Volkswagen Virtus Vs Skoda Slavia Vs Honda City - Features, Comfort, Space And Practicality Comparison

Which sedan is more comfortable and practical? Let’s find out

The Volkswagen Virtus is the fifth model that joins the compact sedan space. The leader of this space for years has been Honda City. Known for its chauffeuring capabilities, it falls short when it comes to features but excels in ride comfort. It offers the choice of a naturally aspirated ‘i-VTEC’ petrol engine, a diesel and even a strong self-charging hybrid option. 

But, the Virtus also faces its toughest competition from within its own group -  the Skoda Slavia, a sedan we’ve come to know for its great drive and ride experience and enthusiastic ‘TSI’ turbo-petrol engines. So, here we compare the space, practicality, features, and ride quality of the City, Slavia and Virtus, to tell you which is the more comfortable and practical sedan.  

Looks

All the three sedans here look rich, sophisticated and give you that big car feeling. The Virtus is the longest sedan here, with the rest of its sizing identical to the Slavia. It’s the City which is a bit smaller in every aspect. All three of them get 16-inch alloys, LED lighting elements, and the typical 3-box sedan design. 

The Virtus’ exterior highlights include sporty chiseled bumpers, sleek LED projector headlamps, the prominent shoulder line, and the Jetta-like rear profile. One look at the Slavia and you’ll see it as a mini Octavia. Its silhouette is quite similar to the Virtus, but there are some exclusive visual elements too. It gets Skoda’s iconic aggressive-looking grille, muscular bumpers, sharp LED projector headlights, and different alloys. 

As for the City, it doesn’t give a sporty look like the two, but a rather classic and premium feel. It surely has a typical Japanese design language. The Accord-inspired LED headlights, a clean front bumper, flashy alloys, and a simple rear profile are some of its visual standouts.  

Boot Space

As per our tests, we were able to fit three different-sized suitcases with two duffle bags in the VW and Skoda cars, but the City could fit only two suitcases and the duffle bags. The Slavia and Virtus’ 521-litre boot is slightly bigger than the City’s 506-litre capacity. While the difference isn’t much on the paper, the Skoda and VW get a boxy-shaped boot, that with a wider opening, can fit more luggage. These both have the advantage of 60:40 rear split seats, which when folded, will offer even more storage space. 

Interiors

The VW Virtus and Skoda Slavia sport a minimalistic, yet posh-looking cabin. Their black and beige theme with chrome detailing and the three-layer dashboard theme looks soothing to the eyes. The Slavia’s unique round AC vents and the two-spoke steering wheel have to be some of its standout funky highlights. The Honda City’s interiors look detailed and rich, especially with the heavy use of soft-touch materials. However, compared to the other two sedans, the interiors look a bit too simple and dated. 

We noticed that the Virtus’ plastic quality and fit and finish were better than the Skoda. The City continues to be the standard benchmark for the fit and finish, while the other two sedans fall short in this aspect with low-quality plastics. 

First Row Experience

Seating Comfort

The City offers the most generous legroom and kneeroom in the front seat, while all three contenders offer a similar headroom and an identical width for the front row passengers. 

The trio offer well-contoured and strongly bolstered front seats, which will hold you well and offer better support. The Virtus and Slavia get a firm cushioning, which would be appreciated during long-distance drives. But, its front seats are placed lower than in the City, which might irk the elderly while getting in and going out. The City, comparatively, has soft-cushioning but gets a flatter seat base which will be able to fit differently-sized adults better. 

Front Row Practicality And Features 

The Slavia, Virtus, and City all offer the basic storage and practicality spaces like 1-litre bottle holders in the doors, cup holders, an armrest with storage, and phone docking spaces. However, the Virtus offers the least number of cubby spaces. The City offers the most, making it more practical upfront. 

All three sedans offer a good amount of features, like large touchscreen infotainment, automatic headlamps, electric sunroof, cruise control, ambient lighting, an 8-speaker sound system, and paddle shifters. However, the Virtus and Slavia offer some more features, which are very handy. 

The Virtus and Slavia’s 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment is better and more premium than the City’s basic 8-inch unit. The duo’s infotainment is also smoother and easier to use as well. It also offers wireless charging, front ventilated seats, and height adjustment for the co-driver seat, which are useful in daily life. The City gets auto one-touch up/down for all four windows, which was considered a VW/Skoda trait. Importantly, the City’s base V variant comes with more features than that of Slavia and Virtus. 

