2007 Skoda Octavia RS
March 20, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
Previously we mentioned that Volkswagen Australia are going to bring back the Skoda brand this year. However a new brand news a hero car for its reintroduction, and what better car than the Turbo charged Skoda Octavia RS.
The turbocharged Octavia RS will be the top of the range vehicle available from the Skoda range and it wll be officially launched at the Australian International Motor Show (in Sydney) in October.
Last 12 months have seen the introduction of DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge & reintroduction of Fiat and this year so far has seen Toyota’s new performance arm, Toyota Racing & Development (TRD).
Nonetheless, Volkswagen Australia believe that the Skoda brand will have to battle it out to become a success.
“Australia is a tough market for manufacturers – almost 50 brands are here – but customers are embracing new brands and we think we probably have a chance. Price level is tough and Skoda is basically selling everything they produce at the moment, so there was a tough discussion going on between headquarters and any potential importer about whether it makes sense or not”. said Volkswagen Australia managing director Jutta Dierks
Volkswagen Australia hope to be selling about 10,000 Skoda’s per year by the end of the decade. One of the rather odd facts about the “new” Octavia RS is that.. it really isn’t new!
The current shape has been on sale in Europe since 2004 and for Volkswagen to have a 3 year old car as their halo car for Skoda’s launch in Australia, its a risky gamble.
The Australian version of the second-generation Octavia will measure 4572mm long, 1769mm wide and 1462mm high. The turbocharged RS version will be available in both Sedan and Wagon bodystyles. The Octavia RS is powered by the same engine found in the Volkswagen Golf GTi, the 147kW TFSI turbocharged petrol four-cylinder.
Print it: 
Saw this car on 5th Gear last night, same running gear the the Golf GTi. Basically just uglier than the VW, even though this one tends to get a bit of oversteer through the front rather than the odd bit of understeer through the front wheels of the Golf.
The Oct. would be the more practical choice, it has the bigger boot and would most likely be cheaper
and slower ;)
and made out of cheap plastic bits
is the quality a lot worse?
Probably not actually
I have no basis in saying that, except that its easter European and thats usually not the best thing :D
I would however say that the Golf is a better car than this
Yeh the GTi would be much better
I own a Bora V5, and rented an Octavia for 4000 kms. Loved it. Great quality and went like a shell (with the diesel)
I definitely prefer the Skoda, even though not pretty.
Yes Definitely not pretty
would be very interesting to see how well Skoda do once they return
yeah,
especially with the Roomster
Looks very very dated, I’d be spending a few more dollars to get the Golf GTI. Not to mention the resale of the Oct is probably fatal!
I love the fact that Fiat, and now Skoda are returning to Australia.
Though what I dislike is that these “Euro” cars that comes here are marketed as “Luxury” cars… usually depicted by their premium price. The part I dislike is that most of these European cars are sort of average mum and dad cars in the UK and Europe. They arrive to our Aussie shores and are automatically high ticket items put in the luxury basket.
Either way. I still love that we’re getting all these cars that I only ever watched on Top Gear and 5th Gear.
Cheers
pip
It will be real interesting to see these cars in the flesh. I recall looking at the Jetta FSiT on the net 6 months before it was launched here and thought it was a glorified spin off of the Accord. Once i saw it in the flesh i could see nothing was further from the truth.
Also you need to keep in mind that VW (gemany that is) dont do anything in half measures, they would be mindful of a potential negative impact on the VW side here if anything was to go wrong with Skoda e.g. poor sales, poor resale etc.
They have taken the last 4 years from the Touareg launch to get a some what positive image in peoples mind, they wouldnt want to unravel that now!!
In theory its the Audi/VW comaprison. Same technology and engineering, just dont pay for the fitout. If you could afford an audi why would you buy a VW, and if you could afford a VW why would you buy a skoda?
Hopefully it opens the market up to a new audience who will one day then step the brand to VW, then Audi etc etc
I wish them luck!!
Thats a very good point Chris,
I do hope VW do well with Skoda,
the more brands in the Australian car market, the better it is for consumers.
However as far as the
Skoda -> VW -> Audi
thing goes, I think its dangerous to try and undermine VW as the “budget” brand for Audi buyers, as it may simply take buyers away from VW as oppose to gain new buyers?
