Skoda Octavia vRS review

It’s £38,670 for the base-spec hatch or £39,775 for an estate. So getting on for a £5k jump over the pre-facelift vRS. That’s… quite a leap. But then again, this is in with a shout of being the best car in the world and all that.

What's the best spec?

There’s not an awful lot of customisation as a result of the facelift: there’s only one engine and transmission choice, with a handful of tech and practicality add-ons.

Skoda’s thrown in as standard everything you could conceivably crave in a car this size, which makes speccing it relatively easy. The first decision you’ll need to make is colour: you want Hyper Green paint, which is one of six standard colours, so happily won’t cost you anything extra.

Then you’re into the options. The winter pack is probably worth having at £450, for the heated seats, steering wheel and windscreen. A head-up display will set you back £700, but we liked the big central speedo option on the Virtual Cockpit so much, it’s really not necessary. Instead, we’d recommend the 12-speaker Canton sound system for £660.

Otherwise, everything from full Matrix LED headlights to those plush sports seats is included in the base vRS. You’ve just one choice of interior colour: black upholstery with red stitching, with plenty of ambient lighting when it’s dark. Lovely.