Slavia also offers some ‘Simply Clever’ features which include a ticket holder on the windscreen, a document holder elastic string, and small storage space on the dashboard. 

The VW and Skoda sedans are clear winners in terms of features, but the City scores better in cabin practicality. 

Rear Seat Experience

The back seats are important considering these are sedans. The three sedans offer great comfort, relaxation and the airy feeling at the back, be it for your daily commuting or long-distance drives. The provision of an electric sunroof makes the cabin even roomier. But do remember that the seats of all the three sedans are lower, so getting in and out might trouble the elderly. 

The duo get firmly bolstered seats even at the back. But with that strong bolstering, you get restricted shoulder room and a slightly lifted centre seat, which will make it uncomfortable for the person in the middle seat. That also suggests why it will seat two people comfortably rather than three. In the case of the City, you have a flatter seat at the back as well, which comparatively, makes room for three people. The City comparatively offers more kneeroom, but it’s the Virtus and Slavia that offer more foot room and headspace. More importantly, six-footers will be able to sit behind the Virtus and Slavia, while they might feel cramped in the City. Overall, we still feel that City continues to be the benchmark when it comes to rear seating, but the Virtus and Slavia aren’t too far. 

Rear Seat Practicality And Features

Talking about practicality, all three get a centre armrest with two cup holders, rear AC vents, and bottle holders in the doors. While the City offers a rear sunshade blind, the Virtus and Slavia offer rear adjustable headrests. Importantly, the latter two offer rear 60:40 split seats, which allows more space. While all the three are equally practical at the back, the Virtus and Slavia just get a couple of more features. 

Safety

All three sedans are well equipped in terms of safety features. Traction control, electronic stability control, and TPMS are standard for all sedans. The City offers four airbags as standard, while the Slavia and Kushaq offer two. On the other hand, we have the Slavia and Virtus with more active safety features. Do note that none of them has been crash-tested yet. 

Ride And Comfort

All three sedans will offer you a comfortable ride quality be it inside the city or out on the highway. All of them can absorb potholes, translating to fewer undulations of the roads for the passengers. At the same time, if you go over larger bumps, you will hear a thud in all three of them. But it's the City, which gives more vertical and harsher movement while going over rough surfaces. The Slavia and Virtus, comparatively, settle down quicker over the harsh surfaces and large potholes and feel well planted at triple-digit speeds. 

Drive Experience

All three cars are effortless to drive in the city. It’s only when you start to drive a little more spiritedly or take them out on the highway that Virtus and Slavia pull ahead of the Honda City. And that’s down to their turbo power vs the more old school naturally aspirated Honda motor. The Virtus and Slavia have more torque on hand. And this is just when you compare the 1.0-litre turbo petrol of the Slavia and the Virtus against the 1.5-litre Honda City. The 1.5-litre turbo petrol options of the Slavia and the Virtus are even more powerful. 

The surprising thing is that this extra power doesn’t come with much of a penalty in efficiency either. When picking an automatic the Slavia and Virtus give you a choice of a 6-speed automatic with their 1.0-litre engines and a 7-speed DSG with the larger 1.5 engine. The City on the other hand offers a smooth CVT as the only automatic option with the petrol engine and an e-CVT with the hybrid petrol powertrain. The City is also the only car of the three that gives you the option of a diesel engine as well. For a more detailed insight of how these cars are to drive and handle, our sister publication, Zigwheels, has it covered in their ride and handling review. 

Price Talk

All the three sedans sit in a similar price range, but the City’s base variant is more feature-rich than that of the Virtus and Slavia. So, technically, the City’s V variant is a direct rival to the Slavia and Virtus mid-spec variants. The Virtus and Slavia’s range increases with the 1.5-litre turbo-petrol variants, while the City has its almost 20-lakh priced strong-hybrid self-charging option. 

Verdict

If you are looking for a car that gives you a big-car feeling, a comfortable rear seat experience, and a feature-rich cabin, all three options are good. The Slavia and Virtus shine with their better planted and composed ride quality, highway driving manners, a better feature package, and bigger boot space. Of course, you also have the turbo-petrol engines and their exciting drive experience, which will appeal more to enthusiasts. If you are considering the City, you’ll enjoy its more practical cabin with better fit and finish, proven naturally aspirated engine, the option of a diesel engine, an overall better rear-seat experience, and the ability to seat three people at the back.

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