Skoda Octavia Combi test drive since 2008 -

Skoda Octavia Scout

The updated Skoda Octavia Scout is ready to return to the segment of high -per -sneakers in the Russian market. His first version of the bestseller in our country did not, but the Czech brand hopes for success after facelift
Budapest, hot by the midday sun, is finally left behind. Finally, because the drivers, crushed with a 30-degree heat, move barely. No better pedestrians, sluggishly crossing the streets. And, despite the fact that there are no traffic jams in the city, this universal apathy begins to irritate. Our test started a little more than an hour ago, and we will not leave the Hungarian capital in any way, the outskirts of which simply shout about the socialist past: painful panel twelve -story buildings, some warehouses, garages with bored Lada, nearby - private houses squeezed by gardens. Apparently, the navigation from the heat had failed somewhere, and for an hour the system has been driving our updated Octavia Scout back and forth around the city.
However, having twisted through the same streets, the electronics nevertheless changed her mind and led to the highway, taking him to the fields and mountains. We need it exactly there: the Czech SCOUT was conceived as a car for those who like to often get out of nature - to reservoirs with boats and fish, to mountain passes, to the forest, full of mushrooms and berries, it was worth thinking about the latter, the roadsides suddenly spat on unusual tablets : bright red strawberries on the same bright yellow background. What's this? - a colleague who is located in a neighboring chair is perplexed. Strawberry bazaars, - I explain, seeing the boxes filled with scarlet fruits. And around - the fields where this juicy, fragrant, sun -filled berry grows. Beautiful, tasty, but uninteresting. After all, you can even get here on a suburban bus, and the whole charm of a car with all-wheel drive is in order to independently overcome some country, climb the hillock, move to the river. And only then go for the harvest. Therefore, the pedal to the floor - and go, away from the capital!
German genes
Having updated the models of Skoda Octavia and Octavia Combi 4x4 last year, now the Czech company has restyling two more cars of this family: all -wheel drive Scout and sports RS. In either case, we are talking about any serious constructive alterations. There are some innovations inside the cars (we will talk about them below), but the emphasis is mainly on comfort and design. Well, this is understandable: the same Scout first introduced the market only two years ago, and the life cycle of the model is not over yet. Those it turned out to be almost niche: since 2007, Octavia Scout has acquired 22 thousand people, mostly residents of the Alpine countries. Not so much to invest large sums in deep modernization. And at the same time, it is enough to count on further demand, based on the current popularity of crossovers and universals of increased cross -country ability.
Apparently, Czech designers realized that some muscularity, aggression was lacked by an all -wheel drive car designed for apologists of an active lifestyle. This gap was filled in the exterior of the front of the updated car. The grille of the radiator with its 19 black vertical cuts is now framed by a more massive chrome lining. It would seem a trifle, but this part gave a much more confident look to the car. In addition, such an option is organically combined with a powerful plastic body kit: unpainted bumpers, overlays on the thresholds and wheel arches, and the protection of the crankcase. Plus large - 179 mm - a road clearance showing that this car was prepared to overcome difficulties. But the new headlights give him some elegance, and in general, the image of a sort of Pighon traveler, a kind of refined Indiana Jones on wheels, develops. In my opinion, this is quite good for a car designed to be appropriate in the modern city, and when traveling, say, fishing or skiing.
By the way, the optics here is updated not only externally, but also constructively. Xenon headlights (though for surcharge) can be equipped with an adaptive light system, and fog lights with the Corner angular light function will be inserted into the bumper at the request of the client. For those who travel on launders and forest roads at night (as, indeed, on city alleys), the option is indispensable. It is only necessary to remember that it works only at low speed - otherwise the headlights simply will not have time to react to the turn of the steering wheel.
As for the steering wheel itself, it, like the entire car interior, almost completely duplicates the interior of all updated Octavia. This means a multifunctional four-spoke steering wheel, a strict but elegant instrument panel, a multimedia system with a sensory color screen, competent ergonomics, when all the red buttons in its place and the desired switch of the hand finds the hand itself, according to a hunch. Although one sin was still found: the crew and I accidentally knocked the audio system on the steering wheel several times, after which she either fell silent or suddenly shouted loudly, drowning out all the navigation teams.
