2018 Skoda Octavia RS245 review HD

2018 Skoda Octavia RS245 review There’s cause for celebration whenever a carmaker takes a bona-fide, modern-day cult car and elevates itself to a new plateau of performance and goodness. And given how critically acclaimed the ‘thinking petrolhead’s’ value-laden poster child, the Skoda Octavia RS, has been in more modest guises to date, the new amped-up flagship RS245 version looks the consummate winner before it turns a wheel in anger. Is it good? You bet. As are many of motoring’s high-volume-selling nameplates. But being a cult favourite, by suggestion of definition, means affection is perhaps more critical than it is commercial. As much as the performance RS versions underpin the Czech brand’s slow-growing groundswell of popularity in Australia, the quickest Octavia yet won’t cause a sudden stampede of undiscerning buyers into local showrooms. Where’s the cult of the RS - wagon in particular - rooted? Volkswagen Australia (aka the Mothership) reckons it pushes particularly strong buttons with older buyers who “grow out” of VW Golf GTIs, the Octavia’s technical cousin under the skin. That might well be the suggestion of the buyer demographic data. The critical, less commercial, attraction is that for the petrolhead trainspotters, number-crunchers, bench racers and over-thinkers who pore of spec sheets and tend to analyse details, the Octavia RS’s buck-busting blend of practicality and performance it very difficult to top. Especially if you consider hot Golfs too unimaginative or fast, small-sized Audis too pricey. There is a counterpoint to all this positivity. Firstly, that goodness blend isn’t for everyone. Secondly, as much goodness as RSs deliver on wallet-friendly investment, they’re hardly super-heroic by outright performance car measure, despite what the Kool-Aid drinkers suggest. The not-quite-as-rose-tinged view is that go-fast Octavias have long been spacious, practical, well-equipped, nicely tempered everyday propositions where performance and driving enjoyment credentials are a bit of a bonus. It’s easy to forget that for around the $50k mark where the RS245 wagon with DSG sits, there are plenty of alternatives that compromise practicalities and niceties more, yet leverage performance and driving thrills harder. So choosing an off-street test track on which to sample the RS245 sedans and wagons, as was the case at their local launch, wasn’t going to shine the most positive of light on the breed’s balance of goodness. Price wise, the RS245 kicks off at $43,390 plus on-roads for the five-door liftback ‘sedan’ with a six-speed manual, which jumps to $45,890 if you opt for the DSG dual-clutch gearbox. That’s a $4500 hike over the base petrol RSs which, like the diesel versions (from $42,490), are still available in showrooms. Opting for the wagon body style adds $1500. Remarkably, according to Skoda Australia, around 80 per cent of all RS buyers opt for both the Tech pack ($1500), which adds heated seating front and rear, blind-spot mon