Skoda Scala review

This is Skoda's Scala hatchback, introduced in 2019 to replace the Rapid and given a light facelift in late 2023. You'd be forgiven for forgetting it was there, though. The humble family hatch has become an increasingly niche player in the UK car market after all.

Wind back a decade or two and Britain’s bestselling cars all emanated from this sector. Whether from Ford or Vauxhall, Peugeot or Renault, Rover or Volkswagen, people lapped them up. And then the Qashqai landed and the car market changed – perhaps irrevocably.

In 2023 just one car from this class – the Audi A3 – snuck into the UK’s top 10 best-sellers list at number nine. Ford will end production of the Focus entirely in 2025, bringing a true hatchback greatest hit to what feels a premature end. Crossovers are all the rage.

The Scala (rhymes with parlour, not paler) is a thoroughly sensible and good value addition to the hatchback clan, though – just like British buyers used to adore. Even its place in the Skoda showroom is curious, filling a gap between the smaller Fabia and larger Octavia that surely opened up only because the latter is so big in the first place.

So this is loads smaller?

The Scala is 327mm shorter than an Octavia hatch but its wheelbase lags by just 20mm, ensuring it is still more than capacious enough for most families. Skoda has a knack of scalloping out a barely plausible amount of legroom in its cars (a Superb is truly palatial) and the Scala doesn’t buck the trend.

What it’s never done is drop your jaw with the plushness of its interior, some value for money pricing carved out by cheaper, more durable plastics. The Scala’s mid-life update answers some of this criticism, though – some of the cheaper plastics remain, but there's a sprinkling of fabric trim on the dash and a smattering of renewable materials too.

Practicality still wins out over poshness and Skoda’s usual array of hidden ice scrapers and umbrellas is joined by Gen Z-appeasing stuff like a ventilated phone charger and copious phone and tablet storage cubbies.

What are the engine choices?

Diesel has gone from the range and there’s still no electrification, so you’re left with pure petrols, both turbocharged. There’s a 1.0-litre three-cylinder available in 94 and 114bhp tunes and a 1.5-litre four-cylinder with 148bhp. All drive the front wheels. You’ve a choice of manual or DSG paddleshift auto gearboxes, though beware the entry level engine is five-speed manual only. 

The puniest engine manages 0–62mph in 10.8 seconds, while the extra power drops that to 9.5s (or 10.1s if you spec the DSG). The more powerful 1.5 engine will cover that same sprint in 8.2 seconds whatever gearbox is installed.

It all drives pretty neatly too. The Scala goes, stops and steers exactly as you’d hope, and can even be pretty good fun on the right roads... as long as you’re not expecting hot hatch energy. All Scalas are rated at between 50mpg and 55mpg.

For our money the higher powered three-cylinder is the better bet, bringing useful performance to the lower end of the range. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the bigger engine – quite the opposite – but it naturally raises the price and is a little OTT in a car like this.

So how much is it?

The Scala hasn’t escaped the general trend of swelling car prices, but it still looks decent value. Prices start at a respectable £22,105 (or around £230 a month) for a 1.0-litre Scala SE with 94bhp. Another grand secures the higher 114bhp output you really want. Get really excitable and you can spend north of £30k on a fancy Scala Monte Carlo with the biggest engine allied to a DSG transmission.

This is a thoroughly well-judged hatchback. It won’t especially surprise you, but then who wants shock and awe from their family transport? You want dependability and some unglamorously thoughtful touches, and those are precisely what Skoda has become something of a specialist in.

Its crisper design language over the old Rapid is a big plus and its workmanlike approach to practicality and size for modest cash is very appealing. No, it’s not going to drop your jaw with road-racer handling nous, but you may well gain quiet satisfaction from the useful aspects of ownership.

A VW Golf feels nicer and a Ford Focus is better to drive, but both are notably more expensive and the latter has the grim reaper stalking the floors of its factory as we speak. We’ve a soft spot for the Scala purely because it keeps faith in the good ol’ family hatchback.