Skoda Octavia Estate - Reliability & safety
Skoda has a great reputation for reliability and building safe cars
Skoda has an excellent customer satisfaction record, both for reliability and customer service. Its vehicles are also extremely safe, with a string of five-star Euro NCAP results for virtually all of its latest models. We'd expect no less for the latest Octavia, which has more safety features than the outgoing version.
Skoda Octavia Estate reliability
The latest Octavia uses a combination of new and evolved parts, so there shouldn't be too many surprises when it comes to reliability. Its predecessor was rated highly in our 2019 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, with just 12.4% of buyers reporting an issue in the first year.
In our 2020 brand survey, Skoda was one of the best performers, finishing fifth out of 30 manufacturers overall. Just over 17% of owners reported faults with their cars in the first year of ownership.
Safety
A Euro NCAP safety rating of less than five stars would be disappointing, and there are already signs a top result should be in the bag. The closely-related Volkswagen Golf has already undergone testing and acquitted itself very well, and it shares safety kit with the Octavia.
As part of significant technology upgrades, the new Octavia has an array of new safety systems. It’s one of the first models to get collision avoidance assist, which is operated via the car’s front cameras, monitoring the road ahead at a distance of up to 35 metres. The system can also intervene to avoid a potential collision if the driver fails to take action at speeds of up to 90mph.
Also featured is turn assist, which uses side-mounted cameras to monitor oncoming traffic for hazards including pedestrians and cyclists, automatically bringing the car to a halt if a hazard is detected. When stationary, the car’s exit warning system scans the road, sounding an alert if either the driver or passenger tries to open a door if a vehicle, pedestrian or cyclist is detected.
