Skoda Octavia VRS

The VRS is our deputy editor’s pick of the VW Group hot hatch bunch. Here’s why

ASTON PARROTT REALLY WANTED A GO IN OUR NEW M3, AND as he had a big drive coming up he asked if I would swap the BMW for his Skoda for a week or two. I’d been curious about this new Octavia VRS for a while, so figured it would also be a good opportunity for me to get better acquainted with the Skoda.

First impressions? There’s something strangely liberating about driving the VRS after the M3. The BMW is great – so fast, so capable, something special, yes – but it’s also a responsibility: there’s nowhere to hide, especially when you’re travelling quickly. It is hardly subtle.

The Skoda, meanwhile, especially in rep white, goes unnoticed. Which is funny, because it’s very quickly apparent that in its own way it is a very good car. Certainly, for me, it’s the best of the MQB Evo-platform Volkswagen Group lot – it has a much nicer interior than a Mk8 VW Golf GTI or R, is a much better drive than an Audi S3, is less finickity than a Cupra Leon and is more spacious than any of them.

It also has the colossal advantage in my book of being available with a manual transmission – as fitted to our long-termer, yet no longer available even as an option on any of its aforementioned cousins – which is not to be underestimated. Even after the M3, the Skoda feels perky and up for it, and I’m sure a lot of that is down to the manual ’box. There’s no need to fiddle with the driver modes either: Normal is the best balance.

Of course, all of this is relative, because if we really shine the torch on the VRS, just as it has all the VW Group positives, so it has the usual downsides: a safe, uninvolving handling balance, smooth but rather joyless steering, a gear mechanism that is effortless to operate but has no sense of satisfaction from doing so. The gear ratios are long, too, and the brake pedal over-light and grabby.

A Civic Type R it isn’t. But if you accept that, and want a car that’s fast but not so fast that you can’t regularly really thrash it along, looks smart and feels well built, with a huge boot, this is a great choice.

Date acquired July 2021 Total mileage 6068 Mileage this month 1321 Costs this month £0 mpg this month 43.8