[yesyeswe]

Originally Posted by CentreOfGravity

The Verna's turbo engine, being locally produced, is cheaper than the 1.5 TSI engine used in the Slavia and Virtus, which is imported.

Just want to correct you here, both the 1.0 L TSI and the 1.5 L TSI Engines are being manufactured here in India in the Škoda-Volkswagen's pune plant.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by apramey

...DCTs have a transmission control electronic module, the manufacturer would almost always program it to recognize that you have come to a stop, in say, a traffic signal, and thus engage neutral instead of actually keep the clutch engaged, so that they can prevent unnecessary wear. So it would not require us to manually shift to N whenever we stop for more than 30-45 seconds...

Thats what I was also told by the mechanic during my Polo ownership- but with the caveat that it doesnt harm if you shift to neutral in traffic, which I always did.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by yesyeswe

Just want to correct you here, both the 1.0 L TSI and the 1.5 L TSI Engines are being manufactured here in India in the Škoda-Volkswagen's pune plant.

Partly correct .

The 1.5 engine (possibility with the gearbox too) was initially being fully imported from CZ. They have probably localised it now in India.

[Kln]

RIP the stellar 1.5 diesel.


This looks absolutely incredible - tailor made for current Indian demands. If my reading is right, this will sell more than the previous gen. Verna has become an icon in itself, much like "Scorpio".

[Aditya94]

I am finding it hard to convince myself to like the new Verna. I really love the 1.5 T-GDI engine, but I am not happy with the overall package.

1. The design is hideous. Enough said about this. They could have instead mimicked the 2022 or 2023 Elantra. It would have looked much sharper and aged well.
2. What's with the lights? No Fog Lamps? Halogens all around
3. As a current Verna owner, I have had to replace my bumpers twice because of Idiots hitting it. With the current Verna, even a small damage to the front bumper could damage the ADAS module and the headlamps.
4. There is no rear window sun shade. When the Creta has it, why not the Verna?
5. Read drum on the 1.5 T-GDI Manual.
6. If you give electrically adjustable seats, you either make it fully electric or just don't do it. 4 way electrically adjustable and 2 way manually adjustable is blatant cost cutting. It looks like an exercise just for the 'Segment first' tag in their brochure.
7. The instrument cluster looks bad and not to forget the huge piano black bezel.
8. The steering wheel reminds me of our old Premier Padmini from early 90s.

As a current 2019 Verna 1.6 VTVT Owner, I am really satisfied with my car. The two gripes I have is space and FE. The car will age really well. As a matter of fact, I was seriously considering the Manual 1.5 T-GDI solely for how fun a sedan can be. But I am afraid to say that the new Verna will NOT be my next car.

I am at least glad that the C-Segment has some spark to it.

Come April 2023, the most powerful sedan under 50L OTR will the Verna. (Since the Skoda Octavia and Superb will be discontinued) What has this world come to?

[Redline6800]

Originally Posted by apramey

Hello

3. Lot of people keep telling me, German engineering is and has always been superior, and if i buy a German car it will stay new for decades, if i put a little bit effort to maintain it while Korean and Japanese cars have always been, well, Korean and Japanese cars.

I dont think German engineering is superior, just different based on their driving requirements. Japanese cars are eminently sensible to buy own and operate over decades, something European cars of late do not seem to be able to do.

A Japanese car can be abused and still remain reliable, whereas nearly every European brand car needs to be pampered, etc to remain reliable past the 10-15 year mark. The same is true of Hyundai, I feel, many people have told me they get more expensive to own as they age, which is not really the case with Honda and Toyota.

The real worry with owning a European car is the crap service. As these complex cars get older, my experience is that the showroom itself is unable to look after these cars beyond the basic oil change, blah blah.

For those of us, who live in the real world with real responsibilities and commitments, the potential of a European sedan breaking down and getting less than stellar response from the dealer is a real possibility and can be very very frustrating. If you can have only one car, my choice would always be Japanese.

My Honda City 1.5 Exi turned 23 this month, I have never had to worry about this car at all. The showroom support (Whitefield Honda BLR) has always been exceptional. I can do whatever I want this car with nary a care in the world. All parts were available at the showroom until last year !

Compare this with my 2013 VW Jetta, brought pre-worshipped in 2018 from a TBhpian . It has always been driven carefully and treated with a lot of care. As an automobile it is excellent - feels as good as new after 9.5 years and 1,16,000 km later.

I would drive it all the way to Mysore from Bangalore for service, cause the same service advisor was there from when the car was 1 day old. This was a time consuming endeavour - but since I planned to keep the car till the end of the decade, I was happy spending two days every year on its service.

Despite the showroom folks knowing me and the car - these were the incidents I faced.

April 2021
Accident repair on the roof and doors, following a tree falling on my car.
Repair work- roof repaint and RHS doors and quarter panel repaint was done well.

During the same service, they broke my RHS power mirror knob - they accepted it was their fault and said would replace it at their expense. I assumed that the replacement would be the same as what was broken and accepted without any written documentary proof.

March 2021
The roofliner, which had never had an issue till then, started bubbling within weeks of the repair work. Shared a picture with the service advisor, he said he would sort it. But due to COVID-19 couldnt go back.

I accept it was my fault not going back there as soon as I could to this fixed. But based on my Honda experience, I assumed VW would do the right thing and fix the issue.

The whole of 2022 was quite hectic and with the car running having reduced, I delayed the service, but the roof liner was now sagging more and more.

Jan 2023
Went for service and accident repair.
A biker had hit my parked car and again RHS doors were damaged and RHS mirror lens was broken.

