The Comeback

The new Skoda Slavia brought in hope to make sedans great again thus naturally, pitting it with a worthy competitor was inevitable and the two in this test are very unique in the current crop of sedans in our country

- Abhik Das

Test No.

245 to 246

Skoda Slavia 1.0-litre, 3-cyl, 115bhp

Hyundai Verna 1.0-litre, 3-cyl, 118bhp

A few pages before, I've waxed lyrical about a sedan that has injected a solid dose of excitement in the veins of the enthusiasts. This is not to assume that the said car is a high performance vehicle, it's in fact, far from it. The humble sedan has been the aspirational upgrade to establish that a dream has been realised. That long-awaited big appraisal, the fixed deposit that finally matured, years of patience and perseverance to sacrifice and save up as much as possible to finally bring a three-box sedan home; that's the kind of dream a white-collar executive creates right from an early age. Sure the posters on the walls might have adorned a track-bred Italian or a German Autobahn scorcher but those ambitions soon dissolve into real world, attainable aspirations.

Here's where the four-door sedan comes in. Affordable, practical, likeable and more importantly accessible. This last trait is what separates those almost unattainable poster cars and the daily grinder that can be made fun to drive too. It was in the 80s and 90s for most millennials in India when the influx of elegant yet sporty sedans took over the minds of the budding enthusiast who could not only see them as cars they would grow up to be seen in but also ones that had the potential to give more expensive sports cars a proper run for their money once the mods started. Performance aside, these cars were just as happy doing the mundane commutes as much as offering the weekend thrills. These were the sedans that sparked new teenage aspirations as the posters progressed into Windows wallpapers of high-performance BMW M3s and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions among others.