With more than 5,000 units sold last year, Skoda achieved eighth place in the Irish market as a brand, writes Brian Byrne. Given that about half of those were Octavias, of a generation that was already eight years old, the performance is a real testament to a model which has built an undeniable affection with Ireland's motorists.
Indeed, in terms of segment, the Octavia scored third place in 2012, behind Ford's Focus and VW's Golf. By any standard, that's seriously impressive.
Now a brand new generation is about to be rolled out. In Skoda's new sharp but simpler design, the latest Octavia is longer, wider, and has a longer wheelbase than the outgoing version.
In automotive architecture terms it's also right up there with its parent group's other offerings in the compact family segment, Audi's new A3 and VW's new Golf.
In style it follows the edgy look of the recently launched new Rapid, which may well become the bigger seller over time in the compact segment. Octavia, while still nominally a C segment car, has been pushed closer to the next level in size, and provides significantly more presence than the Rapid. Particularly at the front.
The car has some tidy work at the rear end too, and a slight reworking of the familiar 'C' shaped rear lights that very distinctively signwrite the brand at night.
Like everybody else in the business, Skoda has been doing an Operation Transformation in weight terms. So despite the fact that it is a significantly larger car, with benchmark passenger and cargo numbers, it is the weight of a sturdy male occupant lighter.
It is going to change the model and brand expectations in fuel efficiency too, thanks in part to that same weight trimming, but also because of further improvements in the engines. A Greenline model powered by one of the 1.6 diesels will have official CO2 emissions of 89g/km, which means it is comfortably low in the A2 tax band here in Ireland, at €180 a year.
There are options of a lot of the technologies which we have seen in the A3 and Golf in recent months, including intelligent lights, automatic parking, adaptive cruise control and more. However, these things do tend to substantially push up the price of a car. Ultimately, Octavia fans will be looking for the kind of value/quality ethos which has made it such a success so far in Ireland, and that will mean doing without most of that stuff anyhow.
I'm out in Portugal to drive the car tomorrow, and by then I'll also have more detail on the specs and prices for home. So come back here tomorrow for that. In the meantime, I suspect that dealers are waiting for supplies as soon as possible, so they can not just satisfy existing Octavia owners, but notch up some satisfying conquests too.
