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New SKODA ROOMSTER review at a glance:
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Advantages: Party-throwing cabin space that’s flooded with light, adaptable seating layout, useful boot dimensions, keenly priced.

Disadvantages: Diesel engines make a racket, asthmatic petrol unit, poor residuals, cumbersome outer rear seats, no Stability Control as standard, challenging looks.

Summary: Supermini-MPV new-comer the Skoda Roomster lives up to its slightly odd name by boasting acres of interior area. Which is just as well as you’ll need the additional elbow-space to play around with the endless rear seating configurations at your disposal. The Skoda Roomster seemingly exists to plug a gap which isn’t really there, yet does it with the manufacturers’ habitual wile and steely determination. A grower perhaps, but doesn’t really excel in any particular discipline to our thinking.

New SKODA ROOMSTER Review:
Question; What does a car manufacturer do once they’ve silenced their early years critics once and for all after in recent years rolling out cracking car after cracking car and finally gaining something other than a cult following amongst rally fans and the elderly?

Answer; they ruin all that hard work by rolling out the Skoda Roomster. OK, a bit of a sweeping generalisation, but after luring a new, thrusting, urbane target audience to the bosom of the Skoda family of late thanks to the nifty Fabia, stylish Octavia and equipment-laden Superb, you’d think they’d want to build on their new found – and hard fought – status of surprise segment pace-setters.

Yet take one look at the new Skoda Roomster and your gut reaction is to throw your hands up in despair and prepare for a new chapter to be penned in the Skoda joke book that first did the rounds of the school playgrounds back in the late 1980s. You can overlook the Volkswagen-owned Czech car manufacturer the daft name they’ve chosen for their compact supermini-MPV, especially bearing in mind the long line of idiotic monikers they’ve handed models previously. But the aesthetical appearance of the Roomster is simply unforgivable.

Whichever angle you approach the Roomster seems more offensive than the last, as it doesn’t quite seem to grasp what its purpose is judging by the haphazard amalgamation of differing window heights and tail light incorporation. It just looks rather disjointed to our eyes, and not even in a faintly ‘characterful’ way.

Six engines power the Skoda Roomster range, including a 1.2-litre, 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre petrol, two (70bhp and 80bhp) 1.4-litre out-and-out oil-burners and a 1.9-litre turbo diesel. Whilst the 1.4-litre petrol is reckoned to be the forecast best seller – despite its pedestrian acceleration attributes – it’s the 1.9-litre diesel that pulls out all the stops, demonstrating useful amounts of torque yet also keeping some extra pull aside for a rainy day.

The Roomster has a lackadaisical approach to corners, tending to go with the flow as opposed to attempting to correct the body roll, yet not to the point where it’ll unsettle occupants’ stomachs. The ride is fairly well weighted at speed – or rather progression as it feels more like in the Roomster – but is somewhat jerky and intrusive when flitting around town.

Add to this non-committal steering and the underlying fact that the 1.4-litre petrol engine needs a lot of right foot encouragement (which creates a lot of chit-chat in return) and you’re not going to arrive at your destination in the best mood.

The diesels too – although respectfully quiet at cruising speed – can be a bit loud-mouthed at lower revs, while road noise infiltrates the cabin given opportunity. However the Roomster ‘Scout’ variants tend to pass on fewer vibrations and offer an altogether tighter feel, which may have something to do with their raised ground clearance that differentiates the line-up.

The Skoda Roomster will pit its wits against established supermini-MPV vehicles – albeit of a bigger girth - like the Renault Modus and Scenic, and it immediately fares well in comparison thanks to its generous interior space and voluminous boot. Speaking of the inside, although conclusively robust as we’ve come to expect of Skoda of late, it lacks any charisma or charm that will set it apart from the more willingly adventurous that make up its peer group.

With the majority of core components having been lifted from the VW parts bench, the Roomster will score highly in terms of build quality, sustainability and long-term reliability, that’s a given. Yet we feel Skoda could have stamped a bit of personality of Gallic-esque cheekiness on the interior.

Of course where all Skoda’s come into their own – with the Roomster being no exception – is that of safety. Twin front, side and curtain airbags are therefore standard, as are child ISOFIX seat mountings, whilst its paid specific attention to pedestrian’s well-being should they encounter the Roomster at close range. Unfortunately though Stability Control only comes into standard play on the range-topping 1.6-litre and ‘Scout’ models.

Specifications found as standard aren’t quite reach normal Skoda heights, with Roomster buyers having to find solace in electric front windows and CD player with MP3-connectivity, yet bizarrely an absence of rear speakers. Oh, and remote locking too. Up the trim ante and you bag air-con, alloy wheels and electric mirrors; go the whole hog and you’re talking cruise, rear parking sensors, sunroof, the works.

A decent driving alignment – courtesy of adjustable steering and seat mechanisms – enable the driver to find their comfort zone pretty much from the off, and the dash is a logistically formulated affair without being in any way experimental whatsoever. We observed that the windscreen pillars can act as a blind spot when manoeuvring at low speeds based on their impractical breadth which compromises bonnet edge awareness.

Two normal seats in the rear, interspersed with a slimmer one; all of which can be removed from the internal configuration equation. Although the outer chairs are a little on the heavy side to manhandle. Alternatively you may choose to confiscate the middle seat and re-align the two outers to reset shoulder room for occupants. Again, they can also be slid backward and forward dependant on whether rear passenger legroom or luggage capacity is more of a necessity.