2025 Skoda Octavia RS review
If affordable, go-fast wagons are your idea of fun, then you may have picked up on a worrying trend in the past 10 years: many are disappearing.
Amid the droves of new SUVs, however, Skoda continues to proudly wave the practical performance flag with its Skoda Octavia RS sedan and wagon. The passenger car pairing has been updated for 2025, with more power, enhanced straight-line speed, and added safety and equipment.
While those changes have imposed a substantial price increase over the Octavia RS’ immediate predecessor, they help make a good thing even more rounded – as we discovered at the recent national launch in Bendigo, Victoria.
How much does the Skoda Octavia RS cost?
The Skoda Octavia RS range opens at $58,490 plus on-road costs in Australia for the Octavia RS sedan, while the equivalent Octavia RS wagon starts at $59,990 plus on-road costs.
That’s a circa $6000 price increase over the models they replace, though Skoda Australia is quick to point out they offer additional equipment as standard.
In any case, the RS versions of the Octavia impose a roughly $17,000 premium over the regular Octavia model on which they are based, albeit with a load more standard kit and performance.
Competitors for the Octavia RS are relatively thin on the ground compared with even 10 years ago. If a hatchback is your preferred flavour, there’s a choice of the Hyundai i30 N, Volkswagen Golf GTI and Toyota GR Corolla. If it’s specifically a wagon that you’re seeking, the Subaru Impreza WRX wagon ($59,790 plus ORCs) is about the closest you’ll get to a logical rival at this money.
What is the Skoda Octavia RS like inside?
The interior of the 2025 Skoda Octavia RS best reflects the changes introduced as part of this mid-life update.
Chief among the new armoury is a larger 13-inch centre touchscreen (up from 10 inches), which offers excellent clarity and response, and is matched by a bank of dedicated buttons and switchgear underneath, ensuring excellent ease of use.
The screen is refreshingly simple to navigate, operates harmoniously with smartphone mirroring (Apple CarPlay) and largely spares you from taking multiple steps to perform a simple command, such as turning on recirculated air.
Elsewhere, the Octavia RS takes on a more distinguished interior theme, with new front seats, tasteful suede highlights with contrasting red stitching, and metallic finishes scattered throughout. There are a couple of shortcuts from a material standpoint – like the faux metal door handles (read: plastic), but all in all the Octavia RS feels suitably well presented for this price.
What’s also pleasing is Skoda’s cleverness around practicality. The Czech brand’s signature umbrella (tucked in the driver’s door card), strong incidental storage, baggage hooks, and rear window blinds are all welcome carryover features in the updated Octavia RS. It’s a well-thought-out interior space offering excellent everyday amenity.
But the Octavia RS’ biggest boon is the boot. It is simply massive, belying even the claimed 600-litre capacity (680 litres on wagon variant) with a cavernous aperture, enormous dimensions, flat floor, tie-down points and baggage hooks. There’s also a 12-volt outlet, a space-saver spare tyre underneath, adjustable luggage blind and electric tailgate.
— Sam Charlwood
What equipment does the Skoda Octavia RS come with?
Perhaps a more pertinent question would be, “What doesn’t the Octavia RS come with?”
The updated model is loaded with kit, in part due to Skoda Australia’s decision to make the previously optional ‘Premium Pack’ standard fare.
Cosmetically, there are new front and rear bumpers, additional glossy black accenting, and black surrounds on the exhaust tips.
Out of the box, you get: 19-inch alloy wheels, matrix LED headlights, three-zone climate control, electric front seats with power, heating, lumbar and massage functionality, heated steering wheel, heated outboard rear seats, keyless entry and start, and a heated windshield.
On the infotainment front there’s the aforementioned 13-inch touchscreen, complemented by a separate digital instrument cluster and head-up display. There’s also a wireless charging pad with its own ventilation (to stop your phone overheating), wireless (or wired) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus a Canton premium sound system. Four USB-C ports are dotted around the cabin (two in the front and two in the rear), as well as 12-volt outlets up front and in the boot.
The 2025 updates have virtually taken away optional extras for the entry Select and mid-range Sportline variants. Furthermore, every paint colour is now included in the purchase price, except for Velvet Red – a $770 add-on.
The only option across the range is a panoramic sunroof on RS wagon variants (Skoda had yet to confirm pricing at the time of writing).
The Skoda Octavia RS is backed by a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and annual roadside assistance if you service your vehicle through the Skoda network. A seven-year service pack will set buyers back $4200, according to Skoda, based on 12-month/15,000km intervals.
How safe is the Skoda Octavia RS?
