» Get the best price on a new Skoda
Skoda has announced that its jacked-up 4x4 wagon, the Octavia Scout, will arrive in Australia later this year. The company plans to unveil the car to the public at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, with retail sales commencing the same month, October.
By being heavily based on the Octavia Elegance wagon, the Scout shares its 103kW 2.0 TDI diesel engine, six-speed manual transmission and four-wheel drive, but rides nearly 20mm higher. The Scout is also marginally longer than the Octavia Elegance -- an outcome of different bumpers.
Other features to distinguish the Scout from the donor car include different side mouldings, revised door sills, plastic flares for the wheelarches, Scout badging, front and rear underbody protection (including a sumpguard), polished dual exhaust pipes and 17-inch Proteus alloy wheels.
In bringing the Scout to Australia as a diesel-only model, the Czech manufacturer will get the jump on Subaru -- perhaps by as much as a year. The Japanese company is planning to launch its first local-market diesel in the revised Outback model next year.
Skoda is eyeing the Outback sales prize, but the Scout may also attract prospective buyers of Subaru's Forester.
The Carsales Network drove the Skoda Scout briefly in the Czech Republic this week and came away impressed with its NVH refinement, its reasonable levels of comfort, dynamic control, performance -- and its unfailing practicality.
The Scout's 2.0-litre turbodiesel continues to use the pumpe duse injection system which will gradually be phased out of production, since the new VW Group common-rail diesel engine (to be one of three engines offered in the new Supreme large car) will provide Skoda with economies of scale and consequent manufacturing efficiencies for reduced production cost.
This common-rail engine will also make its way into the Octavia RS, probably around the time of the Australian International Motor Show in October of this year. Pricing for this car is yet to be finalised.
For the present, Australian pricing for the Octavia Scout is also undetermined. Citing a ballpark figure of $36-37,000, Skoda Australia boss, Matthew Wiesner said: "We need to be in there somewhere".
This is likely to translate to around $40,000 come October, given the current $38,990 price of the Octavia Elegance wagon.
To comment on this article click here.
» Get the best price on a new Skoda