2009 Skoda Octavia RS First Drive Review

ALLOWING MOTORING SCRIBES to mercilessly flog your new model for more than three hours at a track is a display of serious confidence in your product.

To launch the new look Octavia RS, Skoda Australia assembled the motoring press at Top Gear Australia’s test track at Camden Airport and [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More

CZECH MANUFACTURER Skoda has released its Superb large-car entry into the Australian market today, a car that that will sit above the Octavia as the company’s local flagship model.

Priced from $42,990 (before on-roads), the Superb blends luxury and practicality into a longer and lower package than the VW Passat.

And, unlike the Passat, the Superb has [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More

AUDI AUSTRALIA HAS announced the addition of two new motors to the 2009 Q5 range, bringing the tally to two diesel and two petrol engines.

A 3.2 litre FSI petrol mill will sit just below the existing 3.0 TDI at the top of the Q5 tree, boasting 199kW and 330Nm from its direct-injected and naturally-aspirated six [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More

The times they are a-changing. In the past few years, despite the continuing success of Ford’s F-Series rigs, the US market has seen a dramatic shift away from cumbersome SUVs and big capacity V8s.

In their place, increasing numbers of consumers are opting for more fuel-efficient wheels. With this in mind, Volkswagen has set US sales [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More

Talk to an Englishman about Skoda, and he will most likely roll his eyes and laugh as he remembers uninspiring, unremarkable cars produced by communists for their comrades and exported to, among other places, the UK (more recently) and Australia (back in the 1980’s).

But that was a long time ago and times have changed.

Now sitting [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More

Previously if you wanted an all-wheel-drive Volkswagen hatchback you had to spring for the top o’ the line Golf R32. However, following the axing of the R32 for the sixth-generation Golf, VW has decided the time is ripe for the AWD flame to be spread to the others in the Golf range.

The first non-performance recipient [...]

• 
• Comment
• Read More