Danny Cobbs searched the English dictionary to best describe the new Skoda Roomster, and all he came up with was ‘nice’
Over the past decade or so Skoda have done a wonderful job – thanks to VW’s management – casting aside the joke appellation that hung around their neck like a foul smelling medallion. Not only this, but they’ve come back fighting, and with all guns blazing. Recently, they came third, behind Lexus and Honda, in the UK’s biggest independent survey on reliability and customer satisfaction.
But the cost for all this success has been to the detriment of any passion or flair in the styling department. If ever I used the word ‘nice’ in an essay at school, my English teacher would rap my knuckles and tell me to find another, more evocative adjective. Yet ‘nice’ is the best way to describe Skoda’s. They lack the emotion to make them stand out from the crowd. They’re a vanilla 99 cone, not a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food. And that’s okay if you’ve targeted an audience who has an average age of 65, likes to wear cable-stitched cardies, and count keeping ferrets as one of their hobbies. Whether it’s been luck, judgement or by default, the typical Skoda customer fits into the SAGA holidaying demographic.
Don’t get me wrong; the grey pound will be as readily accepted as all the others, however the Roomster is setting out its stall to entice the likes of Mr & Mrs Übber-Young-and- Trendy, and nice, just won’t do. At first glance the quirky exterior does much to shrug off Skoda’s ‘nice’ tag, yet the Roomster isn’t quite the small funky MPV the Czech manufacturer would have you believe it is. It’s a little like your grandmother ripping up her Axminster carpet, replacing it with beech laminate flooring and then plonking down her old wingback chair again. The desired, modernist, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen look has been mislaid in a sea of Laura Ashley floral print. Likewise, take certain aspects of the Roomster and it works, really well. The huge rear windows and elevated seating position gives backseat passengers an exceptional view of the road ahead.
And those rear seats can be arranged in nine, versatile options to increase the cargo space from 450 litres to a massive 1,555 litres. Yet for all its cleverness the seats don’t fold flat into the floor as they do in the Vauxhall Zafira and Mervia – which entails removing and storing them if the acreage of loading space is to be utilised. And there’s another problem. To lure the 25-45 year old age group away from the tried and tested, Skoda really needed to offer a cabin less austere and with more of a wow factor. Yes, the interior, as in the rest of the car is very well bolted together and yes, it is very spacious with enough headroom to accommodate Peter Crouch wearing a top hat. Indisputably it’s less dour than its siblings but it isn’t that special either and offers much the same as every other manufacturer in this segment. For allSkoda’s puffing of the chest and calling it “unique and totally different” the Roomster still errs on the side of design cautiousness. In actual fact, after you get past the initial newness of the Roomster, it becomes quite bland in a matter of minutes.
Conversely, if you take it for what it really is; a relatively cheap and practical, compact people mover, then it starts to stack-up. There’s little to complain about the way it drives and handles. Out of the six engines on offer – three petrol and three diesels – the 1.9-litre turbo diesel is the best options. Granted, no one will ever buy the Roomster for its performance and even though the £11,020 entry level 70 bhp,1.4 -litre TDI will tempt those on a tight budget, this particular variant is so woefully underpowered that the marginal extra cost for larger 80 bhp version would be money well spent. Skoda are looking to sell 6,000 units a year in the UK, and I’ve no reason to believe they won’t achieve these figures. But, and this is a very big but, as much as it dares to be different from the Fabia, Octavia and Suberb, it really isn’t. It doesn’t have the edge to woo the generation they’re ultimately seeking and the one’s most likely to be signing on the dotted line for the Roomster will, more likely than not, have a B&Q pensioners discount card in their pocket and call it “a nice little car”.
On sale: Now // Price From: £11,020
Drive Time
- Price: from £11,020
- Engine: 1.4 TDI PD 3-cylinder Diesel
- Transmission: 5-speed manual
- Max Power: 70 bhp at 4,000 rpm
- Max Torque: 155Nm at 1,600-2,800 rpm
- Combined Consumption:52.3 mpg
- CO2 Emissions (taxband): 142 g/km
- Taxband: (C)
Fully Equipped
Insurance Group 5
Power Steering Std
ESP £340
Central Locking Std
Alarm Std
Immobiliser Std
Alloy Wheels Std
Air-Con Std
Climate Control 250
Electric Mirrors Std
Electric Front Windows Std
Electric Rear Windows £130
Metallic Paint £350
Cruise Control Std
Rear Parking Sensors Std
Front seatbelt pre-tensioners Std
Driver air bag Std
Passenger Airbag Std
Front Side Air Bag Std
CD Radio Std
RDS Std
SatNav £1200
Boot capacity min (litres) 450
Boot capacity max (litres) 1780
Fuel Tank (Litres) 55
Length (mm) 4205
Width (mm) 1684
Kerb Weight (kg) 1255
Gross Weight 1770
Towing limit (braked) (kg) 1200
Service interval (miles) 10000
Warranty (years) 3
Warranty (miles) 60000
Sale Date Sept 06
Pros
Fantastic build quality, price and cargo area
Cons
Styled for window lickers. Don’t try and work out the Sat Nav, it’s utterly crap
