In partnership with Auto Trader
Used Skoda Octavia vRS long-term test review: report 6
You get a lot of space and performance for your money with a used Skoda Octavia vRS. But is the car as impressive an all-rounder as it sounds? We're living with one to find out...
The car 2019 Skoda Octavia vRS 2.0 TSI 245 DSG Run by Mark Pearson, used cars editor
Why it’s here To find out if the high-performance version of the outgoing, immensely practical Octavia makes sense as a used purchase
Needs to Show its performance credentials against some mighty fine rivals, and cope with the daily grind of work and family life
Mileage 4660 List price new (2019) £28,765 Price new with options £32,775 Value now £21,400 Test economy 32.1mpg Official economy 37.7mpg
2 November 2020 – Easy on the gas, if you please, I'm listening to Wolfgang...
One of the options I’ve used most often in my Octavia is the Canton sound system, a £500 extra the original owner specified when the car was new. It strikes my tired old ears as a reasonably good setup, being sharp in relaying speech, although I'm not sure if it has the low-down oomph and all-round depth I like to deal with all of my rather eclectic musical tastes, which depending on the day can range anywhere from Mozart to My Chemical Romance.
A positive, though, is that despite its sporting pretensions the Octavia is a decently refined car most of the time, so at least you can hear most of what the system has to offer. Indeed the Octavia only really causes any aural offence if you let rip with the accelerator pedal in the car’s Sport mode, which brings its rather unmusical artificial sound generator into play.
On a more musical note, my teenage daughters appreciate the Apple CarPlay, and if it took me a long time to work out where the radio stations were all housed in the various sub-menus on the DAB radio I think the fault there probably lies with me and not with the system itself.
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