How is the performance of the new Skoda Octavia?

What do you think of when you think of a station wagon? Volvo's "V" series, or the "hunting suit" of Mercedes-Benz CLS and Porsche Panamera?

In fact, as long as you are willing to look down, you can discover a new world, not to mention the Volkswagen Weiling, Buick Yuelan, and pure electric vehicles that can be bought for less than 100,000 yuan. The Roewe Ei5 taxi, even at the RMB 50,000 to RMB 60,000 RMB level, has the legendary Baojun 310W, which once sold for RMB 30,000 a month. Regardless of the fact that station wagons are basically “unsold” in China, there are still quite a lot of choices.

As for today’s protagonist, “Classmate Xiao Ming”, the Skoda Octavia, although it also has an ordinary sedan version, the one that is more recognizable on the road is the Octavia travel version, so it is regarded as a “ Wagon” isn’t too much of a stretch either.

Speaking of which, the Skoda Octavia (called OCTAVIA overseas) can be regarded as a classmate of Xiao Ming with a story. The OCTAVIA name was first used in 1959, but the genuine first-generation Octavia started in 1996. , and at that time, it entered the Chinese market in small quantities as an import.

Starting from the second generation of Octavia, it has been produced in China by SAIC Volkswagen Skoda. It was tepid at the beginning. Later, after the mid-term facelift, it was replaced with a younger design, which ushered in the " "Classmate Xiao Ming" is at the peak of her career (not marrying Han Meimei~).

It will be even more remarkable when it comes to the third generation. Xiao Ming became the first batch of models of the Volkswagen Group to use the MQB platform. Although the follow-up did not usher in the big sales as expected due to some reasons, Xiao Ming’s success in Skoda However, its status in the brand is steadily improving. Taking 2018 as an example, only Xiao Ming under Skoda achieved sales of more than 100,000 vehicles, accounting for one-third of the brand's total sales.

However, this year’s car market is in the cold winter, and Xiao Ming’s life is not easy. From January to November, the sales volume is only 58,833 vehicles. Its general manager is so decadent, Skoda naturally has to find a way, so in this year’s Double Ten On January 1 (Czech local time), a night when everyone was in a hurry to buy, the new generation, the fourth generation Octavia, was officially unveiled.

Well, let’s discuss the changes in this new car. First of all, look at the appearance. Although the fourth-generation Xiao Ming has not gotten rid of the family-oriented design, it has some freshness. It’s still Skoda’s iconic straight waterfall grille, but it’s been blackened (some say it will be made in China with chrome plating) to give it a somewhat sportier feel, and the outer outline has been adjusted to look more like a hexagon, which makes it look faintly Some Kia style...

The headlight set has finally got rid of the previous "four eyes", and is now a more narrow and integrated light set. According to the official, it is also equipped with a matrix type for the first time. All LED light sources, even the fog lights are LED. Well, Skoda has also spent a lot of money on playing with lights.

On the side of the car, you don’t feel many changes, except that the waistline has a stronger three-dimensional effect, and ribs are also added at the bottom. With the new 19-inch wheels, the overall look is more sporty. . It is worth mentioning that the drag coefficient of the sedan version has dropped to 0.24Cd, and that of the travel version has dropped to 0.26Cd, which can somewhat reduce fuel consumption.

By the way, because the fourth-generation Octavia is still a product of the MQB platform, the wheelbase is still 2686mm.

The rear of the car does not highlight the sense of sportiness. The irregular-shaped taillights bring some freshness, and the visual effect is also good when lit. The exhaust adopts a hidden layout, and fake exhaust may be added after domestic production.

The trunk is still a hatchback. Compared with the ordinary trunk, the opening is larger and more suitable for putting in large luggage. At the same time, the trunk volume of the sedan version has also been slightly improved, reaching 600L.

The interior has made considerable progress. The most eye-catching thing is naturally the silver trim panel in the central control area, which enhances the overall sense of hierarchy. There are also 10 colors of LED ambient lights inside. Well, it's a bit sentimental.

