Skoda Roomster TDI Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Skoda Roomster TDI range
Prices: £14,515-£15,380 - on the road
Insurance Group: 3E-5E
Emissions: 124g/km
Performance: [1.6 TDI 105] 0-60mph 11.5s / Max Speed 113mph [est]
Fuel Consumption: [1.6 TDI 105hp] (combined) 55mpg [est]
Safety: ABS, front, side and curtain airbags. WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE ?: Length/Width/Height 4205/1648/1607mm

ROOM RAIDER

Our Rating: 7.4 / 10

It’s hard to know exactly where the Skoda Roomster fits. It’s impossible to deny that it’s a very smart piece of design though, and the diesel version looks especially attractive. Jonathan Crouch strokes some chin

It must be genuinely tough to come up with an all-new niche product – at least one that will sell. Skoda thinks it’s cracked it with the Roomster, a utility MPV-style vehicle that doesn’t cost the earth. I know what you’re thinking – isn’t every manufacturer leaping on the MPV bandwagon? Not like this. The Roomster offers the practicality and no nonsense nature of a van-based MPV with the refinement and ride of a car. That’s the party line at least. Here we take a look at the two diesel engines that Skoda offers.

Perhaps two is stretching things a bit. It’s really one common rail 1.6-litre TDI unit in a couple of different states of tune. There’s a 90bhp version but unless you’re really strapped for cash, it’s well worth ignoring that and going for the pokier 105bhp unit. Here’s why. The Roomster is not a small car. By buying one you clearly have need for lots of space, and utilising all of that room brings with it a concomitant weight penalty. Think about all the gear you could pack into the back of one of these things. The kids aren’t getting any lighter and yes, even you should put that Whole Nut bar down and reach for an apple instead. Load up one of these cars and you could easily tack 300kg onto its already hefty 1,345kg weight. That would make your family outing weigh more than the Volvo V70 on the turntable in the dealership you drive past. Therefore, you need an engine with a bit of torque to drive the Roomster uphill.

It boggles the mind to think that Skoda offers the Roomster in a 1.2-litre petrol guise with just 70bhp to call upon - this really isn’t very much. Opt for the 1.6-litre TDI diesels and the story is a little happier: there’s much more torque than the old 1.4 and 1.9-litre diesels could provide in this model. Economy figures for both of these diesel units are, as you’d expect, very impressive, but again you should factor out a big chunk if you’re running the Roomster fully-loaded. For the record, the 90bhp 1.6-litre should deliver you around 55-60mpg on a regular basis on the combined cycle. Emissions figures are also decent, chugging out a mere 124g/km.

The Roomster offers so much more than your average van-based MPV. Skoda have recognised the strengths of this commercial vehicle derived genre and designed a purpose-built product around them. It’s a car of two halves - or ‘rooms’ as the Skoda PR machine would have us refer to them. The ‘Driving Room’ is the area occupied by the driver and front passenger and it feels very much like that of a conventional family hatchback. The driving position is comfortable, with a good degree of adjustment and much less upright than in most MPV products. Decent materials have also been used and build quality is strong.

As you progress rearward, you enter the Roomster’s ‘Living Room’ and it’s here that the vehicle’s van-like silhouette pays dividends. The roofline steps up, allowing the rear seats to be mounted 46mm higher than those in the front: this boosts the space available to passengers. Leg and headroom are both extremely generous and there’s a light, airy feel to the space thanks to the large windows. An optional panoramic glass roof increases this effect with Skoda pointing out that children become bored more quickly if they don’t have a good view of the scenery.

The rear seating has also been thoughtfully designed. All three sections of the rear bench are individually foldable and removable. They also recline as well as sliding fore and aft so that owners can choose either to maximise passenger legroom or to bump up capacity in the extremely generous boot behind. This boot is accessed through a large tailgate which lifts to reveal a capacity of 450 litres. Then, depending on the position of the rear seats, owners have the option of increasing that cargo space right up to a truly van-like 1,780 litres - which is achieved when all three seats are positioned in the garage at home. All this helps to open up a wide range of potential interior configurations for the Roomster – a real strength when it comes to meeting the varying needs of modern families.

To go with its car