Skoda Scala long-term test review: report 1
The car: Skoda Scala 1.0 TSI 115 SE Run by: Kris Culmer, sub-editor
Why it’s here: To provide a credible budget alternative to the Golf as the Volkswagen moves upmarket for its next generation
Needs to: Show that a budget family hatchback doesn’t have to feel its price
Price £18,585 Price as tested £21,085 Mileage 3684 Official fuel economy 49.6mpg (WLTP) Test economy 53.5mpg Options Park Assist (£600), Meteor Grey metallic paint (£595), Tailgate Design Pack (£425), 16in Hoedeus black aero alloy wheels (£415), red ambient lighting (£250), front centre armrest with two rear USB ports (£85), Boot Pack (£80), silver haptic decorative insert (£50)
13 September – The Scala arrives
Apart from in 2017, when it was briefly taken off sale before a mid-life update, the current Skoda Octavia has contributed a What Car? Award to the firm's fast-filling trophy cabinet every year since 2014.
One of the attributes that has best served this family hatchback is its space: nothing can match it. Indeed, it can carry more suitcases that any other car on sale today. However, that’s easily understandable when you find out that it’s as much as 300mm longer than the likes of the Audi A3 Sportback, the Ford Focus, the Kia Ceed, the Peugeot 308 and the VW Golf.
This puts Skoda in the unusual position that its model line-up has room for two distinct family hatchbacks. The all-new one, the Scala, fits right into the conventional size bubble but undercuts those aforementioned rivals and the Octavia on price.
The Scala still offers some of the Octavia’s excellent engines, though: the 94bhp and 113bhp 1.0-litre turbo petrols and a 113bhp 1.6-litre diesel, but not the 1.5-litre turbo petrol or 2.0-litre diesel.
The design of its interior is familiar, too – clean but anonymous to my eyes, despite Skoda’s claim that it’s “visually extremely powerful, sporty and very emotive”.
These similarities are because the Octavia and Scala are, like more than 50 other models from around the Volkswagen Group’s global empire, based on MQB – a toolkit of parts that makes it considerably cheaper and easier to manufacture a wide variety of cars, with the savings from that economy of scale being passed into the pockets of the buying public.
However, the Scala is most closely related to the Seat Ibiza and is therefore a small car stretched to the max, rather than an Octavia shrunk down.
Despite this, there's still loads of passenger space and an impressively large 467-litre boot, but whether or not this engineering decision is felt on the road is something I’ll be exploring over the next few months. Does the Scala ride or handle in an inferior manner to its larger MQB siblings, or will buyers never actually be able to detect this cost-saving decision?
Of course, excellent value for money is at the core of the Skoda brand. In fact, my new car cost just £18,585 before options. I chose the more powerful of the two petrol engines, the 1.0 TSI 115, because I was worried the 1.0 TSI 95 I previously enjoyed in a Skoda Fabia – thanks to its peppy performance, neat manual gearbox and ability to chase 50mpg – would struggle to haul a larger car on my daily misery of a motorway commute.
Picking the middle trim level of three, SE, seemed sensible, thanks to its standard LED headlights, cruise control, rear parking sensors and an 8.0in touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth, a DAB radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This is glass-fronted, making it much nicer to touch than the plasticky displays that Skoda previously provided, as well as those of many contemporary rivals’. However, it has been playing up on me; more about that next time.
I was also glad to see automatic emergency braking in the brochure, although I'm less keen on the lane-keeping assistance, which has already proved to be incorrectly intrusive on several occasions. The options I did add were mostly style-related (although several people have already scoffed that the paint finish looks like primer), but there’s also the practicality-boosting Boot Pack, two USB ports in the rear and a self-parking system.
My only regret now is not adding the 10.3in Virtual Cockpit digital instrument display for £530, having recently discovered how useful this is – putting key functions such as a widescreen sat-nav map right behind the wheel – during a week in a Skoda Superb Estate.
What I don’t regret after my first few days behind the wheel is accepting the challenge of finding out whether the Scala can emerge from the shadow of not only the brilliant Octavia but also its relatives from the Audi, Seat and Volkswagen families. That because it’s already providing unquestionably comfortable, refined and simple to drive; so, you really don’t need the brand’s name spelt out across the tailgate to know full well that this car is a Skoda.
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