Optra Magnum diesel LT or Laura Elegance ?need help

[anant.arora]

Hey guys, i am a newbie to this forum and need your help in choosing the right car ...

I am currently having two cars in my family , the Hyundai elantra diesel and the Octavia rider 1.9 tdi.
I am driving a Skoda Octavia rider and will be replacing it shortly ...

My budget is upto Rs. 16 lacs and i 'll keeping the car for the next 2-3 years and i 've shortlisted the Magnum diesel LT(Rs. 11 lacs OTR) and the Laura elegance(Rs. 15.45 lacs OTR after dealer discounts) .

I test drove the Laura on saturday and felt quite nice and had my mind set on the laura (i thought it would be a brilliant upgrade) but yesterday my friend called me up to join him for the test drive of the magnum diesel(he is planning to buy the magnum) ohhh!what a drive it was .....

I was surprised by the adrenaline rush of the 2.0 litre engine, the comfort , the ride ,the interior space and almost everything impressed me about this car except the Brand 'Chevy' and the rear end looks .

Now i am totally confused as to what car i should go for ... here are some pros and cons that i felt ...

Optra :

1) Brilliant performer
2) Excellent ride comfort
3) Fantastic rear seats(better than the Laura)
4) More Spacious
5) cheaper by Rs. 4.5 lacs (OTR)
6) cheap A.S.S/spares
7) poor brand image
8) A daewoo underneath
9) poor resale(i guess)
10)not a very good looker

The Laura :

1) More snob value/wow factor
2) Looks better
3) Better built
4) Better equipped
5) Excellent features
6) expensive by Rs. 4.5 lacs
7) expensive spares/A.S.S
8) stiff ride
9) excellent FE(i was told its 14 in city conditions)

The thing thats keeping me away from buying a Chevy is the Snob value, the resale factor and the Image ...

Should i spend those extra 4.5 lacs and buy a Laura or save the moolah and buy Chevy and forget about the Brand Image, resale value etc . ??

My heart says Laura, my mind says Magnum ....

I really dont remember the Last time i was so confused in my entire life Please help me choose the right car ? need your suggestions very badly ...

Thanks .

[rubin2006]

I think optra Magnum is fantastic car and the price of skoda Laura is expensive outrightly and Frankly speaking if you re so concerned about
Snob value then look for something else like something in petrol . Teana or Camry in petrol or may be look at VW Passat if the pricing is somewhere close to 20s which is not yet clear ( that will offer you much more snob-stuff then the ever common skoda batch for years to come )

I think Your mind is giving you better thought go for magnum it is lot more
Bang for your buck, and if you still think you want to be in lap of luxury with ultimate Badge this side of BEEMER and MERC stretch your self a Little bit and GO for that Passat ,and you will not want anything more

[reignofchaos]

LOL whats snobbish about a cheap czech car maker . Go for the magnum.

[deepakvrao]

Not driven the Magnum but it sounds great. OTOH I just got myself a 1 year old Laura AT and it if fabulous. Try the AT before deciding and you might just want to either up your budget or look for a second hand ar which should be within your budget.

The DSG gearbox has to be driven to be believed. The goodies in the Laura are great to have too.

[IronWolf]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

LOL whats snobbish about a cheap czech car maker . Go for the magnum.

ROC in US et all Skoda is not even heard of, however here Skoda is seen as snob value in namma India. The Octavias build / quality / BMW like looks / and most of all its FE has made the Skoda a snob brand in India.

Anant, In my opinion the only thing the magnum has is little more space and a little more power. What it cannot give you is a tank like build. Also the Laura has features which can only be compared with the Civic (I wont go there as I feel you are only looking for Diesel - If you do consider petrol, just walk into your nearest Honda showroom and book that lil thing called the Civic). Magnum like you said is a chevy with a daewoo underneath?. <ouch!> I think that should be considered as the nail in the Magnum choice.

I would suggest taking the Laura as its in your budget. Put a Petes kit and you will have a smile on your face for a much longer time to come, than you would with the magnum.

[IronWolf]

Originally Posted by deepakvrao

The DSG gearbox has to be driven to be believed. The goodies in the Laura are great to have too.

Can I take you up on that offer? Cause I really need to believe.

