BETTER value, fuel economy and performance are the central pillars of changes to the entry-level Skoda Octavia, the Octavia 90TSI. The Octavia 90TSI replaces the Octavia 1.6 and leads a 2011 model-year Octavia line-up that also promises more efficient diesels and an automatic option for Octavia Scout. The Octavia 90TSI is the company’s most affordable car now that Roomster has gone, and one that Skoda hopes will increase the brand’s prominence in buyers’ minds with its medium class entrant now offered at a small-car price.
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Octavia 1.6
Released: 2009
Ended: July 2010
Family Tree: OctaviaWHEN Skoda introduced a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated petrol model to lead the face-lifted Octavia range last year, it ignored a lesson others have learned from Australian automotive history, namely, don’t stick a small, low kilowatt engine into a medium car. Holden tried and failed with the Sunbird and then the VC Commodore four, and no car company with an instinct for long tenure in the market has been game to try the puny engine, big-car combo since. The 75kW/148Nm 1.6-litre engine, a two-valver borrowed from Golf V, enabled a robust move off the line but suffered from a lack of mid-range torque and wasn’t the smoothest mill, either.
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