Carsguide - Saturday October 13 2007 - Paul Pottinger

Skoda’s first “problem” with its Roomster is finding a class competitor. You can’t really say “class-leading” when there’s no one else in the class, can you? The Roomster is, yes, very roomy. It’s also a quite compact “lifestyle” hatch, one that affords almost infinitely variable rear seat/load configurations.

Skoda reaches for Renault’s far more expensive Scenic as a comparison, but if there is one to be found it is a Volkswagen Group stablemate, he almost ignored supposedly seven-seat Caddy Life.

Like the latter, the Czech-made car is either (under) powered by an obselete 1.6 petrol engine, or moved along with freeway aplomb with a 1.9 turbo diesel. Unlike the VW, however, the Roomster is not a commercial van but a cleansheet design. It is very practical yet also what a driving lifestyle publication would call “funky”.

Roomster rides ably on a platform comprised at the front by Skoda’s Fabia, the rear of the VW’s Golf with the back axle from Skoda’s excellent Octavia mid-size car. Roomster’s rear seats can be lowered to provide 1555 litres of luggage space or removed altogether to convert it to a van with 1780 litre capacity. With the pews in place it can easily accommodate five six-footers beneath its tall (optional full-length glass) roof.

With a five-star NCAP rating, ESP and six airbags as standard, the Roomster has won family car of the year awards in five European states since its launch at last year’s Geneva auto show.

In the unlikely event a pedestrian doesn’t see you coming – or as is more likely the case in Sydney, strolls out blindly from the kerb with earphones jammed into his/her empty head – the Roomster’s deformable bonnet reduces the likelihood of serious injury.

Skoda is the latest carmaker to implement safety measures that extend beyond the owner-operator’s needs. If only self-styled pedestrian councils would spend some of their funding to counsel pedestrians in how to cross the road.

As for build, the Roomster’s doors might not thunk teutonically, but the whole thing has almost hewn quality. That Skoda outrates VW in overseas reliability surveys in which certain other manufacturers decline to participate comes as no surprise.

Fabrics and plastics appear hard-wearing, but padded bits and tactile trim save the interior from the merely utilitarian. If an essentially all-new badge seems a less than sound ownership proposition – and Skoda’s been out of the local picture long enough to be considered born again – you’d feel confident about the Roomster as good for the long haul.

Indeed, the Skoda brand is synonymous with the reputation for auto engineering excellence that the Czechs enjoyed decades before Volkswagen made its first beetle.

The Roomster’s tall stance affords a fine view and the pump-handled driver seat with full adjustable steering wheel afford the perfect driving position. The Roomster’s shape is functional if somewhat novel, but is firmly the former within, with simple, legible dials that light up in green similar to that of Skoda’s logo.

Though our drive route seldom deviated from the unbending, body roll was well-controlled when it did, complemented by crisp electro-hydraulic power steering. A rear track that’s slightly wider than the front aids the cause of cornering and the apparent resemblance of Central European roads to our own results in smartly chosen spring and damper rating and suspension setting.

The Roomster looks, well, how it looks, causing as many winces as smiles as we detoured through Sydney’s CBD. The dials of those within are more likely to light up if they choose the 77kW/240Nm 1.9 turbo diesel over the ancient 1.6 petrol.

Going for the former, though, means no auto option. That’s the Roomster’s second problem and it’s seemingly the only other one it has.

Snapshot

Skoda Roomster

Price: $26,990 - $29,290

Engine: 1.9/4-cyl turbo diesel, 77kW/240Nm; 1.6L/4-cyl petrol 77kW/155 Nm

Economy: 5.5L/100km (diesel); 7.2L/100km (petrol)

Transmission: 5-speed manual (diesel and petrol), 6-s