Is it me or does it look the same as the last one? Put a taxi light on the roof and it'd blend in fine.

Good to see that they've taken heed of my advice (from earlier in the year) and 'rounded it orf' a little!

Would I buy one?... ...if the VRS comes without its ubiquitous rear-spoiler – perhaps, then again...

Thanks very much for these, Trilogy. That's the first picture I've seen of the estate, which seems to have made a good compromise between looking reasonably stylish and preserving practicality and good rear visibility.

I agree with you about the Rapid: it seems to be the result of the CEO of VW trying to stop Skoda stealing sales from VW (which the Octavia has undoubtedly done). Let's hope this dubious policy hasn't extended to the new Octavia: not many buyers of this size of car want the bargain basement version.

Its not bad looking (the front grille could be better), though not much different externally from the new Rapide. I like the "looks like a saloon but is a hatchback" which blends practicality and styling (I wish Mazda had done the same on my 3 saloon for the boot). To me, the new Octavia is a Rapid Plus - a bit bigger, a bit better quality trim and fittings inside.

Of all the new Golf-platform cars that have been/are due to be released, I still think the new (2013) Seat Leon is the best looking, inside and out (they've finally made the front end look reall good) of them all with lots of plus points generally to recommend it. I still have my doubts over Seat customer care (the garage/ownership experience), as I know people who've had them and not been impressed. Being nearly 15 years owning Japanese cars (with little problems and generally a very good experience) is difficult to wean myself off of.

I tried an Octavia 2.0 TDI Elegance yesterday: the excellent Jewsons of Oxford had an open day and had managed to get some of the first off the ship.

Very good impressions. The new 148 bhp engine is quieter than the 170 bhp CR I had in my previous vRS, and not much noisier than my current petrol vRS. It's a pity that the new Octavia can't be had with the 1.8 TSI petrol: until the new vRS arrives, the biggest petrol engine available is the 1.4. I'm old-fashioned enough still to prefer big, unstressed engines. Anyway this TDI had plenty of oomph even though it was brand new, and we all know how long diesels take to loosen up.

Good supportive seats in the Elegance, and the steering was much lighter than mine, which I liked but others may not. It may be that the steering weight is adjustable in the 'driving mode selector' mentioned though not explained in the brochure.

I'll wait for the estate, and probably also the vRS as my present one is only 2 years old and showing no signs of wear. One reason not to have a vRS will be if they again insist on fitting 225/40/18 tyres on it - quite useless in snow, and my winter wheels (steel, 16" and tyres (Kleber Quadraxer all-season) are excellent and improve the ride with negligible effect on handling.