Took delivery of my Verna CRDi and enjoying it, 300 km report

[diffsoft]

After my disastrous experience with Skoda and its dealer; I moved to Verna and took delivery last Friday. I took the Diesel version, SX, ABS and carried out the following mods:

1. Moved to Aura alloy wheels

2. Replaced stock tyres 175 / 70 with 195 / 60, Bridgestone Potenza

3. Interiors changed to Stanley leather (charcoal color)

4. Added 3M films

5. Declined offer of Teflon (based on T-BHP reviews) and took up a car cover instead

I had a great experience with the dealer Trident from whom I had purchased Santro AT.

My experience is that of an amateur (based on what I read from the gurus in this forum) and also note that my earlier cars were Santro AT and M800.

Problems with the mods:

1. 2 tyres were fitted incorrectly, i.e. in the direction opposite to the one mentioned on the tyre

2. One tyre had a defective “neck”

These were immediately fixed by Trident upon bringing this to their notice

Performance and ride quality:

Driving the Verna has been a total pleasure; though I have been driving mostly in the city in terrible Bangalore Traffic. Idle RPM is about 850 – 900 rpm and I found that the 1st gear covers upto 25 kmph till 3000 rpm, 2nd gear pulls up from 10 kmph right upto 45 - 50 kmph without a drag, 3rd gear pulls from about 20 at 1000 rpm right upto 80 kmph at about 3000 rpm. So there is a good overlap in speeds across the gears cutting down the need for a downshift / upshift in city traffic. I haven’t yet tried stressing at the 4th gear and have never tried the 5th so far yet!

Upon start she lets our a half hearted roars and shakes a bit – but you do not get to hear much of it if you have your windows closed.

The gear shifts are extremely smooth and the torque delivery is too good – at lower gears she seems just rushing to go even without any rev. Even a small push to the accelerator zooms the vehicle forward and that feels good, though chances of doing that in peak Bangalore traffic (or even in non-peak for that matter) is pretty slim – so you savor it while you get a chance.

What I also like is that it moves in a straight line and you don’t need to be doing that with your steering wheel all the time.

Ride quality is pretty good and you feel the suspension is doing a good job – you do not feel the strain of driving through a cratered road once in a while. While sitting inside the car, I also had a good feeling of control maybe because I could see the bonnet so I could estimate where the car’s front ends.

Turing radius is very comfortable for Bangalore – you can avoid the embarrassment of blocking both sides of the road to move your monocoque!

Interiors:
Having put in leather seats, I felt the interiors were looking very good – the smell of new leather and the car is very inviting. Seating in the front is extremely comfortable with lumbar support and multiple adjustments – you never get the feeling that you are in a slouched position (which kind of makes you feel tired sooner)

Some features I liked:
1. Separate lights for the driver and co-passenger

2. Separate light for the rear seat

3. Rear seat light coming up and dimming when you unlock and lock the car

4. Trip computer (though it did not have the feature of average and instantaneous fuel consumption as mentioned in the manual – wish it had had that; supposed to be only for export models)

5. I liked transparent mats (provided by the dealer); they preserve the beige-ness of the interiors

Exteriors:
Not much to talk about exteriors except that the bonnet is surprisingly very heavy to lift and closes with a thud – so do the doors.


Thanks to all for reading through this – and will post reviews after I cross 1000 – 1500 kms. Comments and queries welcome

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[jaibir]

congrats diffsoft. hope you enjoy the car.

OT. I guess the experience with the attempted Combi purchase has put you off Skoda's for good

[roadwarrior]

congratulations diffsoft! I am sure you must be enjoying the baby and not to mention the feeling of owning a brand new car... neighbours envy, owners pride ;-)

[rrnsss]

Congrats diffsoft. Enjoy your car especially after the harrowing experience you had with Skoda.

[ajmat]

Congrats, glad you are back on the road happily.

When do you let the world know about TAFE?

[gkrishn]

Congrats on the new car...
The leather job seems really really good. Can you post more pics of that?

[hbaruas]

Congrats on the purchase and the fact that you are happy with what you have got !
O.T : I am also looking for the transparent floor mats for my new Accent ..
Any idea about how much will they cost ??

[snaronikar]

Congrats Diffsoft. Enjoy the performance car. The pics are good.

[mobike008]

Nice choice of the car. Enjoy its torque

[PatienceWins]

Congrats. Enjoy the Torque!!

[esteemer]

Good, The car sure looks stunning and the red strips add to the look.
BTW, Are you planning to petefy it once run in well?

It would then be an insane car.
Enjoy the beast and as others said , the addicting torque.

[undead]

nice review mate.. u changed the tires which is a must for verna .. also tell me about the high speed stability of the car ....

[Absar]

Hello, congratulations on your purchase of the Verna after the Skoda experience.

The seats look good. Don't get too addicted to the turbo for the running in period. After the running in period gets over, you can drive it to glory.

Do i see a thought for Pete'ing it? It'll be a crazy car then with its acceleration.

cya
A

[dadu]

Congrats and the seat cover look really nest, where did you get it from and at what cost ?

[hellstar]

Congrats diffsoft on your latest acquisition, and again welcome to the Verna CRDi Club !

Drive safe and observe absolute restarin during the drive in period ....