At least the temperature controls вЂ“ the ones youвЂ™ll use most frequently вЂ“ remain on the screen permanently, complete with a readout of their current setting. Skoda has also folded the climate control settings into the central screen, rather than having physical buttons and dials, which is one of our increasingly common bugbears as it means you have to fiddle with the screen to adjust the ventilation rather than simply pressing a button as you did before.

Some of the on-screen controls arenвЂ™t labelled, for example, so you have to work out what all the symbols mean, and we found the sat-nav was notably ponderous to use, taking around half a minute to find a destination weвЂ™d searched for. ThereвЂ™s an all-new entertainment system in this generation of Octavia, and it can take a bit of getting used to. And itвЂ™s a doddle to drive otherwise, with smooth, progressive steering that makes it easy to position the car on roundabouts, and a forgiving engine thatвЂ™ll lug you along in top gear at really low speeds where other cars will start to judder. The combination of a clutch that doesnвЂ™t offer very much feedback and a light, responsive accelerator pedal mean you might not pull away smoothly off the bat, but after a few goes the Octavia is easy to get to grips with. Past experience has shown us that this shouldnвЂ™t be an issue on a standard car. Our test car was fitted with the optional 18-inch wheels these result in a bit of extra noise and vibration over rougher patches of tarmac. For starters, itвЂ™s brilliantly comfortable, soaking up bumps beautifully and wafting you along with the sort of gently undulating gait normally only reserved for much larger luxury cars. Happily, because the Octavia is such a class act in other regards, you soon forget about this gripe. If the new Octavia has moved upmarket, therefore, could it now match вЂ“ or even better вЂ“ its supposedly superior sibling? The overall effect is of a car thatвЂ™s more suave than before one that no longer puts function entirely before form.ДЄ glance through the window reveals that the same can be said for the interior, too, which leads us neatly on to the second question: is it now as good as a Golf?ДЄfter all, the latest (Mk8) iteration of the Volkswagen alternative, which shares a platform and some of its engines with the Octavia, isnвЂ™t quite as plush as its predecessor, and it was that plushness that set the two apart before.

It's still quite clearly an Octavia вЂ“ and yet the rake of the rear screen has been swept backwards into the boot lid, which itself has been kicked up, and the nose has been smoothed and rounded off. This latest model, on first appearances at least, has gone up in the world. It offered the space of a Ford Mondeo for less than the cost of a Volkswagen Golf, yet somehow did so while still feeling comfortable and well-built. Number one: is it as good as the old one? After all, the third-generation Octavia was one of the best family cars money could buy. There are two big questions to answer with the new Skoda Octavia.

Skoda octavia 2020 interior