The new style of the double-width steering wheel is very unique. In the future, you can hide the car logo and say it is the same model as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The multi-function button area on the steering wheel adopts a combination of scroll wheel and button control. It is probably necessary to get familiar with it when you first get started.

Then there is the sense of technology in the interior, which is the large screen that people like to see. First of all, it is a 10.25-inch full LCD instrument panel that supports full-screen navigation, which is quite practical. At the same time, there is also a 4.2 The 16-inch small display screen is used as a carrier for HUD head-up display, displaying vehicle speed, navigation, traffic signs and even driving assistance systems, etc.

As for the central control screen that domestic consumers are more concerned about, the fourth-generation Octavia adopts a new suspended placement, with a size of 8.25 inches (the top version is 10.25 inches). The 10.25-inch version can also be manually zoomed during navigation, which is very close to the operating habits of mobile phones. There is also a touch-sensitive area under the central control screen, which can be used to adjust the volume, zoom in and out of the navigation map, etc. This is the first time that the Skoda brand has this configuration...

Other configurations In terms of aspects, the front door umbrella storage compartment unique to the Skoda brand is still retained. The front seats are heated and ventilated, rear sunshades, independent control of rear air conditioning, etc., and the rear seats even have heating functions.

As for the "L2 level autonomous driving" that domestic independent brands prefer to talk about today, that is, the driving assistance system, the fourth-generation Octavia now also has adaptive cruise, lane keeping assist, and lane departure. There are rich active safety configurations such as early warning, congestion assist and emergency braking assist. Overall, the improvement of safety configuration is obvious.

In terms of power, the most critical aspect, the overseas version of the fourth-generation Octavia*** provides four different power versions: gasoline version, diesel version, hybrid version and natural gas version. In the future, it will enter the domestically produced large vehicles. There is probably only a gasoline version. The overseas gasoline version is divided into three engines: 1.0T, 1.5T, and 2.0T. The 1.0T engine has a maximum power of 81kW and a peak torque of 200N·m; the 1.5T engine has a maximum power of 110kW and a peak torque of 250N·m; and the 2.0T engine has the largest power. The power is 140kW, the peak torque is 320N·m, and it will also be equipped with four-wheel drive. But if you think about it carefully, after entering China, it should be the 1.2T and 1.4T that everyone is familiar with.

As for the matching gearbox...don’t you need to ask? It must be a 7-speed dual-clutch in China!

Finally, let’s analyze the competitiveness of Skoda’s fourth-generation Octavia. Since Skoda and Volkswagen implement first-line production, most of Skoda's products are on par with Volkswagen in terms of quality and product strength. At the same time, there is still a certain gap in price. Generally speaking, the price difference remains at around 20,000 to 30,000.

Even if the price of a Volkswagen model is reduced by 20,000, you will find that Skoda’s corresponding model will immediately offer a similar discount. Therefore, in fact, regardless of brand and value retention rate, only considering cost-effectiveness, Skoda still has certain advantages. . Just like the slogan displayed by the Skoda 4S store in front of my home, "Everyone who understands the public has bought a Skoda."

But in fact, compared to Japanese, American and even Korean brands, Skoda’s cost-effectiveness advantage is gone. Although Japanese brand products do not have many price reductions, generally speaking, they The original manufacturer's guide price was not high; but the current style of American and Korean brands is needless to say, and they can compete with independent brands even if they get discounts. In terms of brand recognition, Skoda is much worse than Toyota Buick...

Having talked about so much market environment, let’s return to the fourth-generation Octavia product , the exterior design is more in line with domestic aesthetics, and some effort has been put into the interior design. Coupled with richer configurations and possibly optimized power, the fourth-generation Octavia's progress relative to itself is still obvious, but these are increasingly important for today's situation. It is still not enough for Skoda, who is embarrassed and in urgent need of Octavia to help restore blood. There are only two ways in front of Skoda: either let more domestic consumers accept the Skoda brand in a short period of time, preferably like Volkswagen; or in terms of pricing Make more concessions, just like American and Korean brands.

Obviously, the latter road is easier, so the domestic launch of the new generation of Octavia makes us look forward to it even more.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.