What do you say about a car that has sold over 500,000 units since its launch and the majority of those in markets like Germany? What do you say about a car that has salvaged the name of its maker from the humour pages of auto mags to that of a serious car manufacturer spoken of in the same breath as those of the best manufacturers? What do you say about a car that shares its platform with the Volkswagen Golf and the Audi A3?
  
We had already raved and ranted about how good the Octavia cars were when we had done a preview drive last June and after a lot of postponing and uncertainty, we finally got to road test the car.
  
There have been some changes in the car since we last drove it. It now looks better, has 22mm more legroom for the rear passengers and a reconstructed front bumper now reduces the coefficient of drag. As Skodas are sold the world over they have certain packages (sets of changes and modifications), for example for extremely cold climates or for hot climes as for the Middle Eastern countries. The India spec cars get a bad road package which means better ground clearance, strengthened suspension, an engine and sump guard as well as changes to the software of the engine management system (EMS) to deal with the poor quality fuel in India. The cars will initially come as completely built units (CBUs) from the Czech Republic with only very minor work being done on the assembly line at the Siemens factory at Aurangabad.