Skoda Octavia Scout Review and Prices

Aesthetically it’s a little more muscular than the standard Octavia, with tougher protective cladding, underbody guards and re-styled bumpers, but it’s the added grip and higher ride height.

It can tow up to 2,000kg, and although it lacks the hill-hold or descent control of some 4×4 cars it handles rough and slippery terrain even more smoothly than its boxier cousin. Its all-wheel-drive technology is the same as in the Yeti, so there’s plenty of traction for when you need it most, without having a permanently connected 4×4 system hurting your fuel economy.

The Octavia Scout is praised for its best-of-both-worlds attributes. It’s blessed with the same comfortable handling as the vanilla Octavia but with a smugness-inducing ruggedness which means you can easily negotiate those would-be sticky situations come winter.

The Octavia Scout is the antidote to the SUV craze

The Scout is a tough-terrain-tackling crossbreed of a car, designed with outdoorsy families in mind. It’s not going to be as capable as a pure off-roader, but with two-tonne towing power it’ll more than do the job if you have a caravan or horsebox to cart, and its rough-road package offers excellent value for money next to others in its class.

Ultimately though, despite the dearer price tag over the standard car, critics say the Scout is hard to beat in terms of sheer confidence-boosting does-it-all practicality.