2022 Skoda Octavia RS review: Long-term family test in the Czech sports wagon

00:00 Intro
01:03 Practicality
08:45 Pricing and features
09:57 Under the bonnet
10:37 Driving
14:49 Efficiency
15:41 Safety
16:14 Ownership
17:38 Verdict

Are you the sort of person who thinks the Skoda Octavia RS wagon is the best car ever made? Matt Campbell was hovering in that mindset, but he's just spent six months with the car, living with it on a daily basis, driving it with his partner and newborn child, doing the dull drudgery stuff and the very odd longer trip... and you might be surprised at his verdict about this car at the end of that long-term loan.

The recipe seems good: the Octavia RS has a 2.0L turbo petrol four-cyl engine with 180kW and 370Nm, it has adjustable suspension dampers, this car has a leather and suede interior, and Matt even had a handy luggage pod on the roof racks for extra storage if it was needed.

So what went wrong? So many tech gremlins that the car had to be taken away to a Skoda Service Centre in Sydney. And even after that, it still wasn't perfect, which for a $60,000 car just isn't good enough.

A shame, really - because there are so, so many really positive points about the Skoda vRS Octavia. Watch the video and see what Matt had to say about the experience.

CarsGuide - Go beyond the test drive

#CarsGuide #Skoda #Octavia #SkodaOctavia #OctaviaRS #RSwagon #family #familycars #familyreview #newcars #wagon

[andrewd]

I bought the Skoda Superb 206kw Sportline wagon in 2017. I wanted to go for the Octavia RS wagon but with 2 near adult children at the time, I went with the Superb. Absolutely no regrets at all! The ONLY issue I have had & OCCASIONALLY still have is the blanking of the reverse camera too! It’s been addressed several times, works perfectly for months, then the glitch! Yes it is annoying obviously, but only seems to do it on first start up in the mornings. Anyway Matt good & honest review. 👍🏼😎

[tonmanify]

Thanks for a great review, helped me make the decision to buy mine - had it for three weeks now and done over a thousand km per week with a few longer trips. I had the same disconnections from CarPlay that you had when the phone was on the charge pad. My phone was getting quite hot and fully shut down at one stage on a long trip as it had become too hot to keep operating. I removed the phone case and just used the bare phone and (so far) the issues seem to have gone away. So there's my tip for phone connectivity - get rid of the phone case, let's the heat in the phone from induction charging dissipate and it stays connected. 😀

[jamesdunn]

Great review! Many thanks. I have owned an Octavia vRS for 12 months here in the UK so I thought I would share some of my comments.
1. Mode selection. My favourite mode is the "Individual" mode. However, it's a pain to have to set this for each and every journey. Skoda should enable the driver's preferred mode to be set as the default.
2. The SatNav. Whilst this is fine for providing routes and then guiding to the selected destination, the following features have never worked: "Last Destinations" does not work so it has remained empty. "Favourites" cannot be programmed to retain any selected destinations so it has also remained empty. When selecting a destination, this is always shown as "Off-road" and, instead of a postal address, is identified with longitude and latitude coordinates - this is useless information when navigating to a postal address. All my dealer had to say when I reported these problems was that I should wait for a software update and keep ringing into them to check if such an update had been issued. Cold comfort indeed!
3. The map display does not display the current speed limit - that's a pity.
4. There's no 12v socket in the front console. So any 12v device such as a re-chargeable torch has to plugged into the only available socket, which is located in the boot. This is inconvenient.
5. There's no free torch provided, unlike my previous Octavia. Likewise, a set of storage nets was not provided.
6. On the positive side, the adaptive cruise control is excellent and far in advance of the cruise control on my previous Octavia. It's only drawback is that it has some difficulty adapting to 3 lane motorway traffic and will often slow down when approaching a vehicle in an adjacent lane. Again on the positive side the boot has a huge amount of space and that 2 litre petrol engine has an effortless turn of speed when acceleration is required. And the red brake shoes look really cool.
But all in all, when my PCP ends in 3 years time and the car is returned to the dealer, I think I'll be looking at the competition for a replacement vehicle.

[lepiakadodo]

One of the best review, cause you got equipment that I want as well (rear windows rollo, 3 zones climate). Also you pay attention to that all small details, that makes Skoda Octavia a great car to buy. Thanks mate

[semyon]

Thank you for a very honest review. Refreshing to see.

[mdiciaccio]

Ive got a 2019 build model and think i am happy that i dont have the latest iteration. There are more knobs and physical controls, the software is simpler and glitch free, and the front seats are less bulky. I have 2 kids - one forward facing and one rear facing seat. I found that a lot of space was freed up by putting the rear facing seat in the the middle. This also allows an adult to sit in the back as well.

