A well engineered, reliable, nimble hatch

The Skoda Scala is one of the company’s longest-serving hatchbacks. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Many car makers have either thinned or are deleting their hatchback offerings but Skoda haven’t run up the white flag in the hatch fight with their Scala, launched here over five years ago.

This is the most affordable Skoda sold here although questionable on the affordability count, given its price of $43,500. It’s a steep ask for a 1.0 litre turbo petrol-powered hatch that started life here in 2019 at $29,995.

Several factors are making it tough for European brands to land vehicles here at prices that look appealing against Japanese or Korean models, while the Chinese have really lifted their game with a raft of well priced vehicles. Shipping is one of the biggest barriers the European face because they are so far from our market — worse since February with tension in the Middle East impacting shipping this year.

Skoda still sees a place for a hatch in their ranks with the Scala sitting alongside the Fabia, one of the company’s longest-serving hatches. Both are even more attractive in our world of soaring fuel prices. The have an ace up their sleeves, in the form of excellent fuel economy, providing owners with some welcome relief from the relentless months of high fuel prices burning a hole in their wallets.

The Scala arrived here as a replacement for the unloved Rapid, a suitably ironic name for a painfully slow selling model. Its demise opened the door for the Scala, a well engineered, reliable and roomy hatch that has become a solid seller for Skoda in the UK and Europe.

Two engine options — both petrol — were offered when this model started life in New Zealand. They ranged in power from 85kW for the 1.0 litre turbo, climbing to 110kW for the 1.5 litre turbo. These days the line up has been pegged back to the 1.0 litre turbo.

The Scala is served with plenty of space for luggage and passengers and a bunch of clever features.

It was the first compact Skoda equipped with lane assist and front assist, and among first in its segment featuring head and tail lights with LED technology.

The zingy 85kW three-cylinder turbocharged motor is a little ripper and its distinctive three-cylinder throb adds plenty of character.

A light kerb weight underpins the car’s excellent power-to-weight ratio to make this hatch an engaging and fun drive. Even under modest throttle openings it shows plenty of inclination to get on with the job.

For a smallish car, the Scala is effortless to drive at open road speeds and quick to deliver a solid slug of power, to dart easily past traffic trundling along at a more pedestrian pace.

The only niggle I had with this little wonder is a touch or two of turbo lag, that manifests itself in some hesitancy under full throttle. This tended to occur when trying to power off from standing starts. You expect an instant accelerative surge, however the engine appears to run to its own timetable. This means occasionally it can be a couple of seconds behind what you think should be happening in the way of engine action. I’ve found this a fairly common trait in smaller-capacity forced-induction motors. Annoying for sure, but you learn to live with it because of the other pluses of this mighty little motor.

A smart 7-speed Tiptronic auto use a couple of clutches to consistently deliver swift on-point gear changes. One clutch changes even-numbered ratios, the other reels off the odd-number gears. Whether it’s odds or evens, the end result is one well sorted transmission.

The Scala should win over buyers with its exceptional passenger and load space for a hatch of this size. The rear cargo compartment has a voluminous 467 litres.

The vehicle’s wheelbase is equally impressive at 2649mm for a model dating back to 2019, putting it among the best in the compact hatch class. Head and legroom both front and rear is as good as you will find in this market segment. A redesigned dashboard flows around a freestanding infotainment screen, located high up so it’s super easy for the driver to see.

The safety bar is kept high with "side assist", another name for blind-spot monitoring that flashes a symbol in the rear vision mirrors to let the driver know about vehicles approaching from behind. Lane assist and front assist, which include the "city emergency brake" and "predictive pedestrian and cyclist protection" functions, are standard.

An ice scraper with a tyre tread depth gauge along with an integrated funnel in the lid of the windscreen washer tank made their welcome debut in this car. Skoda have been great at doing this sort of thoughtful stuff.

A well-sorted suspension keeps the car nailed to the road even over lumpy uneven surfaces. A rigid body structure largely eliminates irritating squeaks, creaks and groans when travelling over rougher roads.

The Scala is a nimble and sure-footed hatch, and relishes being driven briskly over twisty and undulating terrain. The suspension is composed and unflustered over all but the most seriously rutted or corrugated surfaces. Rounding out one of the better handling compact hatches on our market is its ability to react and adapt quickly to sudden changes in direction by the driver. Nicely weighted steering delivers just the right amount of road feel, painting for the most part an accurate picture for the driver of what’s unfolding beneath the front wheels.