Skoda Octavia test drive since 2008 -

Czech scout

What do we know about scouts? What these are American pioneers, although Scout literally means a scout. And that in the West, the scout movement safely survived to this day, probably because its participants did not collect scrap and waste paper, and did not swear to the eternal fidelity to the leaders. And finally, we know the last Boyskout performed by Bruce Willis. In other words, the name Skoda Octavia Scout 4x4 definitely hints at some opportunities that a regular passenger car does not have. In part, it is.
Four-wheel drive? Full forward!
To begin with, it should be recognized that you will not surprise anyone with all -wheel drive, not only SUVs, but also cars with a 4x4 wheeled formula in our market are more than enough. By the way, Skoda has its full -wheel drive model Octavia Combi 4x4, on the basis of which, in fact, SCOUT was built. However, compared to her, Scout is still a more serious car. Take at least the clearance: it is more than Combi by 40 mm, and if you compare with an all -wheel drive version, then 16 mm.
SCUT is not deliberately not a city car: powerful unpainted bumpers and moldings, 17-inch wheels on Proteus cast discs, protecting the bottom both from behind and in front of the car in the yard in the evening, I opened and closed the doors for another half hour, showing the assembled motorists that in her what. Positive emotions, I want to notice, enough.
However, I must say right away: all these off -road lotions and all -wheel drive marked with 4x4 nameplate do not mean that the scout will really pass everywhere. One of my predecessors received this knowledge in practice, so SCUT came to me with an order of burned adhesion.
But I learned about this much later.
Expensive and angrily
Skoda Octavia Scout 4x4 is equipped exclusively by two engines with a 150-horsepower two-liter FSI, and a two-liter 140-horsepower TDI PD with a soot filter. On both machines, a 6-speed mechanics are placed. At the heart of all -wheel drive, a multi -disc sleigh Haldex, installed in front of the rear bridge. I got a gasoline version and a rare case I personally have never regretted it.
To say that I liked the SCOUT salon is not to say nothing. Before Skoda, I had to sit with brief intervals in the new Golf of my friend and in the test Leon. All cars have one, the German roof, and therefore most devices and their location are familiar to me. But, as the theater begins with a hanger, so acquaintance with the car begins with what, so to speak, the driver's fifth point of the seat, the skin of the color of the color of the color with the inserts of nubuk of the same color will fall. Seeing this in the light of day, I only said that wow!. True, there is a claim to the ergonomics of the seats. It is too much on my ass narrow and long. And therefore, the pillows are very crushed on the lower thigh. I never managed to lower the pillow, I had to get used to it. But forward and forth, tilt of the back, working with a lumbar subpoor, everything is like on Leon. That is, manually, without electro -regulations. In the sense of Skoda, I would say, poorer: mirrors, for example, you will not add a simple click of a button. But there is a hatch, although the control unit did not cause them delight.
The non -resistance of the machine emphasizes the aluminum pads on the rocks and the aluminum handle in front of the front passenger. There is a mesh in the luggage compartment.
The steering wheel also resembles Ceatovsky according to the multisystem control buttons on the central console, but it has a more decent reserve for adjustment: it can be put almost to your knees or bring it closer to the chest itself. I do not like? A push from yourself and you are in the formula car. Multikoklich in a single Volkswagen style. But the climate control block itself and the display of the media system is more interesting than in the Seat, although poorer than in German cars. And the instrument panel, to be honest, was not impressed. The indicators of the fuel level and the temperature of the cooling system are two slurred semicircles, which at first have to look closely. And here is the Display of the Trip Computer what you need! It takes to his liquid crystals everything that the driver may need from the average daily mileage and fuel consumption, to refuel (indicating the residual run) and go through another that.
The pedals are already adults, not those in Seat Leon. And the gas pedal is generally floor. In the doorway, pockets for small things and for bottles of 0.5 liters or aluminum cans. There is an armrest under which a rather big box is hidden. In the wide back of the rear seat are the armrest. He is a table, he is a hatch for long -meters. Naturally, the back is folded in a ratio of 40x60.
Seats both front and rear with electric heating, which is not celebrated with the winter use of the machine, taking into account the material of the seats themselves. The back will be quite convenient for people of both medium and high stature. And behind them a huge trunk, the volume of which can reach 1600 liters. Five suitcases fit into it, several bags, and all this can still be covered with an elegant curtain. There is only one complaint: I never found how to open the trunk from the cabin. Of course, there is a multi -switch, but still not very convenient. As well as the fact that I had to guess that the gas tank hatch was opening if you press in the middle of its left side.
Everything else is beyond praise.
In outskirts of Moscow
There is practically no snow left, the roads are even cleaned in the region, but! .. But there are still tracks for which my scout is simply born. Namely, from the road of the regional significance to the gate of the summer cottage: first one and a half kilometers along the icy crossed rut, and then three hundred meters along the wet cubper snow.
Octavia Scout is not the most rapid car, but the manufacturer guarantees acceleration to hundreds in 10 seconds. But why then can I not leave the traffic light with a whistle?! The pedal lies on the floor, the engine roars so powerful and tasty that you expect now you will press you in the back of the seat! And acceleration is surprisingly lethargic, and instead of the speedometer arrow, which should reach at least 60 km/h on the first, the revolutionary restriction is triggered: the odometer arrow went into the red zone. True, from the second transmission, the pickup begins, although I would not call it confident acceleration.
Why, what is with scout? The solution was found at the gas station: when I got out of the car, I felt a familiar smell, the smell of burnt clutch, exposed by the wheel arches, apparently, one of my predecessor colleagues in winter decided to check the off-road qualities of the machine, naturally planted it and, trying to get out of its own, burned the disc, burned the disc. Hence the shock in low gears, and lethargic acceleration, and an incredibly large adhesion pedal. What a pity!
But nothing can be done: up to 200 kilometers, we still can’t accelerate. Despite the fact that there are six airbags in the car, it’s better not to take risks and comfortably get from point A to point B. The cruising speed did not exceed 140 km/h, and the whole family reached the country village in reason without problems.
The ice track was overcome without problems, and SCOUT was not afraid of snow, only a couple of times with the front wheels.
I really liked the fuel consumption. If you do not trample the pedal with a slipper, then TRIP shows an approximate consumption of 6 liters per hundred in the city and about 10-11 in the city. For a kopeckoy, it is very acceptable and corresponds to the declared parameters.
Who to go to intelligence with?
It is unfortunate that acquaintance with scout was short for only two days. However, he managed to hit it a couple of hundred kilometers, transport several large -sized goods from IKEA and OBI, and overslevation in Metro for a month in advance. Everywhere he helped me out. And I spent only 15 liters of gasoline.
And it’s very unfortunate that I feel overgrown with Skoda. If I moved to a passenger all -wheel drive, then it would rather have a Volvo XC70. I remember that Skoda is just brilliant, but I would like simplicity in this matter the least. And the price niche, in which the scout settled, will not give him a slight victory. The gasoline version (diesel engines, as I understand it, is not yet) costs 945 thousand rubles. This is nearly 40 thousand dollars. The same XC70 with a 2.5 engine costs 200 thousand rubles more, but this money in my opinion will not be consumed. Another competitor to Subaru Forester in the maximum configuration with the 2.0x engine costs only a thousand rubles (!) More expensive. Yes, and Outback with a 2.5 -liter engine is more than three thousand dollars.
So it’s hard to have Octavia Scout: competitors are serious, they don’t put your finger in their mouths.
Dmitry Semenov
Photo by the author and Skoda
 

Source: Magazine Automobile Izvestia [April 2008]