![]() | #676 |
Senior - BHPian ![]() | Re: Skoda Slavia Review What reason was given by VW/Skoda for downgrading the touch screen system? IMO, they should have kept the same 10" system at least in the 1.5 variant. The 8" system, though might be functionally good, does not look premium to me, for the asking price of the Slavia/Virtus. |
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![]() | #677 | |
BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
![]() Personally owned a couple of VAG cars for last ~10 years including DSGs, but never had a bad experience. Covered more than 100K Kms altogether on all sorts of roads. In 2013, I and my friends together brought 3 Ventos and in matter for 5 months, 6 cars in total. All of them are doing great (one of my friends is looking for an upgrade and he is very clear that it has to be only a VAG, while another friend's car is going for full body repainting, but is not for sale). At the same time, my 2011 Swift diesel ZDI had to be sold within 2 years because of braking issues. It was never confidence inspiring on highways and Maruti couldn't help much. The Getz at home is more expansive to maintain compared to my Jetta. Last edited by Aditya : 17th June 2022 at 20:38. Reason: Edited for better readability | |
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![]() | #678 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: Sagara
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
--- I don't understand Skoda's problem, these cars are not even year old model, and are seeing pricing and specifications change on a monthly basis. Could this be due to the complete failure of their some custom version of Just-In-Time manufacturing? I don't see how else a model change its specifications without even reaching 10,000 numbers. Last edited by prajwalmr62 : 16th June 2022 at 17:22. | |
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![]() | #679 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
You can add me to the list for being a VAG owner too- 8 years and 120k kms later, we're still confident to go on a road trip by just doing the bare minimum- a glance under the hood followed by wheel alignment if necessary. | |
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![]() | #680 | |
BANNED Join Date: Feb 2022 Location: Pune
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
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![]() | #681 | ||
BHPian Join Date: Apr 2022 Location: Hyderabad
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
Quote:
I have gone through that now but to be honest, it still doesn't allay my worries enough. Couple of reasons: First, your ownership experience over the last few weeks seems to be in Bangalore where the max temperature hasn't crossed 30-31 C in that time period. I live in Hyderabad where my car will need to deal with temperatures up to 45 C. Second, there are enough -ve reviews out there to cast doubts in my mind. I will rather delay my purchase and be sure. | ||
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![]() | #682 |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jul 2019 Location: Kochi
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| Slavia is home early Slavia is home early.![]() ![]() ![]() The customary call-out: long post alert. I have started laying the groundwork for a detailed ownership thread, but before that, I wanted to share my booking, delivery, and usage journey so far. It has been a little over a week and around 600 kilometers since I took delivery of my Slavia, and on every day, several times, without fail, I go near and gaze at the sharp lines and the beautiful curves for entirely too much time (According to my family, that is). Compared to other folks, I think my booking to delivery time was extremely fast, but even then, it felt like a long-drawn-out drama with enough twists to qualify as an M. Night Shyamalan script. This chapter started off as a 1L manual Ambition trim booking from Malayalam Skoda, Trivandrum, on May 1st. I had a test drive the week earlier, and the Sales Advisor (SA) was following up every couple of days. I wanted to try the 1.5, but it was not available at that time. They gave the tentative timeline as end of May when they will get one for test drives. Anyhow I went to the showroom and paid the booking amount of 25000 rupees and booked Ambition model with a promise that they will call me before confirming the model to the factory. The last part was explicitly mentioned because I had some confusion on the variant I wanted, and if I felt the need to upgrade my variant of choice, I can do it at that time. Then came the first twist: the SA called me 2 days later and said they have the vehicle ready to be shipped from the factory and asked if I was ready to take delivery on the next week. ![]() I was completely caught off guard, and after multiple calls, which also included talking to their team lead/manager, I rejected that vehicle, and the booking was changed to 1.5 Manual. At that time, I was informed that the waiting period will be 4 months for the 1.5 manual, and I resigned myself to wait. This meant I would have ample time to set all my financials in order. But as fate would have it, I got a surprise call from my friend (who also had a 1.5 manual booking) on 21st May that a 1.5 manual is available with Kochi dealers. I was really conflicted over this since I did not get enough time to arrange my financials or had a chance to sell my existing car, and I was debating furiously in my mind what to do next. All my reservations were laid to rest when I heard a couple of news during my visit to the VW showroom, where I went to check out the Virtus:
