Skoda's are pretty good now tbh, i'd take a VRS Octavia any day of the week, they're kitted out extremely well for what you pay. Albeit they're no Ferrari in terms of performance, they're not slow.
They're VW's in every way except dirt cheap.
Although Diesel of choice would have to be Honda Civic i-CTDi since i drove one as a courtesy car....my word, the torque is indescribable, got back into the CTR and it felt slow for a good half an hour...until i got back in to petrol VTEC mode 
