The Auto-Only Skoda Octavia vRS Starts At £38,670

The Skoda Octavia vRS has long represented one of the best value for money performance cars, taking the basic recipe of the VW Golf GTI and putting it all in a package that’s more practical, more understated and often, quite a bit cheaper.

Most of that’s still true of the facelifted car, but some things are a little different. For a start, the diesel and plug-in hybrid versions of the vRS are no more, and so is its manual gearbox. Like the GTI, the vRS is now pure petrol and automatic only.

It shares its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder with the Golf, mirroring its German cousin with 261bhp and 272lb ft of torque. That means 0-62mph in 6.5 seconds for the liftback Hatch, with the Estate actually shaving a tenth off this figure (as if you needed any more reason to choose it). Mind you, that’s still half a second down on the Golf GTI.

It’s closer than ever to the Golf in terms of price, too. The Hatch starts at £38,670 – just £230 less than the entry point for a new GTI. The Estate, meanwhile, kicks off at £39,775.

Visual changes are, perhaps unsurprisingly, pretty minimal. However, there are refreshed Matrix LED headlights (optional on all but the top models) which include a thing called Crystallinium that gives the housings a blue tinge. There’s a tweaked grille up front too, and on the rear, new Skoda lettering that “reflects the brand’s revised corporate identity.” Phwoar. As usual with these midlife updates, there are a few new wheels and colour designs, and the Octavia continues to be offered as an estate or a sort of half-hatch, half-saloon liftback thing.

The big news in the interior is the arrival of a ChatGPT-powered AI assistant, integrated into Skoda’s ‘Laura’ voice assistant. A 10-inch digital display is standard, with the option to upgrade to a 13-inch unit.

There are more sustainable materials on the inside, including leather tanned with old coffee husks. Buyers can now choose between nine different trim-dependent interior ‘Design Selections’ (read: combinations of colour and upholstery) which have names like Loft, Lounge and Suite Cognac. Nice. Joyously, there’s also a line of actual, physical buttons for key functions, and that alone probably makes this a better car than the Golf.

Below the vRS, the new Octavia comes in three trim levels: SE Technology, SE L and SportLine. Currently, these come with a range of 1.5-litre four-cylinder TFSI petrols and a pair of 2.0-litre TDI diesels. One of these oil burners is a new 2.0-litre 148bhp setup, mated exclusively to a seven-speed DSG auto. Arriving next year is a 201bhp 2.0-litre petrol mated exclusively to a four-wheel drive system.

UK order books open for the new vRS as well as the vRS-lite SportLine trim on 14 August.