New Skoda Octavia RS Spotted Out in the Open in Both Body Styles

Having driven many different Skoda Octavias over the years (even a first-gen vRS with the 5v/cylinder 1.8-liter turbo), I've grown in my own personal opinion from thinking it’s a cheaper VW Golf clone with few merits to now understanding its qualities and its appeal for others.

However, for me, the thing that made any Octavia cool was the fact that you could get it as an RS (vRS for those living in Britain). Even cooler was that from the very first generation onward, they also made it available as a hot estate, a real kudos-builder in Europe, where people just seem to like their kind.

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New Skoda Octavia RS Revealed, Offered With 217HP Petrol and 181HP Diesel Engines

The Skoda Octavia RS (dubbed vRS in Britain) has been a very eagerly anticipated car for 2013, and now it’s here, in all its subtle glory. It looks exactly like you would imagine it to, it has the 220 PS (217 hp) we were expecting it to have, and its exterior modifications over the regular Octavia are visible, but they are characteristically subtle, again, like you were expecting.

If you were anticipating it to reach 62 mph or 100 km/h in just under 7 seconds, your guess was spot on, as it does it only two tenths faster than that at 6.8 seconds. Top speed is 155 mph (248 km/h). These figures are for the 2.0-liter petrol engine, while the other (predictable) option, the 2.0-liter diesel with 184 PS (181 hp) is a bit slower, but a lot more economical. It deals with the benchmark sprint in 8.1 seconds, and its top speed is 145 mph or 232 km/h.

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Skoda Rapid Sport Concept Is Even More Aggressive in the Metal

Volkswagen has always tried to sell SEAT as its most sporting mainstream brand, but that hasn’t stopped the other group brand whose name begins with an “S” to inject a little bit of verve into its range with its line of vRS models. Now, Skoda has just revealed the Rapid Sport concept at this year’s GTI Meeting in Wörthersee, Austria. Read more »

Skoda Details New Octavia Combi 4x4, Shares a Huge Gallery of Photos

Following the world premiere of the new Octavia Combi at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Skoda has released information about the 4x4 variants of its station wagon that are now fitted with an updated AWD system featuring the latest-generation Haldex 5 clutch.

Of the 124,500 Skoda Octavia estates sold last year in Europe, almost 20 percent were all-wheel drive versions, with the ratio being even higher in Scandinavian and Alpine countries (61 percent in Norway, 55 percent in Switzerland).

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Scoop: New 2014 Skoda Octavia RS Trots Out Almost Undisguised

With the new iteration of Skoda's popular Octavia liftback and Combi (estate) already in the market, the Volkswagen Group's Czech division is now preparing the crown jewel of the series with the RS (vRS in Britain) performance models.

The first public appearance of the third-generation Octavia RS will take place at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held from July 11 to 14, 2013, in the UK, but until then, we can show you the car through a very revealing set of spy pictures.

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All-New 2014 Skoda Octavia RS to Climb the Hill at Goodwood, in July

The all-new Skoda Octavia is a car which wants you to take it very seriously. However, Skoda knows that for it to be truly accepted, there must be a hot version sitting at the top of the range. This is why they will debut the RS version (vRS in the UK) of the new Octavia at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held from July 11 to 14, 2013.

Since Skoda itself admits that the Octavia is "the heart" of their brand, and factoring in the VW influence on the technical side, we expect the new RS to be a highly-competent machine.

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Skoda Describes its New Octavia as "Amazing Everyday" in New Ad

Czech automaker Skoda has had it good ever since it launched the first Octavia. The new car, the all-new third generation model, is a modern adaptation of the original formula of taking VW Golf underpinnings and making a larger, more comfortable car. Read more »

The Year of the Hot Hatch: See Which Models We're Expecting in 2013

If anything else, this year, the automotive world will be blessed with a wide range of new hot hatches for you to choose from. Sadly, for U.S. buyers, most of these pocket rockets will be staying in Europe, but if there was ever a time to switch continents, now would be it (well, from an automotive perspective...).

To make your decision easier, we have put together a list of all of the hot hatches that are expected to go on sale in Europe in 2013, and which you can check out in detail right after the break.