Well it’s nice to see an alternative, and perhaps with that an alternative line of thinking, to big capacity V6/8s that can realistically do what, burn more fuel quicker to get to a pathetic speed limit. Living in Europe and driving a Skoda like the one soon to be released in Australia, and living in Australia previously and driving many ‘home grown’ plastic things, these feel a lot safer sitting at 150k’s and as far as build finish is concerned put to shame largely what is on offer. Europeans drive them so much here because they know its quality German engineering, manufactured in Czech- as in built to last yet represent great value for money. I suggest before forming opinions, drive one.
I am from Ireland, and am now an “expat” in NSW… and I owned an Octavia 1.9 TDI back home.
The only thing I regret is that I had to sell it on, since bringing it into this country was simply too expensive. You just cannot break it… it never ever left me alone – and my working way in Ireland was 200km daily, combined with trips to Germany up to three times a year…. 5,000km each. The only time I had it in the garage was for service (which is not what I can say about my nice “Australian” tin foil).
The Skoda, and especially the Octavia is a great car, and in essence, it’s a VW Passat.
So, wait for October, I know I will… (and then I will sell my cheap, tin foil Korean box).
Oh, I drove the Diesel option. I filled her in Dublin, and 830 miles later, at the Dutch/German border, she went to the red “fill me now” light. I still took her 80 klicks into Germany… before I filled her. Try that with a Golf GTI… and petrol.
But, ok, I admit, I am biased…
enjoy,
labhras
If you read the motoring mag’s from Europe Skoda are producing great cars but they still have the legacy of its past. I reckon the big problem here will be depreciation. Pick up a good secondhand example with few K’s at half the price and you might be on a winner. VW Australia have said they will support Skoda for the long term because of its reputation which I think they will.
The Skodas will fill a yawning hole in the VW range currently available in Australia – the station wagon. At present if you want a VW wagon, your only option is the Passat with little change from $50,000; and too bad if you prefer driving a manual.
There are Golf and Jetta wagons available overseas – anyone know when we might see them here?
In Australia, I am driving the 1.8l Audi Quatro Turbo Wagon, and I love it( room in the back seat only for 2 smal dogs, sorry to say)
We were driving the 1.9 l Skoda Octavia in Europe last year, 4 people, boot full of luggage and we were very impresed with it.
It used about 6 litres of diesel per 100 km, beat that. Huge boot, car very comfortable, we are looking forward to it’s launch in Australia.See how much it cost here. It is not as ugly as some of you suggest, but the Skoda Superb will be much better, hopefully it will come here soon.
There is probably no comparison of the Audi with the Skoda, although I am sure it is only the names and brands in peoples mind, because basically it is the same family, different kids.
The Skoda is surely not a car for a hot car head, but even if you have money, why not buy a car that is superb to drive and goes for ever on a little diesel?
You can even impress your girlfriend by being different.
By the way,Alborz said Eastern European thing is usually not the best, he must be an expert on Eastern Europe.
Europe was always western, middle and eastern and last time we looked, Czech republic was middle european and with a long, long industrial tradition on top of it. Good idea to read some books, before you judge
I really hope this car does well, I’m confident. I think the VRS on 18 inch wheels looks brilliant, especially in white.
Full credit to VW, but am I the only one here bored of the Golf? Even the Gti does nothing for me anymore because there’s just so many of them. I’ve driven my dad’s ‘06 Audi A4 2.0TFSI Quattro and the engine is brilliant (same engine as the Golf Gti).
I’m still quite young and i can’t yet afford an Audi and I really can’t see myself driving the German Toyota Corolla that is the VW Golf. But if Skoda can release a good quality, well priced car with the same great engines (VRS variant = 2.0TFSI), I think i’d be very tempted.
Andrew
These cars are the official police cars of Croatia. They have been provven to be very reliable and easy to maintain.
I was going to add something more to admire Skoda Octavia and explain bit more about products made in the Czech Republic, but when I came down to the end, I can see that Wendy and Labhras already said everything. Thank you Wendy, thank you Labhras.
As you might not know Alborz, the Czech Republic was on the top of list of European countries together with Switzerland until 1938. Unfortunately because of 1939 ( when Nazis came) and because of subsequent changes in 1948 the whole country +industry was “pulled up”. (that time called Czechoslovakia obviously) Still the Czechs are known of being able to do more with less and they tried produce everything in their country. See the quality of life in the rest of “Soviet Union Satelites”. Since changes in 1990 the Czech Republic is slowly but surely coming back. E.g. Czech employees used to go for educational training to Germany. But now the educational trainings are held in the CR and tooling is produced in the CR ( I mean incl CAD design, not only casting and assembling).