@anant - dont those bells and whistles on the Laura fascinate you? From what I saw the Magnum has got just basic stuff which a normal mid size sedan would have.

[iraghava]

Anant - I would say go for the Magnum, it is a much more VFM car. I cannot understand why one would want to pay 16L for a Laura, it's simply ridiculously over priced.

[aadix]

hey why not the sonata embera crdi?

[Mugen_Power]

I didnt understand Why are you comparing Magnum with laura ?
If you compare magnum with octavia than its fine.

Link (Diesel war : Chevy Magnum vs Skoda Octavia. Whats your pick?)

[skandyhere]

the magnum. it's a steal. the power's addictive. the laura is hard on the pocket, with not much of real value add. skoda makes good money, and they make good cars too - except, they make better money than cars.

not too impressed with either the appearance of the laura (the old octy exudes a boulder-like solidity that the laura lacks in my eyes) nor the needless creature-comforts that serve only to jack up repair costs to exorbidant levels in bad times.

[deepakvrao]

Can I take you up on that offer? Cause I really need to believe.

Sure. PM me and I'll give you my number. You can also take a test drive with Tafe Bangalore.

[deepakvrao]

Here is a list of goodies with the Laura that are not advertised so many [like me at least] don't know of.

1. Seat/mirror memories for different drivers and different keys
2. Xenon headlights which automatically adjust to load and slope
3. Auto dimming int/ext mirrors
4. Auto light control - lights come on automatically when required
5. Rain sensors and auto wipers
6. Mirror which automatically tilts down in reverse to see the kerb while parking
7. Stereo volume adjusts automatically with speed
8. Wipers give a courtesy wipe after 5 seconds of final wipe
9. Wipers adjust with speed of the car
10. Coming home and leaving home lights - duration of which is adjustable and will not come on in daylight
11. Slope assist where the brake stays on for a while even after the foot is removed to prevent roll back
12. Heated windshield washer nozzles and rear mirrors - may be of use in the north?
13. Heated seats - again for the north?
14. Tyre pressure monitoring
15. Parking sensors come on automatically in R and goes off when more than 15kmph in drive
16. Opening/closing of windows with the remote
17. 2 trip meters with complete details incl dist, time, consumption, avg speed, fuel remaining etc
18. Traction control, Electronic Differential Lock, Electronic Stability Control, Brake Assist, ABS
19. Under RVM light to light the area under your door at time of entry/exit
20. Removable rear seats to increase carry space hugely
21. Cooled glove/center storage boxes
22. On steering remotes for audio
23. When the car is put into reverse gear, the climate control goes into recirculation mode to prevent fumes from getting into the cabin.
24. Headlamp washers
25. Of course cruise control which is advertised

Now its not that I am plumping so much for the Laura but these were some of the features that I had no idea about - so it may benefit others to know too. Besides me being a Gizmo freak - I loved these little things.

Also in view of all these I wonder if the car is as over priced as is often made out to be. Yes maybe a bit but AFAIK no other car in this range gives you features like these. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[shuvd]

My 2 cents
The Laura is overpriced for what you get. Had it come with the 2.0 diesel...
Take the Magnum for now and wait for the Laura vRS 2.0 PD rated at 170bhp! At least, thats what I'm doing.

[rangaraj]

Originally Posted by shuvd

My 2 cents
The Laura is overpriced for what you get. Had it come with the 2.0 diesel...
Take the Magnum for now and wait for the Laura vRS 2.0 PD rated at 170bhp! At least, thats what I'm doing.

Guess the arrangement must be that the Audi and the Passat have a few months/one year exclusive use of newer engines, before the skoda's can introduce them.. The 2L engine that you talked about will eventually be common across these three platforms..

[Strider]

The two cars stand for different things, the Optra Magnum is a VFM car, and Chevrolet is being used by GM as a VFM brand, while the Laura (the international Octavia replacement) is positioned as a premium car, with premium charged for its high levels of quality.

So, the decision to be made is 'What do you really want?'. Do you want more bang for your buck? Or do you want a premium (unfortunately Skoda is premium in India) vehicle of top notch quality?

My advice - the Magnum, 'coz I'm a big miser! []