Motorworks - Team BHPians echoes our thoughts, here is what he has to say. Excellent review! To be honest, this is the most neutral review I have heard of the Slavia! Very unbiased which has always been the hallmark of all our team-bhp reviews.
Now, coming to the Slavia, I think Skoda is trying to play to the masses now. The car is fairly well equipped, nothing fancy or novel, but they have covered all bases that the common folks look for today. A 10” head unit, Wireless charging, a decent sunroof and the likes. Also, unlike the Kushaq which visibly seemed smaller than its rivals, the Slavia is almost the same length as the Honda City, has a great road presence too.
The real question is whether the Slavia is a true German car and maybe it’s not. It’s made for India, so there are bound to be places where Skoda would have had to cut corners. It’s the business reality, isn’t it? We all went crazy over the Seltos when it was launched, but now all we hear about Kia in our forums are things like the disappointing crash rating and sub-par build quality.
And to all the folks who keep saying buy the Rapid or Polo before it goes out of stock, I mean, where were you guys for the last 10 years? The Vento, Polo and Rapid were anyway dying a slow death with abysmal sales numbers. I owned a Rapid diesel for 6 years, lived with issues like Turbo failure, EGR failure, steering rack failure and what not. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed driving the car, but it certainly wasn’t an easy experience to live with such massive issues. I was lucky that the above issues which I highlighted were covered under warranty.
Anyway, my point being, we cannot delve in the past. The Rapid, Vento and Polo were good, but would not sustain the requirements of the new age customers. So Skoda and VW come out with new cars, which I feel are more like a “middle of the road” approach, decent build quality, sorted dynamics, adequate features, but also compromises in certain places. Would the Slavia be the better choice than the City? Well it may not, the City has been here forever, but the Slavia is now a great alternative.
I did not appreciate the Kushaq and Taigun, mainly because I saw no reason for Skoda and VW to make a visibly smaller looking car and command the same price as it’s rivals. But with the Slavia and Virtus, it’s seems like more “par for the course”.