Skoda Scala – The logical choice

Choosing a family car is quite the task. First you need to set your budget, then see if you have any certain needs such as a tow hook, big boot space or something else, and then you need to find which car that fits these requirements. More often than not, you might catch yourself looking at a Volkswagen Golf. No wonder, since the Golf is one of the most logical choices out there, but what about the other brands from the VAG family? Skoda has done a huge, and I mean huge, jump in quality, design and sales. The Scala came in 2019, and should on paper be a solid car to buy. Fortunately, since my parents decide to buy a new car after over 15 years, they found themselves with the keys to the Scala, and I have had the opportunity to follow all the steps of actually buying a new car as well as doing a proper review. So continue reading and find out if the Scala could be the next Golf.

With the Scala, Skoda showed its future design language, which was implemented in the newly revealed Octavia. The big front grille is still there. An extended lower air intake goes throughout the front and together with the angled lights gives a rather interesting facial expression. Many people say that the front of the car is the face of the car, but with the Scala, the front is literally the face, and once it´s seen it cannot be unseen. Because of delivery times, the color went from blue to white. While looking great in the sunshine, the white color dulls the lines of the car, especially when there is less sunlight.

The interior is the showpiece. Bronze colored interior panels, simple yet stylish lines and a generous middle screen. It certainly holds its own compared to other cars in its class. If there is something I could complain about, it would be the part that holds the rear view mirror. It is ginormous! It makes it impossible to see when the red lights turn green. Speaking of which, although not bad, the view from the rear view mirror is quite hindered from the big C-pillars in the back.

Two petrol options are available with the Scala. A more powerful four cylinder, and a newly developed 3 cylinder. This car has the latter which has an output of 115 hp, from 1 liter. And the sound at higher revs are best described as a low revving 6 cylinder. In other words, the engine sound is great! The power might not sound all too impressive, but with a healthy dose of torque and low weight, the Scala feels peppy and fun to drive. Being a manual doesn’t hurt the fun either. I was actually rather impressed since I was expecting typical safe but uninspiring driving characteristics that often come with base models from VAG, which is nothing wrong in itself, but rather boring. Being winter in Sweden meant winter tires, and even if the sound insulation meant a generally quiet drive, the studded tires gave an unnecessarily strong humming sound at motorway speeds.

So is the Skoda Scala a car to look into? The simple answer is yes. The Scala gives you so much car for the price. I would even argue that it could succeed the Golf in terms of being the car to buy when you need a car that does everything really damn well. The exterior of the Scala might not be its best asset, but it shines in every other department, and with a price of under 200 thousand sek, or 20 thousand Euro, the Scala comes in a very attractive market since the need for more extra equipment is not that needed.

Wake up Skoda. Where is the Hybrid? It is 2019, the car was released in 2019, and there is no electrical option from the get go. That is simply not enough. The head start in the segment that they could have would be monumental, but all lost. One other problem is the new Octavia. Bigger, better equipped and with a very similar price, I believe that Skoda might have shoot themselves in the foot, again. You see, the Scala is a new model, but it filled the empty place left behind the Rapid which never sold all that well. Hopefully, history won`t repeat itself.