Skoda Octavia RS finishes ninth at MOTOR’s Sports Car of the Year 2022

Loads better than expected! The Skoda Octavia RS impressed with its duality to finish ninth at Sports Car of the Year 2022.

Skoda’s local press office may have misunderstood the brief for SCOTY somewhat. The MOTOR team understands that the Octavia RS lives a double life, pairing its daily utility with Golf GTI-rivalling power outputs and widely customisable damping. However, having the Octavia RS arrive for Sports Car of the Year testing with a roof box mounted atop its wagon body wasn’t exactly part of the plan. Thankfully, we were able to glean enough from the online instruction manual to remove the black brick before testing started.

With 15 different levels of adjustability, the Octavia’s dampers perform wonderfully across a frankly vast window of performance that ranges from supple to rigid. However, the core chassis felt overwhelmed on the SCOTY test loop, struggling to hook into corners in a way that inspired confidence.

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So much of the Octavia’s chassis character could best be described as benign, which probably answers the brief for its target market. Enright pointed to “softness introduced into most of the major controls. It struggles to convince in this company but works really well as a family wagon with a bit of zip.”

Luffy was impressed with the Octavia’s adjustability on track, however, noting “you have to trail brake into the corner to unsettle the rear just a little bit to help the pointability.” The Czech wagon’s immediacy is somewhat compromised by its Bridgestone tyres. A wider contact patch of more focused rubber would make a smart post-purchase addition if you’re looking to sharpen things.

The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is well calibrated and thankfully lacks a propensity for multi-gear hops down ratios as you apply throttle on corner exit. Both up and downshifts failed to perturb the Octavia’s body control whilst cornering. However, judges found the steering to be slow and bereft of much in the way of feedback, even in its sports mode.

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Only on longer radius bends does the Octavia RS really feel fully at home, retaining impressive composure at full throttle through the daunting Stoner corner. Its high-speed stability was impressive, but you’d be forced to concede time through a corner, only to reel it back on the subsequent straight. There were plenty of raised eyebrows exiting the Skoda’s well-appointed cabin after track time, with the wagon’s impressive straight-line speed being a welcome surprise.

Perhaps most telling of Skoda’s true achievement is the fact that nearly every judge proclaimed they’d happily add the Octavia RS to their own garage. Trent summed it up best saying “the Octavia somewhat lives up to the GTI with a boot mentality”. The Skoda’s prosaic silhouette makes it an intriguing Q-car, endowed with a very respectable turn of pace.

If you only have space for one car that must do the daily school run, carry your dog, remain comfortable on a commute, but make you feel that you’ve grown up and not given up, the Skoda Octavia RS is the best car for you in this SCOTY field. That battle isn’t even close.

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The judges’ comments

Alex Affat

“This is packaged really intelligently and it’s well optioned. More people should be buying Skodas.”

Ranking: 9th

Andy Enright

“Ninth disguises the fact that everybody here came away with newfound respect for the Octavia RS.”

Ranking: 9th

Trent Giucno

“Narrow tyres hobbled the Skoda on the tighter parts of our road loop. Times at the track were impressive.”

Ranking: 9th

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Cameron Kirby

“How would I sum up the Octavia? It’s a family car that can do some performance car things.”

Ranking: 9th

Bernie Quinn

“It’s a nice car but it’s not a sports car. Chassis is safe and secure but offers no real feedback.”

Ranking: 9th

Luffy’s view

A bit of a surprise packet in that it was more fun to drive on the track than the road. I wasn’t expecting that!

The key figures