[murrieteacher]

Thanks Matt, a good review including the problems with the car. My Octavia Wagon is 10 years old and the same shape as the current model. It has the 1.8 engine and is a very quick car with the DZG ( 3rd upgrade) and excels at traffic light Grand Prix. We have seen 5lt/100klm consumption. But sadly the car suffers from the using too much oil problem. 1Lt/1000klm. As far as aftersales service support it was just adequate. My next car will be a Hyundai with better after sale support. All the tech still works, and after a SAAB V6 900 that is a revaluation. The trim is starting to fall off the door cards. I use the Octavia as a support vehicle for my racecar and it takes 4 wheels with race rubber, trolly jack, 3x6 metre tent, ground sheet, two folding chairs with extensions, esky and other stuff with the back seats down. The car is a reasonable handling wagon and I have seen all the warning lights on flashing when I have stuffed it into some corners and out the other side. While the car is not an exceptional handling car, there are no nasty surprises and is very predictable. But $60K is a big ask and when combined with after sales service that needs you being pushy is a deal breaker.

[Naeromusic]

After owning an Octavia, both mk1 and mk2 and absolutely loving the mk2, I decided to try the superb and my god! It's got so much room, I actually went for the iV, the sheer leg room in the back is just so good.

[maharajanramanathan]

Great review Matt, now I understand that the problems I face in this car is same for all. Although some are fixed like the blanking of screen, the wireless system getting disconnected has popped recently, need to get that sorted. I went ahead in search of a replacement, although it's only 6 months old, just because we have a new born and the space is not enough for us to fit an adult and 2 child seats. But the competition is way behind with respect to tech, for example wireless connectivity, it's simply not there in most of the cars.

[StephenFogarty]

Great review Matt
Very thorough
Unfortunately all of the software and tech gremlins are common with the new Octavia.
Dealership software upgrades help, but I’d expect that within another 6 months, Skoda will have resolved these issues.
It’s a great looking vehicle
At over $ 60 k on road with
Premium Pack & Pan Roof, it is pricey.
Hopefully the semi conductor shortage problems will be over by late 2022
Once the industry is getting good supply, both manufacturers and dealers will then go back to offering discounts and deals on pricing etc
A fully loaded RS wagon at
$ 59, 990.00 Drive Away is a lot more appealing.
If u need more space because of big child seats for babies, I’d look at the bigger VW Passat wagon or Skoda Superb wagon.

[Venakis]

Great review Matt! I live in Crete and I bought last year the octavia sedan 1, 5 150hp petrol engine manual transmission for 24k €. I'm a new dad and I find this car to be great for daily transportation and even better for road trips. I'd love the vrs but even if I could buy it, it's a waste of engine if you ask me! Our roads in the island of Crete are terrible and the speed limit is 80km at the highways. Most of the time when I have a tech issue I turn off the engine and I restart it and it goes away. Same goes for the reverse camera issue which was very rare tbh. As you said I love the fact that you can disable the lane assist in just a second and my biggest complaint is the fact that there is no seperate console for the air condition control and you have to use the screen. I'd prefer the console like in Skodas SUVs. All in all its a great car for its price and I enjoy it very much!

[adamhwsn]

I bought my Octavia RS two months ago and haven't had any issues with the infotainment system yet. It all works pretty seamlessly using Android auto with a Galaxy Note 10+. I'm guessing mine had the software updates done to it before I got it. My partner and I are very happy with it. Overtaking on the highway is suddenly allot of fun.

[chrisags]

"Drive like a Ning Nong!" Classic! Hahaha. Only regret I have with my Skoda Octavia RS is selling it. =(

[dimsoneill]

Tech gremlins, affordability, stock shortages, lack of proper shifter and handbrake are all the reasons I brought a very low kms Ver 3.5 Octavia RS wagon over the new Ver 4. Tech works perfectly, same engine and drivetrain, just a brilliant practical sporty wagon. Do like the facelift lights over my spider eyes though!

[zaamuro]

A reason to consider an SUV instead of this is a nappy change? Seriously Matt, I wish more people would spruce that wagons are generally better for 90% of use case of people and actually benefit from the last 10 years of car development.

[richardxraj]

CarPlay is the most important item for exploring new areas and high traffic zones. Hopefully Škoda fixes the issues

[johngibson]

Good review.Of particular interest to me are the comments about road noise. I hate that in a car, past experience with Mazda has made me try and avoid it. I've not been aware of it in Skoda however, my nine years over two vehicles of ownership not registering it as an issue. And I don't recall it made in other Octavia tests.

just a thought - could that pod on your loan car roof be affecting the vehicle dynamics, and road noise. It would be interesting if you did some runs without the pod to ascertain any difference.

[bellrobert]

I think it's the perfect dad car. I have the previous model.

[aaaaplay]

I don't know why Skoda Australia doesn't make the false floor an option or standard as it is overseas on models like the Octavia, Kamiq and Scala. I noticed that the Octavia has also lost the removable torch like my Kamiq. Instead Australian market cars get a blanked off plate.

[jasonkaroq]

Great and honest review. I genuinely was going to buy VRS estate. Not too sure now. Presently driving 2.0 tsi karoq. That has some technical issues, although not a bad as yours. Vw tech not brilliant. That red paint looks awesome.