Once upon a time, owning a sedan was considered a mark of a person’s success, but with the SUVs raiding the automobile market, the saloon presence has nosedived drastically. Skoda sees this as an opportunity to go back to its sedan DNA that made the company a force to reckon with both in India and globally and dominate the segment. The Slavia will have its hands full as it takes on the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, Honda City and Hyundai Verna. We drove the all-powerful Slavia 1.5-litre version and found out what it’s all about.Â
A presence like no other: Design
In terms of dimensions, the Slavia is much bigger than the Rapid, but the question arises, how does it fare against its competition? Being 1,752mm in width and 1,507mm in height, the new Skoda car is the widest and the tallest in its class and it also has one of the longest wheelbases. A sedan’s biggest advantage is its uncompromised boot space and the Slavia beats all its rivals with a luggage capacity of 521 litres. As part of Skoda’s India 2.0 project, the Slavia is based on the MQB A0-IN platform like the Kushaq, which will help keep the costs low as the localisation level is up to 95 per cent. According to Skoda, the company has managed to lower the overall maintenance by up to 21 per cent.
Moving on to the design language, the Slavia oozes sophistication like its elder siblings — the Octavia and the Superb. The new sedan sports a wide front grille with a metal finished frame around it. The stretched all-LED headlamps house L-shaped DRLs and crystalline elements while the fog lamp area gets a metal strip on top like an eyelid. With character lines on the bonnet and cutting across the doors to the tail lamps and bulging wheel arches, the Slavia has quite a commanding presence that will dwarf its competition. Skoda has stuck to its classical notchback architecture ensuring its silhouette is that of a sports sedan. As expected, the top variants get additional chrome garnishing on the door handle, the window sill and the front and rear bumpers. The rear gets an uncluttered layout with stretched C-shaped LED tail lamps with again crystalline details. Skoda has smartly crafted the boot lid that comes across as a rear spoiler.
Acres of real estate: Cabin
With impressive dimensions, the Slavia has a spacious cabin, especially for rear passengers, who get plenty of legroom. The sloping roofline does eat into the headroom space for passengers over 6 feet in height The seats are big and comfortable while the rear bench comes with angular seat squabs improving the under-thigh support. The middle seat isn’t the most convenient as its cushion is raised and the rear air condition vents also eat into the legroom though it comes with
an armrest.
Skoda has stuck to its tried-and-test dual black and beige dashboard which gets an additional glossy wooden panel in the middle. Even though it’s solid build and has no panel gaps to complain about, the plastic quality could have been better as it lacks soft materials.
Except for the entry-level trim, which gets a 7-inch infotainment system, the rest of the variants come with a 10-inch floating touchscreen and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The display unit is easy to read and comes with in-built apps like BBC World Service, Sygic navigation maps, Gaana, Booking.com and Audiobooks. It’s also equipped with automatic
climate control with all touch buttons, two Type-C charging ports, a wireless phone charger and a 12V power socket on the centre console beside the hand brake. Unlike the Kushaq, the Slavia gets an 8-inch digital instrument cluster and an 8-speaker music system with a subwoofer neatly tucked in the spare wheel area. The two-spoke steering wheel looks classy and comes with buttons and chrome finished scrollers. The Slavia is available with additional convenience features like ventilated front seats, sunroof, auto headlamps, auto wipers and a rear parking camera with static guidelines though the resolution is average at best. The new sedan is equipped with MySkoda Connect service that lets you track the car, geo-fencing, receive health reports of the car, roadside assistance and much more.
The Slavia comes standard with many safety features like Electronic Stability Control, Anti-lock Braking System, Multi Collision Braking, Differential Lock System, Brake Disc Wiping, ISOFIX child seat anchors, tyre pressure monitoring system. While dual airbags are standard, the top variants get six airbags and Hill Hold Control.
Power-packed engine
The 1.5-litre looks quite promising with 148bhp and 250 Nm of torque and comes with two transmission options — the 7-speed dual-clutch automatic and the 6-speed manual gearbox. We got our hands on the latter, which is a rare sight as most vehicles with such power output are available only in automatic. With the torque kicking in below 2,000rpm, the Slavia should take off with afterburners blazing, but the tall gearing of the manual gearbox keeps the initial response in check. Once it builds pace, it guns down kilometres like no one’s business as the engine redlines at 6,500rpm. The second gear cruises at slow speeds even below 1,000rpm and also gives the sedan enough juice to accelerate in a jiffy. The third gear, on the other hand, throws a curveball as it starts breathing heavily if the engine is below 1,500rpm on an incline. It’s not all doom and gloom as the 1.5-litre TSI lets you enjoy pure unadulterated power that pushes you back into the seat and maintains this adrenaline from the mid-range to top-end power bands. Even though we would have liked the manual gearbox to have shorter throws to negate the lag, with a light clutch pedal the driving experience is fairly seamless.
To ensure that the 1.5-litre motor isn’t too fuel-thirsty, Skoda has equipped it with active cylinder technology, which deactivates two of four cylinders when the sedan is cruising to increase fuel efficiency.
Perks of a rigid platform: Ride and handling
Slavia holds its own with a lot of gusto in corners. The suspension ensures it sticks to its line and doesn’t meander off. The body roll is very much in check and it doesn’t spring any surprises either. It darts in and out of corners with a lot of confidence. It’s safe enough to say that the Slavia’s handling capabilities are class-leading. The suspension, on the other hand, is tweaked and is pliant. The slight rigid set-up doesn’t compromise the ride quality. It manages to cushion over broken roads and passengers don’t get any rude thuds to experience. Â
Final word
No doubt, the 1.5-litre Slavia is one powerful vehicle and as it will only come in the top trim, it may cost a premium. Skoda isn’t too worried about this as they believe the Slavia will take on its direct rivals and sedans a segment above it. The Slavia ticks all the right boxes in terms of performance, features, safety, cabin space, impressive ground clearance of 179mm and handling. In many ways, it will be the benchmark in the segment, but it will all come down to how Skoda prices it.
