[rphukan]

Took a test drive of the Slavia 1.0 MT today, and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised. The engine / gearbox combination is fabulous, and the car really flies. The sporty exhaust note was an added bonus.
Having owned the 2021 Superb Sportline for half a year now, and having experienced how solidly built and extremely well engineered these cars are, I have no qualms in recommending the Slavia to my younger brother, for whom I had checked the car out.
Good stuff, Skoda!

[venkyhere]

Of late, I often see comments directly correlating GC (ground clearance) with bodyroll of vehicle, without test driving it. Please let me know whether this makes sense.

[Vikram9193]

Which would be more fun to corner, the Slavia or the petrol S-cross?

Also how good / bad is the intake sound on the Slavia turbo? Is it anything like the Nexon turbo petrol? No offence to Nexon owners but from behind the wheel the engine/intake sound left me bewildered. It was like expecting to drink tea and realizing someone’s mixed some coffee into your tea. It was gravelly. It did not sing or growl or do anything nice. I asked the test drive chap if he hadn’t accidentally brought out the diesel.

First and last turbo petrol experience for me, so I am probably woefully misinformed. Hence the question.

[speedracer05]

Originally Posted by Vikram9193

Also how good / bad is the intake sound on the Slavia turbo? Is it anything like the Nexon turbo petrol?

Tata petrol engines are one of the worst being sold in india right now. In all aspects like noise, refinement, range of power band, FE etc it is avg to very bad when compared to its peers.
Whereas Skoda (Slavia) 1.0L and 1.5L turbos are THE BEST turbos being sold in india, so they are leagues apart, you will have to drive to experience how much better these engines are.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by Vikram9193

Which would be more fun to corner, the Slavia or the petrol S-cross?

TBH, you have to drive for yourself and figure out. Once you test drive a car, you'll realise there are n number of things which can make or break the deal.

Seeing all the write ups and videos, I'd bet that the Slavia would be a better handler. The biggest advantage with the SCross was it's ability to iron out bad roads but looks like the Slavia is really good at the same too.

[Rajeevraj]

Visited the Skoda showroom today to check out the Skoda lineup (Was honestly interested in everything from the Slavia to the Kodiaq as a potential upgrade). Only the 1.0 TSI MT was available for TD which I did not do as I was mainly interested to see how the 1.5TSI DSG drives and compares to my 1.2 TSI DSG.

Spent some time inside the car and my instinctive feel was, this will not feel like a proper upgrade to my Vento. Of course the Slavia is extremely well loaded and feels well put together. Felt it better than the Kushaq also, but somehow did not create a wow factor for me.

Of course it was a short experience and not even a drive and I may change opinion, just the initial gut feel. Having said that, among the C-segmenters, the Slavia seems to be the best package led by that fantastic TSI engine.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

...interested in everything from the Slavia to the Kodiaq as a potential upgrade...

Unless you want a luxury barge a couple segments up - either sedan (Superb) or crossover (Kodiaq) - Octavia seems the likelier 'upgrade' for a Vento/Rapid owner.

Slavia would feel a bit half & half, a bit like swapping a previous-gen City for the current one.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Unless you want a luxury barge a couple segments up - either sedan (Superb) or crossover (Kodiaq) - Octavia seems the likelier 'upgrade' for a Vento/Rapid owner. Slavia would feel a bit half & half, a bit like swapping a previous-gen City for the current one.

A car like the Compass is also a good upgrade I believe for current Vento/Rapid owners. The diesel drives very well, has good interiors and much better steering feel than any VAG car!

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by nitkel

A car like the Compass is also a good upgrade I believe for current Vento/Rapid owners. The diesel drives very well, has good interiors and much better steering feel than any VAG car!

After getting used to DSG it’s very difficult to like Compass auto gear box.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by sunikkat

After getting used to DSG it’s very difficult to like Compass auto gear box.

While I agree it's a slow box, you generally get used to it over time. Even in my Vento the DSG takes almost 1-2 seconds to respond to a heavy throttle input in D mode so it's not perfect either.

[sid3091]

Originally Posted by sunikkat

After getting used to DSG it’s very difficult to like Compass auto gear box.

