back seats

The space in the back of the Skoda Octavia makes you wonder if you need the larger Superb because you get plenty of knee room and there’s loads of room to put your feet under the front seat. You also get good headroom, even in cars with the panoramic sunroof.

Travelling three up? Then it’s not too bad. Okay, so there’s a hump in the floor but otherwise, the wide cabin does a good job of accommodating three pairs of hips.

How about with a baby? Well, the roomy cabin makes it easy to fit a child seat and you get ISOFIX points on the front passenger seat and the outer rear seats.

Boot space

There’s even more good news when you open the Octavia’s 640-litre boot – more than you get in the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus. The opening’s nice and wide and with the optional variable boot floor, there’s no lip to lift your luggage over. Other options include a hands-free boot lid that opens when you jiggle your foot under the Skoda’s rear bumper.

Any other handy features? Quite a few. You get sturdy shopping hooks, tie-down hooks for your luggage, a couple of smaller storage areas on either side and a ski hatch. The load cover is also well designed – it opens in two stages and can be stored under the boot floor.

Folding down the back seats is easy, you just yank a couple of levers and let gravity do its things, the seats fold into the floor and you're left with a massive 1,700-litre capacity. Once again, it’s worth considering the optional variable boot floor which gives you a nice, flat load bay.

While the outside of the Skoda Octavia looks very similar to the old model, the inside feels a lot more modern, with all cars getting a centre touchscreen and a digital dashboard

Interior quality is decent. You get chrome trim pieces and some models (SE L and above) have faux suede on the dashboard. Quality is generally good; you get soft-touch materials on the dashboard and doors, and a padded centre armrest. Most of the parts you touch are soft and wielding.

Any bad bits? Well, the door handles – one of the bits you’ll touch the most – are made from hard, cheap plastics, which seems like an oversight on Skoda’s part. The gear selector in automatic models is also a little bit wobbly.

Skoda recently revised the Octavia’s infotainment so that all models now come with a 10.0-inch centre screen that has clear graphics, is easy to navigate and responsive, although the display is a little bit dark – think ‘night’ mode on your phone and you’ll get the picture. It’s also annoying that the finer adjustments on the car ventilation system are buried in the infotainment system.

While we’re on the subject of phones, all Octavia’s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto fitted as standard so, chances are, you’ll just mirror your phone’s display on the car’s big screen.

Fancy some more screenage? Then SE L models and above come with a digital dashboard display that makes the car feel a little bit more modern and lets you choose between various displays.

The Skoda Octavia Estate gives you a choice of two petrol engines – a three-cylinder 1.0-litre with 110hp or a 150hp 1.5-litre four-cylinder, both coming with a six-speed manual gearbox. Or you can swap it for a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, which also adds e-TEC mild-hybridisation. It gives you a light boost in performance without harming fuel economy.

The manual 150hp petrol gets from 0-62mph in 8.4 seconds, can return fuel economy of more than 50mpg and produces CO2 emissions of between 121-125g/km so that road tax costs £190 in year one. The 110hp petrol is cheaper to buy, but only slightly cheaper to run and takes 10.8 seconds to get from 0-62mph.

Spend lots of time on the motorway? Then the 150hp 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel model will appeal thanks to having plenty of power and returning fuel economy of more than 60mpg. It gets from 0-62mph in 8.7 seconds and costs £190 to tax.

And the iV plug-in hybrid? It uses a 1.4-litre petrol engine backed up by an electric motor to produce 204hp combined for 0-62mph in 7.6 seconds. The hybrid returns fuel economy of 288mpg – a skewed number arrived at because it can drive up to 37 miles on electric power alone. It makes a lot of sense if you have a short commute and somewhere you can charge the car, and is by far the best option for minimising company car tax payments.

The Skoda Octavia scored five stars for safety when it was crash tested by Euro NCAP in 2019 courtesy of its multiple airbags and automatic emergency braking that can detect pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. SE L models can have Travel Assist fitted as an option that allows the Octavia to drive itself on the motorway and in queuing traffic, so long as you keep your hands on the steering wheel of course.

The Skoda Octavia – and Skoda in general – tends to score well in owner satisfaction surveys so you can expect it to be reliable, although it has been subject to recalls covering things like the engine cover coming loose to the E-Call safety system not working or the paint job missing primer. All can be fixed free of charge at a dealer. The Octavia comes with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty that can be extended up to five years or 100,000 miles.