The next few days passed like a whirlwind - I was in a daze trying to get all my stuff in order: arranging the down payment, finalising the insurance, the loan, then selling the existing vehicle, oh my gosh, I was totally overwhelmed! I decided to get the financing and insurance done all via Skoda itself. After some comparisons, I settled on SBI for the loan and HDFC Ergo for the vehicle insurance. I planned to travel to Kochi on that Saturday, get the PDI complete and then decide on next steps afterwards. This is where I really appreciate the EVM folks - the vehicle was in-transit at that time, but they did not push me to make any further down payment, they promptly shared the vehicle VIN details on the next day after I transferred the booking amount and were perfectly happy to wait till my PDI was complete before going ahead with the registration process. But then came another twist: the vehicle was going to Kozhikode dealership instead of Kochi, and I had to decide to either go to Kozhikode, or get it driven over to Kochi. Reluctantly, I agreed to let them drive the vehicle to Kochi, and then do my PDI from there. Fast forward to Saturday the 30th of May, and finally… PDI in progress. ![]() 192 km since it was driven down to Kochi from Kozhikode. ![]() A tiny mark here. ![]() PDI went well for both my friend and me. The only issue I could spot was a mark below the fuel filler for my allotted car. But it was very tiny, and could not be felt, and I was confident that a polish would take care of it. His was Candy white model and looked very neat. Both the cars were lying out on the yard under the merciless glare of the afternoon sun, and I got to experience the stark difference between the 2 colour models. If the insides of the White one felt like a sauna, the Carbon Grey felt like a boiling furnace. We were glad to get out of the sun and on to the shades where we finalised the next steps. Since the price hike was imminent, all of us were eager to go ahead with the purchase and we both gave the confirmation to the SA. Also, since it was a Saturday, the loan transfer had to wait till Monday, and we decided to transfer the down payment also on Monday. This would have given us ample time to finish the formalities before the new month starts. The next few days were agonising, having seen the car, but unable to take it. Come Monday, further tension was added when the loan amount was not credited till end of evening. Apparently, SBI had a server issue, and they could not transfer the loan amount to the dealers before that. I was worried that we were going to get the car based on the hiked amount, until I was reminded that May had 31 days and not 30. Next day, the registration process was done from the dealer side, but I received the Form 20 only on June 1st. Those 2 days were even more agonising - we were wondering if more payment must be done if the registration falls over to the next month. Luckily, the entire registration was done with the original on-road amount, but the wait continued to get the plates printed and installed. Then, on that week Saturday, the wait ended; and I got to see her, all clean, shiny, and ready to set the roads on fire. Last round of checking before taking delivery. ![]() Waiting to be unleashed! ![]() Happy family! ![]() First bellyful of XP95 petrol! ![]() Delivery went without any major hiccups. But I found that several wheel nuts were missing the plastic cover. My SA promised that he will courier them to me later. ![]() I drove down to Trivandrum early next day and I was grinning from ear to ear the entire journey. Few observations from that journey and other short trips:
![]() Even though the car is an upgrade over all measures for me, there are some rough edges and surprising feature omissions when compared to its European cousins. The interiors, even though it looked nice and modern, lacks finish in some places. The creaky ambient light strip, the exposed hinges and budget grade coverings of the boot, the roof liner that flexes when pressed, all takes away the premium feel that is expected after spending so much money. However, all these are forgotten when I am back behind the wheel and with open roads in front. This car feels built for touring and that is exactly what I plan to do. Basking in the evening sun at Kovalam beach. ![]() Chilling besides Vellayani Lake. ![]() Immediate plans other than going on trips:
![]() In the meantime, there has been several opinion polls created which felt targeted squarely at me and my current situation. The answers to those: “Yes, I went over budget for my car purchase,” and “I have never owned a VW/Skoda car and would buy their India 2.0 cars;” I went the full Monty and got myself the Slavia 1.5, which was almost double my original budget, and now, one of the most polarising VW/Skoda India 2.0 cars. Cheers. |
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![]() | #683 | |
BHPian ![]() | Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
The i20 has also had a lot more damage in a normal accident, AC breakdowns and has a terrible fuel economy along with no driver feedback which is good because its driven by the driver. The Polo is a far better car even for a layman. ![]() | |
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![]() | #684 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Trivandrum
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| Re: Slavia is home early Quote:
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![]() | #685 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Anand
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
