Perhaps predictably, the diesel version offers the lowest Skoda Octavia vRS running costs. Unusually though, the manual car is the ultimate, offering CO2 emissions of 119g/km in both hatchback and estate incarnations. That means it’ll appeal to company car drivers since not only is it in a lower BIK band but it offers a very low P11d value.

In terms of fuel economy the diesel car returns a claimed 61.4mpg on the combined cycle, which should translate to a real-world figure of around 50mpg during normal driving. The fuel tank is 50 litres, which means a range of around 550 miles between fill-ups.

Once again, the worst fuel economy is the DSG-equipped petrol car with a claimed 44.1mpg. That means a real-world consumption of around 30 miles per gallon and a range of 330 miles.

In terms of CO2, the most competitive Skoda Octavia vRS emissions come in the form of the diesel car fitted with the manual gearbox. At 119g/km they’re likely to appeal to both environment-conscious private buyers and company car drivers.

The worst CO2 emissions come from the DSG-equipped semi-automatic petrol car, which pumps out 149g/km.

We don’t predict a huge amount of problems with Skoda Octavia vRS reliability. The previous model didn’t suffer any major recalls and the firm’s record is very clean. Since it uses a lot of tried-and-tested Volkswagen Group parts it’s likely to stand the test of time incredibly well.