Skoda Slavia
Aatish takes the Slavia back home to Goa for the holiday season
THERE’S A RITUAL I UNDERTAKE every December — I road trip from wherever I am to Goa, to bring in the new year. The Slavia has returned to the evo India fleet after Skoda borrowed it for a few weeks, and I can’t tell you how happy I am. I felt like a vagabond without a home without it, picking up the keys to whatever car was left behind every day after the team left. Made some good memories with the Thar and the i20 N Line, but it’s nice to have my long-termer back. Funnily enough, this was going to be my first real long road trip with the Slavia. I have taken it out of town and to Mumbai a couple of times, but this was going to be a proper 1000km+ drive to and from Goa, when you account for all of the driving I would be doing there. The Slavia was in great shape. The only prep needed was to top up the fuel tank, and remind myself that fuel would be a whole `10 cheaper in Goa. The drive was hell. Not because of the Slavia but the traffic. It was December 24 and the whole world was heading down to Goa for the last weekend. The Pune bypass had peak-hour levels of traffic at 6am and lines at the tollbooth were stretching for 400-500 metres even before the sun had come up. It was going to be a long day, I told myself. However, it was going to be a long day in the Slavia and I was plenty comfortable in there. Having run the Kushaq and now this over the last year, the dash and controls are now a part of muscle memory. I fiddled around with the EQ settings, found a great setup for my music and hammered in the kilometres.
First things first, the Slavia is a solid highway cruiser. The chassis setup really shines — soft enough to cushion you from everything, but always planted and stable. The highways in these parts are perfect. Dips, crests, bumps that spring up on you out of the blue — nothing fazes the Slavia. Just keep your foot buried. The engine is a peach as well. The 1.5 is far less intrusive into the cabin compared to the 1.0, improving the NVH significantly and just making long hours behind the wheel a lot less tiring. The performance on offer is better too and you need to work the engine less to cover ground at the same pace.
Far more relaxing, this.
What really stood out for me is the ground clearance, though. I know, it looks funny with those massive wheel arch gaps but they were so helpful on a day like this. The narrower roads past Nipani aren’t in great shape — pothole ridden, bumpy and in patches, completely broken. It also happens to be harvest season for sugarcane and tractors with trailers full of it were plying up and down the road. Oh, and the traffic. Weekend
drivers were covering ground at a leisurely pace, causing massive trains of cars behind them since overtaking wasn’t easy. So often I found myself dipping two wheels off the road, sometimes to make way for a tractor coming at me, sometimes to overtake a moron behind the wheel in front of me. I don’t think I could have been so carefree in any other sedan. The massive clearance meant I could just get onto the shoulder, gas and go. There were broken patches where full size SUVs like Fortuners and Endeavours were gingerly tip-toeing over, and I could just pull out and overtake them without trouble. The smaller wheels and softer set up on this meant I could take on bad patches with this far easier than in the Kushaq. This is not a sedan that needs to be babied when the roads get bad.
At the same time, it is huge fun in the ghats. So connected to the driver, so generous with its limits and so willing to communicate when you approach them. The actual Amboli ghat road isn’t too bad and I think the Slavia was the fastest car down that day. It gives you such confidence on the brakes, such eager responses when you turn that you can’t help but get into a smooth, fast rhythm with it. That duality is what really had me floored — that I can drive it like a crossover, and a sedan without trouble. And it doesn’t mind either.
The smaller wheels and softer setup on this meant I could take on bad patches with this far easier than in the Kushaq
Complaints? The suspension is audible over a certain type of sharp bump. It deals with the bump well but the sound just lets down the overall feeling of robustness that the rest of the cars have. Also, every single bottle I have made a racket in the door pockets. Another small issue but a lining in there would just make the in-car experience a lot more sophisticated. That aside? Nothing. It was great in Goa, the not-so-wide dimensions making it easy to manoeuvre in the narrow roads around Anjuna and Vagator. All in all, a superb road trip. One of the nicest I’ve had in a while! ⌧
Date acquired July 2022
Total mileage 7120km Mileage this month 1250km Costs this month Nil
Overall kmpl 14.5