Skoda Reveals Updated Octavia Line

Skoda's Octavia line, which is a clone of the A5 chassis VW's (Golf/Jetta) is receiving a facelift for model year 2009. The current Octavia -which debuted in 2004 - has been quite a sales hit for the VW subsidiary brand in Europe. Now with an updated appearance, Sk

18 May 2015

Well, the front end has been completely redone with more shapely (and larger) headlights. New this year (available on the Octavia RS) are bi-xenon headlights with an adaptive cornerning function, a hand-me-down technology from Audi. The foglamps have adaptive cornering capabilities as well, and there are Audi-esque LED running lights now, too.

The Octavia RS is the high-performance model of the group, and comes with either VW's corporate 2.0L 16v DI Turbo I4 (seen in the GTI among others) or the 2.0L 16v TDI with 170bhp. Both engines come standard with the six-speed twin clutch DSG transmission. The RS gets a new grille, a lower chassis (127mm), and a new set of 18" alloy wheels to complement the stance. Impressive these days is the fact that Skoda has managed to drop 20kg off the petrol RS and 15kg off the diesel - I'm always happy to see some weight reduction.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Octavia Scout, Skoda's pseudo-offroader offering, receives updates as well. The Scout receives the new grille and fancy xenon headlights too, but goes down the "plastic contrasted cladding" route towards showing off it's off-roader prowess (chuckle.) New this year is the introduction of Haldex Generation IV all-wheel-drive to the Scout, which is capable of delivering up to 85% of torque output to one wheel on demand. The Scout can be had with either a 1.8L 16v DI Turbo I4 with 160bhp, or a 2.0L diesel with 140bhp; a six-speed manual is the only option.

Skoda's sold quite a few of the little buggers since they went on sale in 2000, and the latest facelift (and new technology) will only make things better for Skoda. Yet another brand I don't understand why we can't have here in the states...