Skoda Slavia Long Term Review, October 2023 Report

While the Skoda Slavia is no longer a brand-new product, I was iquite interested in spending some time driving it. The reason for this? Well, to be honest, I can’t for the life of me remember the last time that I spent a considerable duration driving a low-slung sedan. In fact, if I look back at my long-term reports, I think since 2019 I’ve been driving some SUV or the other as my daily driver, and well, that’s more than four years driving vehicles which are not ideal when it comes to dynamics. You see, with its low-slung shape and better physics in an ideal scenario, sedans tend to have better dynamics and handling and deliver better driving feel. On top of that, our test car – for now – is the 1.0-litre TSI variant with a manual gearbox, and just jogging my memory, I think the last time I drove a manual gearbox car for any lengthy period of time must’ve been sometime around 2016. So, on both counts, I was in for a blast from the past, and I was actually quite looking forward to it.

While most of you would know most of the things about the Slavia, I was privy to the development of the car, and one of the first people in the world – outside the Skoda-VW Group – to drive prototypes of the Slavia way back in 2021 (the time when we still had to wear masks and face shields to get on a flight) and from the outset, was quite impressed by the dynamics of the MQB A0-IN platform that the Slavia is based on. Two year on, driving pleasure still remains one of the highlights of the Slavia, and it still drives brilliantly. And while our test car has already covered over 17,000kms, the build quality of Skoda means that it still feels as if its brand new and hides its age very well. The interior of the Slavia is also quite spacious and overall it feels like a high quality product.

Initially, I thought I would prefer the 1.5-litre engine with its extra power, but to be honest, even the 1.0-litre engine with its 113bhp is quite potent. Whether its in-gear acceleration or a traffic light grand prix, the Slavia drives beautifully and is in fact, very fun to throw around. Of course, with its quality engineering, the high-speed stability and cruising manners are quite flawless, making the Slavia quite an all-rounder. However, to be honest, I found myself quite rusty at driving a manual gearbox after such a long time, so till the Slavia is here for the next few months, it’s a good exercise to brush up on my enthusiastic driving skills once more.

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2022 Skoda Slavia Long Term Reports

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