Skoda Octavia: 5000km Long Term Review: Getting dirty!

It was time to get the Octavia out of its comfort zone, and on to a farm in the woods. 

With many launches and drives turning our Google calendars into swathes of blue and red, the Octavia was sitting idle for some time. Then came the storm, in the form of a ZigWheels shoot that would take us off the tarmac and out towards the farmlands. The Octavia was to be a support vehicle with its big boot playing a vital role here. 

“How bad is the road?” I asked my colleagues before we set out. 
“We may have to park the Octavia and use the other support vehicles – the Kia Carens and Renault Triber – for the last few kilometres of the journey,” I was told. 

But first, we had the open highway between Pune and Satara to enjoy. This was to be my first proper stint with the Octavia outside the city. Before hitting the highway, the Octy was topped up with fuel and tyre pressures checked. Skoda could have made the recommended pressures available on the car computer or the manual, but they weren’t. The sticker isn’t on the usual spot – driver’s door sill. Instead, it’s on the inside of the fuel filler door. And the pressures, too, had gone down as it had been standing around for a while. 

Just like in the City, the Octavia was very much at home on the highway too. The engine’s versatility is very enjoyable. It cruises quietly and zips past traffic without breaking a sweat. The easily accessible torque makes the Octy a real all-rounder. The only dampener here is the soft suspension, which asks you to temper your enthusiasm as the Octy tends to bounce and roll a fair bit. This Skoda has clearly traded some of its driver focus for backseat comfort. 

Finally, as we got off the highway, the Octy was greeted by a deeply rutted mud incline. I carefully placed the wheels on the highest points and drove up. The incline being steep, I expected some wheel slip, but the ASR kept the going clean, and the Octy climbed up smoothly. The single-lane mud path was littered with trenches, ditches and ruts. Overgrown bushes swept onto the road and the centre also had grass growing on it. It was definitely more Kodiaq than Octavia territory. 

Over the next two days I made my way in and out of the shoot location repeatedly, in light and dark. Each time, my pace and comfort grew. The Octy went where the others did and without scraping its belly or losing its composure. Some careful driving, such as slowing down for the deeper trenches that lay across the road, or using the higher edge of the road made sure that the Octavia covered ground without a hassle. 

Fuel efficiency improved too, as the Octy stretches its legs: my colleague Ameya averaging 13kmpl on a brisk Pune-Mumbai-Pune run! However, on this shoot the fuel efficiency hovered in the 10s, as a lot of time was spent idling as we took shelter in it from the harsh sun at the shoot location, or as it crawled around for shoot purposes. The cooled glovebox was helpful as I kept a stash of snacks in there.

But on this journey, the Octavia faltered a couple of times. Annoyingly, the CarPlay started to act up. To be fair, it could be the phone too. But the infotainment system, too, froze a couple of times, which meant I had to stop, turn off the engine, lock the car and redo everything in a bid to reboot the system. Also, I found that the reversing camera feed is overridden by any other actions on the infotainment. Additionally, the auto-braking feature was activated even by some bushes. However, while the unexpected braking startled me at first, I won’t complain about the system being extra-careful. 

• Fuel efficiency 10.1kmpl
• Kilometres done till date: 7300km
• Kilometres when received: 2000km
• Date Received: 25th Feb 2022