Skoda Octavia Sportline 2024 review

We established two years ago that the current, fourth-generation Skoda Octavia was a great car. That’s why it won the Chasing Cars 2022 Car of the Year award, trumping a list of high achievers in that year. In 2024, most of that greatness remains unshadowed.

Australia doesn’t buy many sedans or wagons like the Octavia anymore, but that doesn’t mean the sensibly-sized, sensibly-priced Skoda shouldn’t be high on family shopping lists. It saves big cash compared to midsized SUVs that are so often deeply underwhelming.

The Octavia is anything but: here’s a well-made, great-to-drive European wagon (or liftback-style sedan) that can be had for much less than $50,000 driveaway, even with options thrown in.

Last year, the fourth-gen Octavia was available in Australia as a tastefully chrome-trimmed 110TSI Style model, which continues at $42,490 driveaway, or as a sporty 180kW RS ($56,990 driveaway), with wagons adding $1500 over their sedan counterparts.

Now, the kind of generosity that early Skoda owners in Australia became very used to has made a sudden return. Simultaneously with launching considerably cheaper versions of the Czech brand’s Kamiq and Karoq small SUVs, there’s a new Octavia option in town.

Priced identically to the elegant Style grade, the new 110TSI Sportline swaps chrome daylight opening and fascia trims for a meaner black pack and a lower-riding, subtly sporty suspension tune on passive dampers. 18-inch alloy wheels are the same silver kicks as the Style model.

Think of it as a fashionably black-packed Octavia Style with ride quality that’s maybe 15 percent firmer and you are in the right ballpark. The pair share a 1.4-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder engine, eight-speed torque converter auto and a torsion beam rear suspension.

Fair pricing nearly makes us forget that Skoda Australia teased a very different Octavia Sportline grade back in late 2022 which was going to pack a 140kW 2.0-litre turbo, a wet dual-clutch auto and independent rear suspension – a mini-RS of sorts.

That type of Sportline was scuppered after cost pressures made it certain that it would be uncomfortably close to the genuine Octavia RS in price. Hence the new Sportline-lite.

But