2012 Skoda Fabia Sedan: Octavia Replacement?

Skoda Octavia

When Skoda set shop in India ten years ago in 2001, their ex-managing director, Imran Hassen operated from a hotel room in Aurangabad. Such was the small size of the initial operations, which started with the Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI and dealerships too were few and far in between. In spite of these seemingly huge drawback of too few dealers and authorized service showrooms, the Skoda Octavia sold like hot cakes, especially in diesel guise. Indians, were particularly taken with the big car like feel, tank like build quality, an attractive price tag and the great fuel economy of the dated diesel engine.

So, what if the turbo diesel engine felt underpowered and was oh-so-dated especially when compared to the CRDI diesels that made an appearance pretty soon. While the turbo diesel engine, with 2 valves per cylinder was nothing to write home about in the technology and the poke stakes, the relaxed performance and more importantly, reliability made sure that the Skoda Octavia seldom needed any attention from the dealer’s end, except of course for scheduled maintenance. Ten years down the line, Skoda has a bigger dealer network while their after sales service remains as pathetic as ever at most places.

Skoda Fabia Sedan Render

These ten years have also led to the Bharat Stage 4 emission norms being implemented thus sounding the death knell for the Skoda Octavia, whose production was discontinued soon thereafter. This leaves Skoda India with a gaping hole in their product portfolio much to the competition’s glee and prospective Octavia owners’ disappointment. Recently, we came across renders of the Skoda Fabia Sedan and this immediately got us thinking about the Fabia Sedan’s probable Indian launch to fill in the erstwhile Octavia’s shoes. While this seems pretty plausible considering the Volkswagen Vento’s impending launch, we’ve been rumors of a Skoda Fabia Sedan right from 2005, when word about the Skoda Fabia Hatchback coming to India first began doing rounds.

Since then the rumor mill seemed to go into hibernation, only to come back with a vengeance as news of the Octavia’s discontinuation and the Vento’s launch surfaced. We for our part, still think that the Sedan version of the Fabia, especially with a major refresh would be the perfect fit for the erstwhile Octavia. Another factor that points to a Fabia Sedan replacing the Octavia is the fact that the old Octavia is discontinued all over the world with the Laura being the Octavia’s replacement. Therefore, it is unlikely that Skoda will resurrect the Octavia brand once again when they can rather continue with the Fabia Sedan as a potential replacement. While that makes a lot of economic sense, stranger things have happened in the motor world. For now, the 2012 Skoda Fabia Sedan as the rumored Octavia replacement in India remains just that, a rumor.

Image Courtesy: Autoblog.it

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