Skoda Octavia II 2004 test drive - 2008 -

Forest patrol

Skoda is increasingly making it surprised. In fact, this is the only brand from the countries of the former social camp, which has become in the West, as they say, its own on the board. To love her for this or to be offended - we have not yet decided. The experiment carried out over Skoda Octavia Combi 4x4 2.0 FSI provoked an even greater confusion in this matter.
 
I ask you to dismiss me from the need to once again describe in detail the external data of Skoda Octavia New. Even the restyled modification of the COMBI body at the beginning of the year managed to get all the compliments and comments due to it. However, even if our experimental market has almost lost the status of the new market, but so far it can still count on the attention of the writing fraternity.
 
It is believed that large cars prefer appropriate distances. Therefore, receiving a full -wheel drive station wagon Skoda Octavia with a two -liter engine from Volkswagen, we were sure that we would not have to push in the capital's traffic jams. Your correspondent has a small cottage in Meshchera, has not been there for three years. Truly, if you are not afraid of local mosquitoes that are in the matchbox only by the same by the same, this is the best place on Earth. Here you can hide for life from military service, criminal prosecution and vagaries of the editor. True, it is not always possible to go to this lost world. Either the rain will wash the road, then the surrounding peat bogs blame: you can’t make out the directions in the smoke. Leaving is even more difficult. They say that summer residents and hunters stuck here with weak willpower often become natives.
 
In a word, we loaded all 580 liters of Octavia Combi trunk volume, accumulated over several years with unnecessary things, grabbed a gas mowl (in our case, the chainsaws became) and went to the bickens. The asphalt part of the route was remembered little. Probably for a car this is only a plus. The 150-horsepower 2.0 FSI, working in tandem with six-speed mechanics, in the third, fourth and fifth gears evenly and confidently pulled from the average revolutions. The sixth is a bonus to one who failed to limit himself to the fifth. The first and second programs seemed too shortened, the tachometer arrow was too fast in the red zone, but the rest of the impression was favorable. Moreover, in the process of pressing the gas pedal during overtaking, the respectful ni-and-figa-abe-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-it was asked out.
 
To the displeasure of the driver, his satellites were absorbed by the food all the way. I must say that there are plenty of places where you can create a reserve of provisions in the Octavia salon. Even 1.5-liter bottles arise in the door pockets. Meanwhile, the interior, solved in the monumental German style, does not have passengers with its severity to stuff bags from under the chips into the surrounding auxiliary containers. The driver has the mood. Looking at strict devices, clearly verified by the location of the buttons and toggle switches of the front panel, to dream of barbecue and evening drinking even ashamed. Thoughts come about work, a successful career, the highest purpose of a real man ... In a word, worthy praise of the sophistication of ergonomics from the late Skoda Tire Volkswagen make you think about all kinds of nonsense.
 
In the car we got there was almost everything. Starting with a harmless 12-volt outlet in the trunk and ending with the universal ESP system, including the functions of MABS, ASR, EDS, HBA. Even those who do not understand these abbreviations (are there really such?), Survenged anyway - cool. It seemed that you would put forward a box under a passenger seat, and there are double dumplings with sour cream. He opened a cooled glove compartment - get a glass of cold beer. Therefore, the road to the underworld, so the spouse calls our cottage, has turned into an entertaining walk. Psychological nirvana overshadowed only a few moments. The rear passengers, deprived of the opportunity to amend the two -zone climatic system, caused sympathy. How are they there? Wouldn't what happened? I did not like the too responsive behavior of the windows. The algorithm for the work of the buttons could not be comprehended, it was not the first time that the glass was given the right command. And most importantly, the thought of her own squalor did not let go. It is unlikely that in the near future I will find free at least $ 32,000 to buy something like that.
 
Day after day for many years, local mining workers distribute peat from railway wagons along KAMAZs exactly where the dirt road begins to our cottage. Dry - everything burns around, but you can drive. Two days of rain turn the primer into a hopeless black quagmire. For her sake, in fact, we dragged 220 kilometers from Moscow in a car with a 4x4 wheel formula. Without snow, where else will you evaluate the work of all these ESP and further on the list?
 
Skeptics call the rear bridge Octavia Combi 4x4 a freeloader. Say, the drive is incomplete, the bridge makes itself felt only in case of emergency. Maybe you are right. However, the disk couplings installed in the rear gearbox connects the rear axle as well.
 
Namely - as soon as the difference in the speed of rotation between the front and the posterior axes arises. Moreover, the moment begins to be transmitted with a difference on the axes of only 15. And when moving at a relatively high speed, the system, in addition, mildly muffles the gas and brakes the wheels, preventing drifts. We were able to verify this by overcoming (fortunately, not too deep) peat soap ten times in a row at different speeds, turning off the ESP function (here the car goes into a swim much faster) and again including it. Even on highway rubber, the wheels are rowing properly. The remaining four kilometers along the dry dinked country Octavia Combi 4x4 shook on a hard -four with a plus. The suspension reinforced against the usual Octavia smoothly, but confidently kept the blow, and the clearance enlarged by five centimeters, if it did not play a decisive role in our specific situation, still added confidence.
 
Skoda upset in Moscow. More precisely, she is not herself, but an account, put forward on a car wash, where three strong men for half an hour eliminated the consequences of our peat swims and innocent gastronomic tests inside the car. Well, Skoda Octavia Combi 4x4 - an excellent choice for almost any driver who can abandon the banal annoyance of the sedans. Great dynamics, moderate, but clearly expressed off -road qualities, size and comfort. Is this not the goals that we usually try when buying a car?
 
Text: Ilya Fisher
 

Source: Mkobil magazine [04.09.2006]