Skoda Octavia Estate - Practicality & boot space

The Octavia Estate is in a league of its own for interior space, competing with cars from the class above for passenger room and often beating them for boot space.

Skoda Octavia Estate interior space & storage

The Estate is 4.69m in length, just behind the 4.7m Audi A4 Avant, which is not only in the next class up but also considerably more expensive. This means there's ample legroom in the back seats, and the Octavia's lengthened roofline helps ensure plentiful headroom. It's even possible for three tall adults to sit in the back, which is rare in this class.

Boot space

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Boot space has increased to 640 litres – a 30-litre jump on its predecessor – and there's a split-level floor that's useful for hiding valuables and stopping them moving around. Plug-in hybrid Octavia iV models have significantly less space at their disposal due to having the batteries mounted underneath the boot floor; a load bay measuring 490 litres in capacity is much tighter than the 548 litres offered by the plug-in Peugeot 308 SW.

Flip the rear seats down (which can be done using levers in the boot) and the Skoda Octavia Estate offers a simply vast 1,700-litre load space, assuming you're happy to load to the roof. That's almost verging on how much space you might expect in a small van, showing just how practical and spacious the Skoda is. With such a large boot, we wonder if many buyers actually need the bigger Skoda Superb Estate.

Towing

The majority of models can tow a braked trailer weighing up to 1,500kg, while some offer slightly more and entry-level models manage slightly less. If you're planning to tow regularly, it might be worth hunting out a four-wheel drive version, as this increases the towing capacity to 2,000kg.