Hope you at least like the Czech beer Alborz :-)
I was in Europe on holidays in 2005. We started in Greece, Italy and then went through most Western Europe. Seen many Skoda cars and drivers that said they were happy to drive them, when I asked them. For example taxi drivers in Greece and Italy drive plenty of them! My personal experience driving one in Greece was great and unlike in a Mercedes we could actually fit all our luggage in our Skoda Fabia.
In France Skoda has been used as a service vehicle in “Tour de France”.
Of cause Skoda is not your typical Aussie V6/V8 fuel guzzler, but good value for money quality car that in some aspects outperforms “flashier” competition brands.
PS:I heard Skoda Superb comes with V6 engine too.
2008 model
skoda octavia 1.6 cc
ned baric and caler
Alborz with regards to your comment, Wendy and Jan have said it well…
And strictly speaking Czech republic is not in the eastern Europe, just draw a line in the geographical center of Europe and you will see. It’s only referred to as eastern Europe cause during the Cold war it was under the Iron curtain therefore under Russia communist control…
But with regards to culture and history its considered a part of central Europe (which is the European engineering hotpot)
Also And considering Czechs had the world’s 2nd car in the world after Daimler. Also The Czech engineer Ferdinand porsche designed the famous rear engine that have been used in the Porsche’s and WV’s, as well as tatra’s.
Also the Czech have always been far more industrial nation then the primarily agricultural Australia, so they have had far more engineering experience, and many more their own unique brands(How many of it’s own unique brands has australia got)!
Only after ww2, and the communist control of czech autombile industry, everything degraded….
It’s fairly bad considering before the war, SKODA use to make expensive sport cars, and limousines, as well other machines such as tanks.. etc… and now it’s being cheaply pimped off by VW (Volks wagen = People/public wagon) which was Hitlers idea for a econo car…
Thanks for your comment Tomas, having seen the Skoda Octavia and after our first steer, I can safely say, i was mistaken, it is a worthy car!
u guys have no idea/ Skoda is one of the best cars in germany.and that means something.i reckon its better then bmw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
the engine is VW so its gonna be cheap to do service in au.
I have to agree with you guys (Tomas and Jan, Wendy etc…) Skoda is one of the fastest growing car producer in the world, and that is for many reasons. Skoda really trying hard to keep their catchword “simply clever” cars, there are many clever and simple gadgets, quality is on the top level i think, especialy in octavia, and with the cheap plastics is not as bad as someone wrote above (maybe it looks a tiny bit cheaper than in the Golf, but the diference is insignificant), my parents has got octavia wagon 1.9 TDI 77kw manual and they can´t even say nothing negative.. For that price it´s really good deal.. Try to book test drive, i think you´ll be surprised…
after centuries of being a hotbed of industrial and creative prowess, it was indeed sad when the czech republic (aka bohemia, and as a part of czechoslovakia) was pulverised by the communist fist. now, finally, they are really re-emerging.
i spent some time in hungary and czech two years ago and had a chance to admire these pretty cars and hear first hand about what a reliable and practical vehicle they are, not to mention a quite capable driver’s car if one is so inclined. they are not an audi, and don’t pretend to be so, but if an audi is not what you need or can afford, then what is wrong with one of these…
and just wait ’til you drive the octavia RS, a golf gti with a bit of performance compromised for a bit of practicality. depends what you’re after really.
it really is about time australians got over their size obsession and either stopped buying gas guzzling saloons and off-roaders (that never off-road) and demand their manufacturers produce a better choice.
Have just ordered a Octavia 4×4 2.o l diesel Elegance wagon 6 sp manual,,it is the perfect car,super practical,ecomical and a great drive,it runs rings around Suburus,my god they are gas guzzlers and nothing touches ir for the price.At moment have desel golf,great little car but every where,/w\Was going to buy a new Diesel GT but the skoda is unique.
Rob
I bought a vRS Wagon in Dec 07, what a machine.. build quality and interior is better quality than the respective GTI golf. And well the Wagon carries more than anything of its size in the market place. Simply an amazing wagon. Nearly 5000klms on mine now and its shear cleverness shows though daily with its abilities. As Skoda say in their adds.. simply clever, which it is.
Took Delivery of my Race Blue RS Combi 4 weeks ago, and every moment since then I just could not wait to drive it! I had a Golf V FSI, and this thing beats it in everything from quality, space, functionality and looks surprisingly enough. I turn a lot of heads everywhere. I highly recommend it. I can now even get to 100km in second gear! Wow.