The Skoda Roomster is a real ugly duckling. But beauty is more than skin deep and on closer examination the new Roomster is quite gorgeous. The four/five-seat MPV is one of the most practical and versatile small family cars you can buy.
The Czech-built car is narrow, tall and not that long at 4,205mm. The exterior is ungainly, despite the reasonably well designed new corporate front end. Roomster certainly makes a statement. Singles will scoff at it while those with kids will admire it. Large tail-lights dominate the rear and the new Skoda grille is a grower. Even the headlights appear to have been designed rather than just sourced.
Roomster’s interior is well engineered. The front seats are comfortable, but there is little in the way of shoulder room when two adults are up front and this makes shifting gears a shared experience. The rear seats can be configured in a similar way to those found in the equally versatile Opel Meriva as a two or three-seater.
The outer seats slide fore, aft and sideways (when the middle seat is stowed). The middle seat however is very small so take note, you cannot fit three normal booster-seats in the back let alone three adults in comfort. This ‘Varioflex’ seating raises the seat height for rear passengers above the front seats, offering rear occupants a commanding view of the road through the generous glass area.
Build quality overall is impressive. The dash layout is smart and logical while the switchgear is straight out of Volkswagen’s parts bin. The boot holds 460 litres when the seats are pushed fully back, if you slide them forward (80mm) this increases to 550 litres. Take out the rear seats and there is a huge 1,780 litres of cargo area.
On the road the front-wheel-drive Roomster has a very composed ride. It is stiff in a good way and the long wheelbase helps ease out bumps. My kids loved the seating position and all three had enough space thanks to being able to stagger their seats individually. There is a more rugged looking Roomster ‘Scout’ that features plastic side mouldings and a few butch touches but dynamically is the same car. The only niggle to my time with the Roomster was the obtrusive ‘A’ pillar.
My test car featured a peppy 1.4 litre petrol engine with 85bhp. On start up, it was so noisy I thought I was in a diesel! Once out on the open road the engine proved pretty zippy for its size.
There is a six-engine range to choose from with three petrol units starting with a 1.2 (3 cylinder/70bhp/€16,825), 1.4 (85bhp/17,290) and a 105bhp 1.6 litre (€19,490). The diesels include a 70bhp 1.4 litre TDi PD (€19,290) and an 80bhp 1.4 TDi PD (€20,790) and a 1.9 with 105bhp (€22,495). Specification levels start with the entry level ‘Roomster’ and rise through ‘Style’ then on to ‘Sport’ with ‘Comfort’ the top spec. All have five-speed gearboxes.
Toyota axed the Yaris Verso, which on exterior looks alone would have been direct competition for the Roomster. Opel’s Meriva is the only other four/five seater small MPV out there and it has to be said that it is a useful tool.
Roomster scored five-stars in Euro NCAP crash tests and should do very well as Skoda in Ireland is on a roll.
Michael Sheridan