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Skoda Octavia Liftback and Combi Go on Show in Geneva [w/Video]

The Skoda Octavia, a firm favorite of European families, now in its third generation, was officially revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. As with all previous Octavias, the Czech automaker is relying on the car's blend of VW quality, a comfortable and compliant ride, as well as ample interior space, especially for luggage. Read more »

Parlez-Vous Français? Video Walkaround of the New Skoda Octavia Combi

When Skoda confirmed the world debut of the estate version of the new, third generation Octavia at the Geneva Auto Salon on March 5, it did so by releasing only two pictures of the car, leaving the rest to our imagination and our previous viewings of the liftback model. Read more »

Angry Ukrainian Woman Goes Need for Speed Crazy After Skoda Pulls in Front of Her

Seriously now, who needs Hollywood when we have dash-cams? Just look at this insane video of a woman driver from Ukraine who goes nuts after a Skoda Octavia made the mistake of pulling in front of her car to turn at a light. Read more »

New Skoda Octavia Combi Makes its Online Debut

The second member of the new Skoda Octavia Mk3 family after the liftback is the Combi, or as it will be marketed in the UK and other countries, the Estate, and it was partially revealed today in advance of its world premiere at the Geneva motor show next month. Read more »

New Skoda Octavia RS Photo Surfaces Online, But is it Real?

Could this be our best look at the new 2013 Skoda Octavia RS to date? Well, we can't really say with certainty if it's the real deal, but the cut in the front grille suggests that it may be a Photoshop of the regular Octavia Mk3. Read more »

Spy Shots: New Skoda Octavia Combi RS is a Family Man's Golf GTI

Don’t let those tiny wheels with the low-cost hub caps fool you; what you see here is the Combi variant of the new generation of the Skoda Octavia RS (labeled the vRS in Britain), the sedan, or rather liftback version of which, we saw through a series of leaked screenshots from an online car configurator in December. Read more »

Spy Shots: New Skoda Octavia Combi Caught on Public Roads

There's really no point in trying to hide the styling elements of the new generation of the Skoda Octavia Combi since the liftback version has already been formally introduced and we've even seen the station wagon without camouflage (albeit from a distance), however, the Czech carmaker continues to circulate lightly masked prototypes like this one, nabbed earlier in the week. Read more »

Skoda Prices All-New Octavia from £15,990 in the UK

About a month after Skoda began series production of the new Octavia Mk3, the Czech automaker opened the order books in the UK with deliveries to begin on March 16.

The new generation of the Octavia starts from £15,990 for the base 1.2-liter TSI petrol model, with prices rising to £23,240 for the range-topping 2.0-litreTDI diesel connected to a dual clutch DSG transmission.

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Skoda Confirms Six New Model Presentations for 2013, Can You Guess What They Are?

The VW Group's pride and joy from the Czech Republic has plans to release six new models onto the European market in 2013, according to a teaser card published by Skoda France on its social media account. Read more »

Skoda Begins Series Production of All-New 2013 Octavia, Sales Start in Late January

On Monday, Skoda initiated series production of its brand new, third generation Octavia saloon at its Czech car plant in Mladá Boleslav, ahead of its European market launch that will take place at the end of January 2013.

Skoda said that in order to prepare its factory for the MQB-platform based model, it introduced "one of the most comprehensive modernization and expansion projects" in the history of its main plant at Mladá Boleslav, boosting the Octavia/Rapid production line’s capacity from 800 to 1,200 cars per day.

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Scoop: New 2013 Skoda Octavia RS with VW Golf GTI Heart Makes an Early Appearance

While Skoda told us that we should expect to see the high-performance RS (or vRS in the United Kingdom) version of the newly introduced 2013 Octavia sometime next year, the automaker itself seems to have uploaded the car on its official configurator by mistake (?).

The images from Skoda's site are a tad fuzzy, but they still allow us to see what the new Octavia RS will look like on the outside.

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New Skoda Octavia III Live Photos and Videos from Czech Presentation

As its most important new model of the past few years, Skoda wants to give the third generation of the Octavia as much publicity as possible, which is why the Czech carmaker planned a special event for the press at its headquarters in Mlada Boleslav earlier this week ahead of the car's first public outing at the Geneva Salon in March.

Skoda's bestseller has been designed from the ground up sharing its MQB-platform and mechanical hardware with the latest generations of the VW Golf, Seat Leon and Audi A3 compacts, all of which were released in Europe this year.

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