Interiors – The Skoda Octavia is known for its great built quality and this has been carried forward in each of the three generations. Interior quality feels rich and the fit and finish is simply fantastic. Interior plastics and upholstery has been very tastefully done in the Skoda Octavia. Two-tone black and beige interiors feel good and wooden inserts are used on the doors and around the gear lever. We loved the chrome door handles and their placement. Attention to detail is phenomenal throughout and even the seat stitches are immaculately done.
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The Skoda Octavia offers the highest interior room in the segment. Interior length has now increased by 33 mm over the Laura and not only that, rear legroom has also increased by 47 mm. To enhance passenger comfort, rear headroom, elbow width and shoulder room has also been increased over the previous generation car. The front seats of the Skoda Octavia are comfortable and offer good headroom, shoulder room and knee room. Under thigh support, especially for tall passengers is average. The backrest is controlled by a knob which needs to be rotated to recline the backrest. This is good if you want precision seat adjustments however it’s quite a task to completely recline the back rest. The leather seats feel good and look fantastic. Detailed stitching further amplifies the attention to detail. In the Elegance trim, Skoda has offered 12-way electrically adjustable drivers seat with three memory options. The front doors also come with warning indicators.
The rear seat is comfortable too, but on long journeys it feels too upright. The rear bench is ideal for two passengers as the high transmission tunnel won’t allow the middle passenger to be very comfortable. There is sufficient headroom, shoulder room, knee room at the rear. Under thigh support continues to be average. The rear armrest has space for two cup holders and also opens into the boot in case you need to access the boot on the go. There are abundant storage areas inside the cabin of the Skoda Octavia. There are total 8 bottle and beverage holders of which two can house 1.5-litre bottles (front door pockets) and the rest 6 (front central console, rear door pockets and rear central armrest) can easily seat a half litre bottle or a cup of your favourite coffee.
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The first generation Skoda Octavia was the first car to have a fully functional boot with its wide hatch style boot opening. A signature trait of the Octavia, the third generation not only gets the same but has also grown in size. The boot measures 590-litres and the rear seats can fold (by a push of a button) in 60:40 ratio to increase the boot space to a whooping 1580-litres. The boot also has hooks and lashing points to secure the luggage.
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The audio system consists of a new Bolero unit with a 5.8-inch touch screen (resolution 400 x 240) interface. This unit plays radio, CD, SD card, USB and AUX. You can also stream music from your phone or iPod through Bluetooth. Tucked in the glove box is the CD player which has an input for SD card. There is no direct input for USB and AUX. It has to be routed through the ‘Media In’ cable which goes in under the audio system. Sound quality is great with four speakers (in each door) and woofer (on the dashboard) giving out crisp sound. The multifunctional steering wheel houses audio controls and phone buttons. The same screen also displays data from the parking assist, which has sensors both in the front and at the rear, displaying the data based on the direction of motion.
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The audio unit also has buttons for car and vehicle settings. The car setting gives you three types of data readings. From start (trip data), long term and since re-fuelling. The computer displays kilometres done, average km/hr, average km/l and time. Once you fuel up, the ‘Since Refuelling’ screen automatically trips to zero. The audio unit is also equipped with proximity sensors which switches the system to operating mode once a finger comes near it.
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The AC cools well and has dual zone climate control for the front seats. Rear AC vents are provided to cool the rear passengers. There are sensors which monitor the position of the sun, air quality and humidity to set optimum temperature in the climatronic mode. The Octavia also features a sunroof (optional) which can be electrically adjusted for tilt and slide. The feature list also includes a tyre pressure monitoring system and cruise control (only for top end variant), automatic dimming interior and exterior rear view mirror and rain sensing wipers.
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The instrument cluster is easy to read and displays all relevant data through the MID screen on the cluster. The only area of cost cutting we came across was the horn. The first generation Octavia’s horn (Wintone Rainbow) had taken the market by storm. This time Skoda has done away with it and offered a regular one.
Head over to the next page to read about the Skoda Octavia’s performance.
