Skoda Octavia (2012-2020) review

Apart from prices starting under those of a Golf, and even making life difficult for the hard-punching Koreans these days, the Octavia has sensibly priced options (that you largely don’t need to bother with – adaptive suspension? Who are you kidding?), and the engines, as we’ve said, are going to be just as parsimonious as in other VW Group applications. There’s even a 1.6-litre TDI Greenline version on eco tyres that’ll return up to 80.7mpg and 90g/km of CO2. Residuals aren’t as strong as elsewhere in the VW empire, predictably, but on the plus side Skodas dealers have earned a strong reputation for customer service in the last decade particularly, regularly fighting it out with Lexus for top place in satisfaction surveys.

And if you’re the sort of person who irons their socks into pairs and alphabetises your DVD collection, you’ll like the ice-scraper fitted into the fuel filler cap. The car park ticket holder incorporated into the windscreen surround. The grippy cupholders which allows you to open a bottle one-handed while driving. And that clever torch that lives in the boot and will never need a new battery. It’s not top chat-up line stuff, but those features are bound to get the Octavia owner out of jail now and again, and are the closest thing the car has to character.