It’s very safe.
Since this is essentially mid-life update, the 2025 Skoda Octavia RS retains the five-star ANCAP safety rating awarded to its predecessor in 2022.
The 2025 model ups the ante on safety equipment. Fitted standard are adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, driver fatigue detection, emergency assistance, turn assistance, exit warning, autonomous emergency braking with cyclist and pedestrian detection, travel assistance, lane assistance, rear-cross traffic alert and intelligent park assistance.
The RS model comes standard with head-up display, reversing camera and overhead camera, plus front and rear parking sensors.
Naturally, there’s also the usual safety acronyms: anti-lock brakes (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC) and full suite of airbags.
Handily, the Octavia RS bucks the trend of increasingly invasive (and distracting) safety systems. There’s no incessant bells or chimes, and the active driver assistance suite is well tuned and accurate with its interventions.
What powers the Skoda Octavia RS?
The 2025 Skoda Octavia RS is said to be the most powerful iteration yet, courtesy of a mild massaging of the VW Group’s long-running EA888 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder.
New piston skirts and changes to the crankshaft and crankcase design have helped eke out an additional 15kW of power, bringing total outputs to 195kW and 370Nm. Drive is shuffled to the front wheels via a seven-speed dual clutch automatic and an electronically controlled mechanical limited-slip differential.
There have certainly been more powerful iterations of the 2.0-litre in the past within the VW Group, but not in this application. Nought to 100km/h now takes 6.4 seconds for the RS sedan (two-tenths faster than before), while the RS wagon notches triple figures in 6.5 seconds.
As ever, the Skoda Octavia RS requires minimum 95 RON premium unleaded.
While the RS employs the same basic MacPherson strut front suspension as other Octavia models, it upgrades to a more sophisticated multilink axle on the rear (one longitudinal and three transverse links) with a torsion stabiliser. Adaptive dampers are now also standard.
Braked towing capacity is rated at 1600kg.
What is the Skoda Octavia RS like to drive?
The Skoda Octavia RS is everything you’d hope a performance sedan or wagon would be at this price point.
There’s meaningful performance in the way it tackles daily duties, from the soft warble upon start-up, to the basic tuning of the key controls. It handles touring roads and highway driving with aplomb, yet feels easy and approachable in its day-to-day demeanour, with excellent vision and overall feeling.
Granted, there’s a natural firmness to the suspension tune – the immediate trade-off coming through the bends – but all told, regular conveyance is met with no huge compromises in comfort. About the biggest penalty is the undeniable level of road noise, especially on open sections of coarse-chip bitumen.
What also stands out is the lightness with which the Octavia RS tackles bends. Amid the current fascination with ponderous SUVs and EVs, the Skoda’s 1530kg kerb weight (1580kg for wagon) makes it feel agile and engaging.
Through corners, the RS wagon and sedan harness their weight superbly, offering quick changes in direction and tactile feeling from the chassis.
The electronically-controlled mechanical limited-slip diff up front is great at apportioning drive out of tight corners, while Bridgestone Potenza rubber ensures ample grip commensurate with this level of front-drive performance. In short, the Octavia RS feels pointed, balanced and playful.
The 2.0-litre engine likewise offers pleasing performance, with a few typical character quirks. There’s its signature tendency to occasionally hesitate or lurch from a standstill (a symptom of the DSG and some lag), but it is smooth sailing from there on, with well-timed shifts and pleasing performance through the dial. We just wish there were a little more aural drama: even in the sportiest mode, the engine sounds muted.
Highway passage is a cinch, the engine ticking over at a miserly 1700rpm. Across a 300km drive program, the Octavia RS returned a fuel consumption average of 6.7L/100km.
The NRMA’s take on the Skoda Octavia RS
The Skoda Octavia RS offers a refreshing take on the passenger car brief, its new suite of tech and equipment delivering real improvements.
The RS highlights everything great about the humble station wagon, including light-footed dynamics, stirring performance and a certain street presence. The value equation remains strong, even with price increases, further adding to the package’s pragmatic appeal.
Above all else, the Skoda Octavia RS brings choice and variety to the market. A welcome antidote to the modern SUV.
What we liked
- Pleasing everyday performance, decent real-world efficiency
- Impressive cornering ability and enjoyable front-drive performance
- Incredibly well packaged, with excellent presentation and a roomy boot with spare tyre
What could be better?
- Persistent road noise on coarse-chip surfaces
- Occasional hesitation upon taking off – a symptom of DSG and turbo lag
- Lacks the sound and theatre expected from a performance model, no manual transmission option
