Skoda Octavia Estate - Reliability & safety

Skoda has, in the past, maintained 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. However, its 66th-place finish in our 2022 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey is a little further down the 75-car list than we perhaps expected, given that the Skoda Kodiaq came fifth and the Karoq finished in 18th.

It didn’t feature in our 2023 survey, but the brand will be hoping this latest facelift can rejuvenate the model for the coming years. Skoda as a brand did come in 20th place out of 32 manufacturers, with a slightly worse-than-average score for reliability – 26% of Skoda owners reported an issue with their car in the first year. It did perform better, however, than fellow Volkswagen Group manufacturers Volkswagen (27th), SEAT (23rd) and even premium sister brand Audi (30th) in terms of owner satisfaction.

Safety

Crash test experts at industry body Euro NCAP gave the Octavia the top five-star rating recently. It scored 92 per cent for adult protection and 88 per cent and 79 per cent in the child protection and safety assist categories, so it’s a very safe car – and there’s plenty of safety kit included too.

Latest versions of the Octavia get access to collision avoidance assist and turn assist which utilise the car’s camera system to monitor traffic and obstacles and intervene in the event of a potential collision at speeds of up to 90mph. 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.