Goodwood Test: 2021 Skoda Octavia vRS Review

If you’re relatively young and a fan of hot hatchbacks then we should let you know that there’s every chance there will come a time in your life where you no longer want the hardest, most aggressive car you can buy. Instead you might prefer one with softer edges, a little more comfort but still decent poke. Equally, you might be in need of a ‘sensible’ car but unwilling to give up on life with an MPV just yet. It is at times like these that the Skoda Octavia vRS might make sense.

Since 2001 the Octavia vRS has served up a performance alternative. None has had quite the same level of power or focus as something like a Focus ST or Golf GTI, but drive one and you’d discover they were more spacious and practical, but still had enough performance to keep you entertained driving to work or taking the dog out. Now we’re at the fourth generation Octavia vRS. The promise? More of the same: a warm rather than feisty temperament, with all of the benefits a fresh platform brings.

It would be all too easy to walk past an Octavia vRS and fail to realise it was a hot hatch at all, so small are the design tweaks that set it apart from the regular family runaround. But that’s part of the appeal – more performance but nothing too shouty in the looks department. There are 19-inch alloy wheels, chrome exhaust tips, red brake calipers, a black gloss grille, window surrounds, door mirrors and badging, a few vRS badges and tinted rear windows. There’s also a new front bumper, which moves the fog lights up and splits the bumper into three distinct sections, a new rear bumper with black gloss inserts, the most discreet of rear spoilers, and the car sits 15mm lower than standard Octavias. It’s a very smart car. The only irritations are a mis-match between the nice, strong lines running from the rear lights forward across the car’s hips to the forward most part of the front door, where you’d expect it to meet the shut line of the bonnet but instead the two fail to touch by about an inch, and the fake exhaust surrounds (there are pipes on just one side). Having said that, because Skoda isn’t afraid of a splash of colour you can have a vRS in the usual grey, white or black or a very fetching blue or bright red.

The new vRS can be had in a number of flavours. While the 2001 vRS launch with a 180PS (139kW) diesel this generation can be bought with a 245PS petrol, a 245PS petrol hybrid or a 200PS diesel. Depending on which powertrain tickles your fancy you can have a six-speed manual or a seven-speed double-clutch, front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive, and then you’ll need to consider whether you’ll go for the estate or the saloon… We went for the all-wheel-drive diesel saloon which only comes with the DSG ‘box.

Does a performance diesel work? In theory it does, because you might be down on power compared to the petrol machines but you’re equal to the petrol car on torque and ahead of the hybrid. The fuel efficiency of a diesel is appealing, too. In practice, however, the diesel vRS isn’t perfect. The engine is smooth and it really does sip fuel (in a day’s filming the fuel gauge dropped by less than a quarter, an Oscar-winning performance frankly), but you can’t plant your foot to the floor without the gearbox kicking down a few cogs. That in turn means you never feel the satisfying, invisible diesel surge you’d experience in a diesel manual with the ‘box kept in fifth. However, when the gearbox does drop down there’s a strong turn of pace: 0-62mph is over in 6.8 seconds, just 0.1 seconds slower than petrol vRS (admittedly without all-wheel-drive – the front-wheel-drive diesel vRS manages the same sprint in 7.4 seconds) and the top speed is 147mph.

Hurry the vRS and the gearbox is quick and smooth, and with the pace dialled back it’s pleasantly unnoticeable. Use the paddles and the response, if you’re pushing, is quick, slowing down and you reduce your pressure on the throttle pedal.

The chassis is fantastic, with a pleasant, well-judged ride and good body and wheel control; passive dampers come as standard but electronically controlled dampers are optional. The all-wheel-drive system is seemingly unflustered in any situation, and unlike some of its Volkswagen Group compatriots the system manages to find grip without feeling like it’s clawing at the road searching for it. The brakes are decent, too, as is the steering, which can be tweaked with a selection of drive modes that also adjust the throttle response, engine noise and electronic dampers, if you have them. There are four modes, namely Eco, Normal, Sport and Individual. Eco is very, very relaxed, Normal is a nice middle-ground, while Sport is the most enjoyable, although Individual does have its benefits, which we shall come to.

Let us take a moment, though, to circle back to something I mentioned only in passing before: engine noise. In Normal mode there’s a hint of synthesised engine noise and in Sport you have a virtual orchestra, while in Eco there’s the sound of the actual engine itself. It isn’t a bad noise per se, and it certainly adds some theatre, but it really isn’t my cup of tea. Mercifully Individual mode allows you to create your own set-up for the car, so you can have everything as sporty as it can be but turn the fake noise off.

Open the door, climb inside and there’s plenty of VW dotted around but not so much you’d wonder if you’d sat in the wrong car. The seats look great and are sporty and supportive, while there’s Alcantara across the dash and doors, with red stitching in places too. The faux carbon-fibre isn’t as offensive as you might imagine, and the door handles, while this might sound odd, are a really lovely shape. Gripes? The paddles behind the wheel felt as though they were a little small or the wheel a little large, enough that they don’t fall perfectly to your fingertips, and while there are some great physical buttons below the central dash-mounted screen to access the drive mode options or climate control, the home button on the screen itself is on the left-hand side and therefore a bit of a stretch. But I’m nit-picking, really.

The vRS sits atop the Octavia range, and as such comes with plenty of goodies. You get a 10.25-inch virtual cockpit, a 10-inch central touchscreen with sat-nav, wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a DAB radio. Then there are heated mirrors, heated seats, a heated wheel so hot it could toast marshmallows, keyless entry, an electronically operated boot, parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and LED lights front and rear. As for options, wireless charging will set you back £335, while the rear window wiper we enjoyed is a no-cost option. Lovely.

The diesel vRS is a really good drive. Competent always, it proves you don’t have to wave goodbye to a decent daily driver when your needs change. It just misses out when it comes to sparkle. It doesn’t feel like enough of a performance machine in some ways, merely a very good family saloon. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, I’m just left wondering what Skoda’s engineers could do if they were given a little more room to manoeuvre, to push the vRS a little further.