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

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. 😀

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

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.

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. 👍🏼😎

Comprehensive review, thank you...

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!

Congrats on the little one

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.

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.

As a dad, I love my Octavia Vagon!

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.

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.

Can you override the wireless apple carplay by plugging it in? Is that an option?

Just a heads up about the problems with this car from this old review Škoda aka vw has fixed all these gremlins with lots of new updates and my friends RS is amazing now and I drove this and is a bullet and hands down the best fast wagon around. Ps I don’t care about he fake engine sound it’s a ball and feels like a PlayStation game 🎉😮

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.

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.

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.

Great video and insight. Why don’t you just use the a wired connection for the apple carplay? Maybe worth it at this point. Wireless carplay or andoidauto connections are prone to disconnect; not worth it at the time

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

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

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

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.

If I had the money it would be on my list of what to update my current 21 year old vehicle. Mainly as it is a wagon it has the practical space that I would like. With the Wireless Apple Car Play, did you try using a wired connection through USB, because surely that’s possible.

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.

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!

Thanks Matt, great review. Shame about the tech gremlins and think for the coin, I'd probably look at a low k Skoda Superb Scout instead.... And buy a hot hatch for the weekend drives!

Good review Matt. Interested in what wagon you would recommend with the dogs and a new born. Just purchased a 2017 Santa fe but the i40 wagon will need replacing in the next couple of years.

Enjoyed the video thanks. Efficiency? You have an airbrake on top of the car! Best buy something with enough space as step 1. Such boxes should be reserved for occasional use. If you want reliability best not buy a first gen car, wait for the facelift version at least or better buy last of the old range at low price when new comes out.

We've had ours for 10 months now. Had non stop problems with the emergency autonomous braking and lane assist. which is a shame because it is a rather pleasant car to drive when its actually working. we've been back and forth from the dealership with attempted fixes and nothing concrete yet.They originally tried to dismiss the issue claiming i was probably just using cruise control and it was braking to keep a safe distance. but i had it all on the dash cam and it was collision detections going off to the point that the car skids so yea. Also have been having random infotainment shutdowns and restarts using android auto, usually when its hot so im wondering if its a heat issue with carplay or android auto. I'm hoping they get it sorted cos i really like the car, but on narrow streets going round corners it just slams the brakes on for no reason.

I have the Scala and the software can be very frustrating too

This or the i30n sedan?

I think the road noise at highway speeds would be more of a deal-breaker for an all round family car than wireless Apple carplay... Having driven a GT Mustang for a few days and discovered the wind/road noise made it impossible to enjoy music or conversation, I understand what a giant arse-pain it can be!

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.

u in Australia ?

The car seat you have does look abnormally large. You have a big handle about 5 inches in front of the seat. Looks fine if you use another seat

Skoda Octavia used to be a great alternative to the car that VW/Audi failed to deliver; a practical & relatively zippy sports wagon that a family man who still enjoys driving with the three pedals, can get a lot of enjoyment from & still have enough room for the family. It’s just a pity that the majority of Australians have become fat lazy Americans over the last decade, & prefer the comfort & ease of an auto to the infinitely more engaging driving experience of a manual to a point where Skoda no longer offers the manual version of this “drivers” version of their Octavia VRS wagon. Looks like I’ll continue to buy the previous manual VRS versions which Skoda also bothered to fit an LSD.

Good car and was looking to buy one, however $60k it’s a little unrealistic compared to other brands

My experience of wireless CarPlay on a 2019 Passat wagon hasn’t been smooth either. I’m not convinced that it’s a Skoda or even VW group problem, but just a tech issue. It’s a lot of data to port over Bluetooth and the chips used by the car industry are never the best nor that well integrated. All that being said, I always keep a lightning to usb c cable in the car for this very reason. Although I’ve also solved it by turning off the car, getting out, locking and then starting it all over again!

Nice review Matt. A taller SUV would address the bendy back issues for both nappy changes and the loading and unloading of the infant. The RS costs low to mid-60s in my area, on road, fully specced. For that coin, there are plenty of roomier vehicles that would be a better fit. I’d personally go something like the Forester (thanks Chuck) which may not be as spacious as the Octavia but is more practical and liveable. But if you are keen on a wagon, how about the Subaru Outback?

That baby seat looks like a death trap. Have you guys never heard of Isofix?

Currently have a Karoq Sportline and love it. Yes my camera has played the drop out game. Twice in nearly a year, however I accept each car will have its own "uniqness" about it. No car will ever be perfect and tech will always throw a wobbly sometimes.

this is not a mid-year review but just a presentation😂😂😂😂

Everyone goes on about wireless when wired is always better. That's why gamers play wired over wireless.

If they only would give 4x4 option with tsi

Tesla model 3 would be fun too

CLIMA is climate in german

Ultimate dad car is the Kia carnival!!!

Vrs. It's vrs why do some places call it RS

You could say thats AUD, not USD

Have you tried android auto? Is it better then CarPlay? Most of the people in the world have androids. Also, your child seat looks very cumbersome. The car is much cheaper here in Europe. You should have opted for 2.0 diesel with 200 HP.

Sorry but the dogs are going in the boot

basically the infotainment problems carry over from golf, Skoda did not fixed them it’s simply not clever.

A new or used Superb 272 4x4 sport line would be my choice

Can you imagine a Toyota with i fotainment and electronics bugs? Or bad insulation? LoL Man I love my new corolla hybrid 😂

Hold on........ there wasn't enough space for a six month old and two dogs!??? Both of which are a small breed as seen in the video!!! Seriously!!!🤣 Plus, you're criticizing the boot because its not set up for changing babies nappies!! 🤦‍♂

What a shame it's not an EV.

Good car but be real. Very expensive.

I'd rather buy a Passat

Not your best review.

*If you would of pulled out.....you wouldn't be having this problem!!!!*

ok car but borring as hell, sound isolation is horrible and worst of all: it's a SKODA!

VW group junk, buy a BMW X3 instead