Is the Skoda Octavia the ideal family car for Australia? Photo Gallery

Is the Skoda Octavia the ideal family car for Australia? It?s not an idle question.

Please consider …

For the past year, the two best models in Skoda's Octavia range - the top dog RS and the 1.8 TFSI - have been knackered sales-wise by having no self-shifting transmission option.

It's mattered not that the RS runs the same turbo-charged 2.0-litre direct injection four pot turbo petrol engine as Volkswagen's critically and popularly adored Golf GTI.

Nor has the fact - and stop me if you've heard this before - that the Skoda is bigger, better-built (according to several major independent surveys), almost as good to drive and a better value for money proposition.

The necessity of moving left arm and foot in concert to affect a cog swap has killed the RS at the box office. Come to that, 12 months since Skoda relaunched in these parts, the brand remains pretty much anonymous.  

Finally the RS is getting the GTI's most popular transmission. Yes, it's that same widely-imitated Direct Shift Gearbox the twin clutch jobbie which moves even quicker and runs even cleaner than a manual, but - of greater importance to the masses - has a full automatic drive mode.

And with the belated arrival of DSG comes another RS variant, one running not the turbo petrol, but one of the VW Group's turbo diesels. The RS TDI uses the potent 125kW/350Nm common rail version of the VW Group’s 2.0-litre turbo diesel.

So better than V6 petrol torque and – at a claimed 5.9L/100km – better than four-cylinder petrol economy.  

As we’ve said of the RS petrol, it deserves the sportwagon label more than many so-named. So, in its fashion does the TDI version, which manages the neat trick marrying performance with pragmatism.

I’ve long thought that the perfect affordable car would be one that combines one of VW’s excellent direct injection engines with Japanese-equalling build quality and reliability. I’m thinking that this Octavia might well be it.

Having been lent a bright blue RS TDI wagon ($43,790) for a two-month trial, we’ll be posting regular updates on our Czech mate.

Your thoughts, are as ever, welcome …