I've test driven both the compass and the taigun quite a bit in the last couple of months, and I found the compass diesel to be more than adequate in city conditions. I was easily able to overtake and had power on tap whenever I needed it.

The Taigun DSG definitely felt faster and more responsive, but unless you're looking to win a few drag races, the Compass should serve you well.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Slavia would feel a bit half & half, a bit like swapping a previous-gen City for the current one.

Yes, that is exactly the feeling. The fact that it is a modern car with all the latest features makes it feel like an upgrade, but at the same time the engine-gearbox combo( for existing tsi and/or DSG owners), the overall build feel and some of the interior elements make you think- is it a worthy upgrade?

Of course I am talking purely from my perspective as a Vento tsi dsg owner. Not many of us out there. Depending on the model/variant that you own of a Vento or Rapid, this opinion may differ.

As you mentioned, the Octavia is more a 'right' upgrade, but the OTR of nearly 37L is hard to digest. I paid around 12.5L for the Vento TSI 8+ years back. Now to properly upgrade one segment, I need to triple my budget. Even to get the semi upgrade like the Slavia, I need to almost pay double. The way prices have shot up!!

Would be interesting to see how and where the Virtus slots in.

Edit: Missed to mention earlier. The showroom had around 6-7 customers and all of them were checking out the Slavia.

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

As you mentioned, the Octavia is more a 'right' upgrade, but the OTR of nearly 37L is hard to digest. I paid around 12.5L for the Vento TSI 8+ years back. Now to properly upgrade one segment, I need to triple my budget.

This is happening with the current generation Octavia which is only offered in the top variants, there is no base or mid variant now. The previous gen Octavia was VFM, especially with that base variant offered at around 18L OTR.

I feel that they deliberately hold the lower spec variants of the Octavia to keep it distant from overlapping the price band of the Slavia/Virtues initially.

They may introduce the lower spec variants of the Octavia after analyzing how the 1.5 TSI variants of the Slavia/Virtues are perceived by the Indian buyers. If they do not sell in enough numbers then they may offer few lower spec variants of the Octavia including one with the same 1.5 TSI motor under 20L. That maybe the right time for the current Rapid/Vento owners to explore their upgrade options.

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by sid3091

I've test driven both the compass and the taigun quite a bit in the last couple of months, and I found the compass diesel to be more than adequate in city conditions. I was easily able to overtake and had power on tap whenever I needed it.

The Taigun DSG definitely felt faster and more responsive, but unless you're looking to win a few drag races, the Compass should serve you well.

Sorry, but honestly I don’t consider Taigun or Kushaq or Slavia as an worthy upgrade to Vento. Since we were talking on Compass my comparison was with Octavia (mainly), Tiguan etc. And compared to them Compass clearly lacks performance.
While Compass is a great machine (one among my most favourite too) and other cars cannot beat the go anywhere capabilities, a faster performance or great gearbox is not its strengths for sure. And I am telling this from my experience of driving Compass diesel manual thousands of kms on the highways. 2021 diesel auto Compass I tried <100 kms only and that clearly left wanting. Infact I felt the new Fortuner auto faster than Compass.
And even Creta/Seltos and Kushaq/Taigun turbo petrols are faster than Compass diesel auto up to some high illegal speeds

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by sunikkat

While Compass is a great machine (one among my most favourite too) and other cars cannot beat the go anywhere capabilities, a faster performance or great gearbox is not its strengths for sure. And I am telling this from my experience of driving Compass diesel manual thousands of kms on the highways.

AFAIK Tiguan is available only in single variant with AWD petrol TSI engine whereas petrol engine of Compass feels under-powered compared to that, Tiguan is natural choice in that case. But if you are looking for AWD diesel then things are slightly different.

If choice is between 2WD diesel compass and AWD petrol Tiguan then also I would pick Tiguan if running is not that much where FE becomes main deciding factor.

Another big scoring point goes in favor of Tiguan is the build quality which is evident all over inside out compared to the India made Compass which feels overpriced for what it offers.

Recent govt. policies also go in favor of petrol over diesel where they have started imposing restriction of 10 years on registered life of diesel vehicles in many cities. So picking a diesel vehicle for long term is not that feasible from the financial point of view unless someone is having very high mileage of 30K+ kms yearly.