Skoda Octavia Combi test drive since 2008 -
Be or seem?
The dilemma taken into the title, everyone decides for himself. Most prefer to follow the path of the least resistance and choose a simple way. Fortunately, for this you need not so much a certain set of attributes that allows others to reckon you to a particular group. We took the Skoda Octavia Scout and Skoda Roomster Scout test. At first glance, they have any obstacles on the shoulder of a unpainted body kit along the perimeter of the body, large wheels, roof rails, protection elements sticking out from under the bumper. But! One of these machines is indeed a car for outdoor activities, and the other only pretends to be. So who is who?
Let's start with seniority with Skoda Octavia Scout. It is enough to look into the technical description of the car all -wheel drive and 18 centimeters of the road clearance are given to the car for a reason. Of course, this is not God the news, but in the end, the car becomes universal, allowing you to ride with the same comfort both around the city and outside it. Of course, to conquer serious off -road, it is better to have a full -fledged jeep, but in the city you will feel like an elephant in a bowl shop, and in a crowd metropolis, such a machine will drink gasoline in buckets as the same elephant of water. Skoda Octavia Scout is a compromise, the very notorious 2 in 1. Like any universal thing, in both Ipostas cars it does not shine with record indicators. In traffic lights, the 2-liter engine is not enough on it to stay in the stream, but we must remember that he has to twist two wheels more, so do not wait for records. The road clearance of 18 centimeters is also not a subject of special pride, but in 95% of everyday situations it will be enough. You can climb on a high border, and go to the river in the country, and get out into the forest for mushrooms. And to knead serious dirt on a general passenger car in the lot of completely desperate. If you summarize all the advantages of this car in one column, you get a collective image of the Dream Car of the Soviet summer resident a large car with a universal body, all -wheel drive and considerable road clearance. This is how many seedlings can be taken away at the same way! But in another column there lives alone, but a very large and fat minus price. The basic set of Skoda Octavia Scout will cost almost $ 36,000. With that set of additional equipment, like the machine on our test, there are almost $ 43,000 in general. Not at all a folk price, somehow you expect other numbers from this brand. To tell someone about 5 years ago that I bought Skoda for more than 40 thousand dollars, will be considered an avid liar. Now another time, other price tags, and we like to live with it, like the situation or not.
But the youngest, Skoda Roomster Scout, as is often the case with young people, poses for another. Despite the full set of external attributes of the conqueror of uninhabited lands, you have just a city car. And all unpainted plastic around the perimeter protects the body not from hemp in the forest, but from the doors of neighboring cars at the parking near the supermarket.
The maximum of the adventures that he is capable of leading a couple of bicycles to the edge of the Bittsev forest. True, for this, Skoda Roomster Scout is adapted as best as possible thanks to the Varioflex rear seats system. With her, each of the three rear seats can be manipulated independently of each other: to change their position and even completely remove any separately or all at once. The rear seats move back and forth, and if you remove the average, then the extremely easily move to the cent. All of these manipulations are able to do one person without any tools. But the drive to the only front axle, a small roadlight and a hard, typically asphalt suspension make Skoda Roomster Scout a purely road car. True, you can pass yourself for the conqueror of the jungle. But exclusively urban ones.
Alexey Khresin
Author photo: Yan Segal
Source: Mkobil magazine [April/2008]
