It can get you from 0-62mph in a very respectable 8.8sec and pulls like a train from low revs. It certainly feels punchier than the 2.0-litre hybrid Toyota Corolla Touring Sports – even though that has more power.

The Octavia Estate’s ride is, on the whole, excellent. It’s noticeably softer than a lot of its rivals, including the Ford Focus Estate…

…the Octavia has one of the better-grade interiors in the class and its miles ahead of the one in the Ford Focus Estate.

Being considered spacious among estate cars isn’t easy for the Skoda Octavia Estate because the class includes the Volvo V90 and other behemoths. Even so, the Octavia holds its own, with plenty of space up front.

Ostensibly, it really is a smart-looking environment in which to spend time, and a few of our testers even said they preferred the look and general feel of the Octavia’s cabin to that of the latest Audi A3.

The Golf is no longer the indisputable class-leader, has the Octavia leapfrogged the very car to which it owes so much

Skoda has done away with most of the push buttons. There’s a strip of them under the nice, wide infotainment screen (which is more than you get in the new Golf and Leon)

A marginally more user-friendly cabin than the Leon’s or Golf’s, then. We’d say more attractive, too

It’s practical – there’s plenty of space in the back for fully grown adults, and the boot is 640 litres with the seats up, or 1,700 litres with them folded down (bit less in the PHEV because of the battery). That’s much more space than you get in a Ford Focus Estate, for example. More than you get in any other small estate, as a matter of fact.