Hyundais have far dangerous issues too, like: •Brakes Failing in Cretas (link (Hyundai Creta: Serious brake failure issue (must-read for all owners))) •Paint Peeling (https://www.team-bhp.com/news/many-hyundais-suffering-paint-peeling]link). My Elite i20 too suffered from this! And then, there are some other serious miscellaneous cases like Kia having multiple engines and transmissions replaced (link), Multiple Creta Turbo Failures: Link-1 (Turbo failure on a 1-year old Hyundai Creta 1.4L Turbo DCT. EDIT: Warranty extension & parts offered) and Link-2. And here’s transmission failure on “Hyundai”: Link. Recently, we are also hearing about fuel pump failures on Korean Turbo Petrols: link (Fuel pump failures in Hyundai-Kia vehicles with the turbo-petrol engines). What’s great about VAG here was that they acknowledged EPC issues and actively replaced the pumps. Hyundai hasn’t even acknowledged the fuel-pump issue exactly like what they did with Brake failures and paint peeling too. So, I’d not call the German buyers “brave”, at least they are not handled by their brand as “Ignorance is Bliss”. They know about the issues being acknowledged by their brand and can get it rectified from them rather than waiting for that part to fail because the manufacturer hasn’t acknowledged the issue. So, issues can crop up in any car, be it German or supposedly reliable Hyundais. Newer VAGs still feel premium in their respective segments, if not like earlier VAGs. They still have an edge in finesse, aesthetics (subjective), fit and finish in their respective segments. Last edited by HMV : 17th June 2022 at 10:55. Reason: Added More Information | |
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![]() | #686 | |
Senior - BHPian ![]() Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Ahmedabad
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
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![]() | #687 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: TN-11, AP-03
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Quote:
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![]() | #688 |
BHPian ![]() | Re: Skoda Slavia Review
It is a fact that the percentage of failures ( and high-ticket ones at that ) are quite high with VAG cars. Based on the volume of sales to failures curve, VAG would probably lead the pack by a good margin. Add to it the sheer incompetence of the ASS and that exponentially affects the ownership experience over and above the failures. I face a lot of issues with my Rapid and it was sheer luck that I was within the city limits during Major failures like broken water pump or injector going ka-put. To be fair, santro/i10/wagonR cannot be compared to Rapid in the performance sense. I am just comparing on ownership experience. With performance cars ( Rapid is at the bottom percentile, but still it is a performance car ) you tend to have more fiction and quicker parts deterioration. One expects the supporting parts to also be more sturdier. In my Skoda journey, the parts started giving out after the 4th/5th year even with my 10K/year average mileage. But again, I guess they have to put in robust parts during manufacturing itself unlike the robust fuel pump that was deployed after the non-robust fuel pump failed at an alarming rate. I still wonder what would have happened if the fuel pump failures followed the DSG failure curve instead of that alarming curve it followed (or) they had been built just more sturdier and failed after an year or 2 of using "adulterated" fuel. |
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![]() | #689 |
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: BengaLuru
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review Guys lets stop this debate and justification of buying VAG cars and get back to the car itself. FE update: My commute to office is somewhat returning 10-11kmpl on my 1.5 DSG. This is quite insensitive to driving style since the car picks up speed soon and even if we occupy gap’s aggressively, it isnt affecting FE much. What is a bigger problem for FE is if you always drive around in residential areas and congested traffic. That time it wont cross 8.5-9kmpl. ![]() 675kms done in 20 days and much of this has been clocked by my dad than me thanks to my WFH situation and his liking of the car ![]() |
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![]() | #690 |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: May 2016 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Skoda Slavia Review I checked out the new (or rather old) 8 inches infotainment system in Slavia. First the Cons: 1. It looks a bit dated for 2022. The overall color theme, icons, UI/UX styling is a bit old style. However, it's not a deal-breaker. 2. The screen resolution is lesser than the 10 inches one. You would notice pixelation if you go near the screen. From far, it looks fine. 3. Lack of support for sub-woofer. This is a big miss IMO. Slavia had a distinct edge over the competition, including Virtus when it came to sound quality. It's more or less on par with the competition without a sub-woofer. Now, the Pros: 1. The touchscreen response is fantastic. Even my Galaxy S21 feels slow in comparison. 2. Physical buttons & quick access menu. I like physical buttons. You can operate without taking your eyes off the road. The buttons are of very good quality. The quick access menu is well spread out & easy to access compared to 10 inches one. For instance, with a quick glance off the road & you would be able to operate. On the 10 inches screen, the quick access menu buttons are small and would require you to take your eyes off for a considerable time to choose the right button. 3. The overall screen layout and information presented appears bigger in size (probably because of lower resolution) making it easier to read. 4. The infotainment touchscreen feels premium (but a bit dated). It doesn't look/feels cheap in any way. Sound Quality: The sound clarity is good. Initially, the bass was missing but after adjusting equalizer, the bass output was much better. The sound quality is a notch better than Virtus or City, both are bass-heavy to my liking. But, Slavia loses the advantage it had in the sound system. Period. Skoda should provide replacement with 10 inches infotainment system including a sub-woofer when the supply chain is back to normal at a reasonable cost ( wish they provide it complimentary). Main Menu screen ![]() Media screen ![]() Music screen ![]() Phone screen ![]() Car/Vehicle screen ![]() Android Auto/Apple Carplay screen. I didn't have cable so couldn't check this out. ![]() I have made a short video on the touchscreen response. |
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