Top Executives
Skoda’s new Octavia is an important car. Not just for the Czech carmaker, but for consumers as well who’ve been restricted to just a handful of saloons at this price point. Hyundai’s Elantra has been dominating this segment for a while now and is the car to beat. This feature-packed saloon has consistently averaged about 350 units per month over the last year and though the number is small in relative terms, it’s ahead of the rest. It’s good-looking, well-equipped and quite spacious – all the ingredients that make it a best-seller. The Laura (which is actually the second-generation Octavia) has always been a solid car but it managed to clock just half of the Elantra’s figures over the same period. Now, back with its original name, the new Octavia is an impressive car and we reckon it has all the makings of a best-seller. So, how does this next iteration compare with the segment best? We spent some time with the manual diesel variants of both and this is what we discovered.
Suraj Viswanathan
