Skoda officially announced the roll-out of its 19 millionth car. The company, set up in 1905 crossed the five million mark in 1991, which its association with VW began. The milestone car is a Skoda Fabia, finished in Moon White, and headed to a customer in the Czech Republic.
Bet the new owner is very lucky, but fret not, there are reasons for you to be happy, too. Remember that rather recently the company also announced a 2017-bound facelift of the Octavia with a four-headlamp setup and other updates? Unsurprisingly the W212-like front-end has finally found its way to the new Octavia vRS, along with a lot of other exciting updates.
Starting with the design, the front-end now has a wider grille, quad headlamps, and a redesigned bumper. There’s a black diffuser at the rear, a red reflector lamp, and LED lights for the registration plate.
The car has moved up in terms of luxury, too, with Alcantara being offered as an option. And of course, the vRS doesn’t let its practicality quotient go down even a bit — you still get a brolly neatly tucked underneath the passenger seat.
Now, the more important bits. Engine options on the 2017 Skoda Octavia vRS include 2-litre petrol and diesel units, available in both front-wheel and all-wheel drive versions (the latter). What must be noticed here is that while the max power output of the diesel engined version is unchanged at 181 bhp, the petrol’s is increased up to 227 bhp — matching that of the special edition RS 230.
There’s also a slew of driver and safety assists, which promise to make the vRS safer and less easy to unsettle in difficult driving conditions. On the other hand, the feature-list hasn’t left untouched, either, with new infotainment units being offered on all models — and the top one gets a 9.2-inch touchscreen unit, complete with an optional 4G module.
The highlight is of course the more powerful, petrol engined version, which manages 0-100 kph in just 6.7 seconds (when specified with front-wheel drive, manual gearbox). The suspension is lowered and the track widened. Which will be useful when piloting what’s quite the most powerful, standard production version of the Octavia ever.
And there’s an Estate version, too. Here’s hoping Skoda India finalises the vRS for India soon.
