How do you make a 10 per cent return selling mass-market cars? One way is to create and then continue to dominate a segment. Plus it helps if every rival ignores that same segment.
Bigger than C segment cars, smaller than D models
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In Europe’s D segment, the Octavia leads all comers, with sales of 174,362 over the last nine months.
The Octavia is a model which is mis-classified by many in the industry. This isn’t helped by Škoda itself being cautious not to define it as a large vehicle. Why not? Best not to openly challenge the Passat.
In the D segment, the closest to where it should fit, the Octavia (hatch/estate: 4,670/4,687mm long) leads all comers, with Europe-wide Q1-Q3 sales of 174,362 according to JATO data. Even if both bodies are shorter than the next two most successful models in this size category, the Mercedes C-Class (141,523) and Passat (137,619) are far behind, and both are falling.
The latest style Octavia, the mid-life facelift, entered production at Mlada Boleslav in February and Skoda will likely continue building this shape model until the next generation appears in 2020.
Sales and profits surge
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By GlobalDataŠkoda Auto’s deliveries for the first three quarters of 2017 surged to 700,000 vehicles from 606,000 in the equivalent prior nine-month period*. The Kodiaq played a part in boosting unit sales and lifting transaction prices but other models such as the best selling Octavia were strong too. Operating profit improved by 28.3 per cent to EUR1.2bn and return on sales rose to 9.8 per cent from an already impressive 9.3 per cent in the prior period of CY2016. Who says there is little money in non-luxury brands?
The fastest Octavia yet
Now, emboldened by its customers seeing that the brand is leaving the value-is-all segments to others, Škoda is cautiously adding ever more expensive niche variants, such as the Octavia RS 245. Known as the vRS 245 in Britain, it costs from GBP27,595 although it’s easy enough to lift this beyond thirty thousand by adding gear such as ACC, a Canton sound system, metallic paint, dynamic chassis control and so on. Dynamic what? Yes indeed, people will now pay GBP850 for firmer springing on a Škoda family car. Which charges to 62mph in only 6.4 seconds.
An aside on that name. Apparently Ford of Britain owns the rights to RS so Škoda had to long ago modify it to vRS when it launched the first sporty Octavia. Driving the vRS 245 recently, it suddenly hit me what that symbol really is. Surely it’s a clever joke, using a stylised version of the caron which sits over the S in Škoda (Shkoda)?
The 2.0-litre engine in the new vRS 245 also powers the Golf GTI Performance.
There was no 245, RS or vRS in the pre-facelift Octavia and this 245PS variant supplements the Octavia vRS.
Self-locking diff and optional seven-speed DSG
The less powerful sporty Octavia continues to be available with diesel and petrol engines but no so the 245. This one comes only with a 2.0 TSI, which means turbocharged petrol. This same engine also powers the Golf GTI Performance. It also comes with that car’s self-locking differential. Unlike the RS/vRS, the 245 can be ordered with a seven-speed DSG. The dual clutch gearbox for the less powerful cars is a six-speed DSG.
The looks, outside and in
The styling update, which did a great job of making the car look quite different from the Octavia which came out in 2013, saw some major changes at the front end. Not everybody likes the headlights, but I see no issue with them. The back end didn’t change too much, the tailgate pressing retaining the diagonal creases that have been eliminated from the latest models such as the Karoq and Kodiaq. The vRS has some tasty circle pattern wheels and this is one of those cars with ridged tyres (they make it harder to accidentally scratch your swanky rims on vertical concrete gutters).
The cabin of the vRS doesn’t look or feel as expensive as in a Passat although you do get great value for money. There are electrically adjustable front seats, for example. Scandalously, the GBP45,000 VW Arteon which I drove recently lacked this feature.
A couple of surprises, neither of them necessarily unwelcome, is the need to use a key to start the car, plus the parking brake is a hand-operated one, great news for getting in and out of spaces on hilly streets. Somehow, electronic parking brakes still remain too fiddly and time consuming as you wait and wonder is the car going to roll forwards or backwards when it mustn’t do so.
This would make a terrific car for a family where the main driver wants something which looks and feels sporty but not lairy.
This would make a terrific car for a family where the main driver wants something which looks and feels sporty but not lairy. There is a big glovebox, four seriously commodious door bins and a deep cubby under the softly covered, hinged central armrest. So sensible. Then though, there are seats which feel and look the part, each having vRS embroidered into them in grey, green, red and silver.
Even people who feel squeezed by the usual sports seats which manufacturers fit to faster versions of their main models – think Civic Type R or Audi RS 4 – will be comfortable in the front of this car. Their appearance is another nicely understated touch, with those in the test vehicle being trimmed in grey leather with red stitching and perforated Alcantara. As in a Mustang, the head restraints are integrated.
Inspired dynamics
You won’t find a head up display, nor an electric opening or closing function for the tailgate. As for gimmicks, nor are there downlighters under the mirrors flooding the ground with a Skoda or vRS circle of illumination, only ordinary un-branded puddle lamps. Inside, there is really only one oddity: the words AIR CARE embossed into the middle of the HVAC controls. And these are all safely positioned below the touchscreen rather than trapped somewhere within its menus.
For a car with so much torque being delivered to the road via only the one axle, grip is first class, even on slippery surfaces. The six-speed manual gearshift in is just as precise as it is in the Golf GTI Performance, and the optional dynamic chassis control is worth the extra cost. Understeer is greatly reduced if still detectable but body roll and dive under braking are both tamed. It’s a deft and enjoyable car to push into bends and yet on motorways, it’s quiet and oh-so comfortable.
Compact dimensions but an XL boot
Octavia sales fell by only 1.0 per cent across Europe over the first nine months.
Not only do you get first rate dynamics and a load of standard equipment, but the boot is just as vast as in all other Octavias. Again, this really is the definitive family sports car. VW obviously doesn’t do a Passat GTI, while SEAT has no model in the D saloon/hatchback and estate class. Škoda therefore has this segment to itself within the Volkswagen Group.
With Octavia sales dropping by only 1.0 per cent across Europe over the first nine months, the idea that SUVs are doing great harm to all five-door large cars simply isn’t true. And as those big returns show, Škoda has masterfully made a niche into a segment, all the while taking its loyal buyers with it as brand image and transaction prices steadily rise.
Class leader into the 2020s?
One of these days, the people in charge of the Renault, Dacia, Peugeot, Citroen and or Opel/Vauxhall brands might see what they needed to do 20 years ago, which is when the first Octavia of the modern era appeared. Škoda still controls the D segment with a car which has grown a bit over three generations but which still sits in its own size, value and image category. These brands could similarly build up their sales, profits and brand images from such a position. Until they do that, Škoda is going to remain not simply clever but brilliantly so.
*includes volume from the unconsolidated Chinese joint venture