Perhaps, perhaps, there is not enough electrical tuning of the seats - they need to be adjusted manually under themselves. Although the range of positions is not bad: even the passenger platform can be adjusted in height. If you add the function of heating the seats to the latter, the ability to adjust the steering column, conveniently located armrests, many boxes and pockets, a huge trunk (plus the folded rear seats), as well as a two-zone climate control, which is now equipped with a sensor of air purity, then the level of comfort The driver (and passengers too) should be recognized as very, very decent. However, it would be wrong to expect different from the car that came out of the bowels of the German concern. Excess confirmation of this is the quality of materials and assembly: forgetting about the emblem on the steering wheel, you can easily imagine yourself in the cabin of some Volkswagen.
Let the all -terrain vehicle
The sensation of a la Volkswagen does not leave in motion. The suspension is moderately tough, energy -intensive. A clear, obviously -minded steering and absolutely adequate reactions of the machine to all the actions of the driver. Great brakes: even with emergency pressing, no nervousness, slowdown corresponds to the pressure on the pedal. Despite its decent growth (more than 153 cm), Octavia Scout is not too fucked in turns at speed. However, we were not particularly accelerated. Firstly, there are many cars on the narrow winding roads of the Hungarian province, and secondly, there are a lot of police, and finally, thirdly, a car weighing 1545 kg with a 4-cylinder 160-horsepower engine is not the most suitable racing option.
But he is good where it is not necessary to tear and throw. In a protracted rise, the car enters, like a knife into the oil, - exactly, confidently. Even more solidly moves to the mountain and on the autobahn: 160-170 km/h, this station wagon is playing playfully. At the same time, you feel how elastic the 1.8 TSI gasoline engine is elastic: you almost do not have to use all six transmissions of the manual transmission. On the contrary, due to the fact that the maximum 250 nm is issued in the range of 1500-4500 rpm, you can infrete transmissions infrequently, so that you are driving on the third as if an automatic machine is installed here, and not a 6-speed mechanics.
But one of the technical innovations of the restyled Octavia Scout, a full -wheel drive system with a Haldex of the latter, fourth generation (it is also on the flagship Superb), was included in the pseudo -railway prepared by the organizers. Unlike Haldex II, used on Skoda cars before, here the hydraulic pump is replaced by electric, and the electronic unit controls the pressure on the piston. Haldex IV can transfer to each wheel to 85% torque, which means more reliable coating and, accordingly, better cross -country ability and increased safety.
We were able to evaluate how all this works at the training ground. SCUT calmly climbed onto quite steep slides and also confidently went from them, overcame the transverse and longitudinal pits, shifted through the hillocks, kneaded the dirt in a puddle, it is clear that all these obstacles were arranged strictly for the capabilities of this machine and it was impossible to compare it with an all -terrain vehicle. But you still need to admit: Octavia Scout feels good and outside the asphalt, and we can talk about the worst than just a broken country.
Autumn will show
At the dinner, which the organizers of the test were offered to us at the end of it, there was strawberries. Alas, she was not at all the same as along the roads around Budapest. These were medium European berries - beautiful, even, but tasteless. And it became clear: for a natural product you should drive on the right car and yourself, whether Russia or another country. Apparently, only a car with all -wheel drive can be correct in such cases. As an option - updated Skoda Octavia Scout. It’s just hard to say whether it will become popular in Russia.
On the one hand, this car is sometimes called an affordable alternative to the premium Audi Allroad (recalling related relationships of brands included in Volkswagen, we can agree with this). On the other hand, the democratic in essence of the Skoda brand still scares away Russians with prices. This is also evidenced by the statistics of sales of the first version of Octavia Scout: for a year and a half - from the summer of 2007 to December 2008 - only a little more than 300 cars were sold in the country, each of which cost about 1 million rubles. Then the implementation of the model was stopped to present an already updated version.
It will be assembled at the German concern in Kaluga, dealers will begin to be accepted in September. The car decided to offer only with a 1.8 TSI gasoline engine with a capacity of 152 hp. (in Europe there is another 2-liter diesel with a capacity of 140 hp). In all basic indicators and settings, the Russian engine is similar to what was on our Hungarian test, and the difference is only 3 km/h less than 0.3 from the time of acceleration to a hundred. It is unlikely that these indicators will be able to seriously affect the choice of customers, but the price factor seems to be much more significant. But this parameter has not yet been decided in Skoda.

Technical characteristics of Skoda Octavia Scout
Dimensions, mm
4584x1784x1533
Base, mm
2578
Trunk volume, l
580-1655
Equipped mass, kg
1545
engine's type
gasoline L4
Working volume, cubic meter. cm
1798
Max. Power, L.S./rpm
152/4500-6200
Max. moment, nm/rpm
250/1500-4500
Transmission
mechanical 6-speed
Drive unit
full
Max. speed, km/h
208
Acceleration time 0-100 km, with
8,7
Fuel consumption (average), l/100 km
7,8
Tank volume, l
55
 
Andrey Bezverkhov
Photo by the author
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Source: Avtopanorama magazine