The service guys now said the roofliner was not their issue and said sagging of roofliner was a common issue with all Jetta cars. Would cost INR 50,000 for new one. I was willing to accept some portion of the blame for delaying taking the car back sooner for the roof issue, but I doubt their response would have been any different.

I had a chat with the Service manager and asked extra care be taken for my car, as I was coming all the way from BLR. I felt having met the service manager, the work would be done properly.

I received the car with the following issues - the inside of rear RHS door paint was chipped during the repair, they had replaced the power window knob with one that looks its from Taigun and feels very cheap to use compared to what Jetta came with. The SA I had now known for 4 years was acting very shifty when I would meet him.

When I got home and tried to fold the RHS mirror it got stuck and passed on this message to service team. Said SA said they had tested it before giving it to me and could not understand, why this had happened. I was pissed off - but again kicked myself for not checking the car even more thoroughly. Both mirrors were open, when I took delivery the car and I only checked them for tilt/sideways and not folding. Since I had not had an issue with mirror folding then. I only needed to fold the mirror, when I got home and parked.

I was stupid enough to go back to them to get the roof liner sorted and they gave me a 5% discount. Yeah, I know am a sucker for punishment. My 23 years with Honda had made me realise the value of authorised spares and wanted my roofliner to be from VW and not a local one.

Regarding the mirror, they now said the whole RHS mirror mechanism was damaged and would cost INR 10,000 to replace the entire mirror casing !
If this had been checked and done during the accident repair, then insurance would have taken care of some portion as it was a plastic part. Now it would be a separate claim and deductible.
Again they acknowledged their mistake and asked me to come back and they would fix it with some discount on the part.

The inside of rear RHS door was repainted FOC.

Regardless to say, I wont be going back to them again. I hope my roofliner lasts 5 years. though honestly I have no confidence in their work.

This is the level of service for a 9.5 year old car that cost 25L new.

So to summarise, if you are keeping a car from new till 6-7 years - no worries on Hyundai - VW/Skoda. but beyond that be prepared for some heartache.

[arjab]

Source of the "inspiration" behind the new Verna's nose? Looks like it
Personally speaking, the LUCID looks less fussy and has a fluidity and coherence to its styling lines.
But yes, this new VERNA, will be a show-stopper on and off the showroom floor. Remember the CRETA? How many people lambasted it for the gaping grille and the droopy rear end? Look where it is now

[akn1984]

I went to the local Hyundai dealer to checkout the All New Verna yesterday. The showroom was packed with curious visitors to have a look at the new kid in town.

Believe me, when you see this car in flesh and blood, it looks stunning! The interiors are leagues ahead of anything in this price range!

A casual chat with the GM of the Showroom disclosed that it is going to be a sellout as he has already received 20 bookings in the last 24 hours!!

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by apramey

1. I heard that ADAS can sometimes be too obtrusive, especially those that are monitoring lane change and and lane departing. One of my friends has an xuv700 and he said it will sometimes pull back the car into the lane. This felt like a total red flag when we are driving cars in India, a place where lot of drivers turn on the left turn indicator and just go right.

ADAS is a very useful driver assist feature, imagine a nice afternoon meal and you get into the car, all you want to do is have a relaxed drive, comfortable for passengers, less tiring for yourself - here comes ADAS.

Provided the conditions are right, ADAS will work like magic, its meant to be a smart cruise control and not self driving feature but on a nice highway it works pretty much like that.

Its surprising that some senior journalists say that it does not work in India, I think they have taken too many free flight tickets from their sponsors.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by Waspune

For me the Virtus/Slavia is still the pick of the segment for someone who wants to have fun behind the wheels, ably backed by the safety net that the VAG 2.0 products provide. For someone looking for a practical buy, Honda City is hard to beat.

What's the safety net of VAG that you are referring to? Crash worthiness or quality of product and after sale support?

[safari_lover]

Why does the turbo engine cost almost 1.8 lakh more than the NA engine in the SX variant? I mean the generally turbo engines don't cost that much more compared to their NA counterparts, right?

Also do GDI engines have to be turbo charged? Can't we have a NA version of the same engine?

[shibujp]

I like the Tellurian Brown color in this video.

https://youtu.be/1hVRvLl3m-E

To me the contrast of the white drl strip on the bonnet really makes dark colors pop. Whereas in the white or lighter colors it kind of blends into the bumper. We have been programmed for generations to have the headlight and grille provide a logical contrast between the bumper and the bonnet line. With the EVs this unbroken look is only going to get more common.

Nitpicking but i don't like the red shade of the turbo badge.

Drive on,
Shibu

[apramey]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

ADAS is a very useful driver assist feature, imagine a nice afternoon meal and you get into the car, all you want to do is have a relaxed drive, comfortable for passengers, less tiring for yourself - here comes ADAS.

Provided the conditions are right, ADAS will work like magic, its meant to be a smart cruise control and not self driving feature but on a nice highway it works pretty much like that.

Its surprising that some senior journalists say that it does not work in India, I think they have taken too many free flight tickets from their sponsors.

I agree with you that it's a useful feature, but from my experience driving inside Mysore and to Bangalore, you can't always follow lane discipline, because a motorcycle will try to split lanes or an auto rickshaw will cut you out, and if you don't accommodate for others' errors, it's hard to not get hit. Lot of people don't think and drive. They just rush through and then think, but by the that time they would hit your car

Sure it won't be your fault, but again the inconvenience of getting the car repaired, dealing with the situation is yours.

All I'm saying is, if these ADAS features have been obtrusive for normal driving, it is going to be hard. May e if we can turn off selective features like lane keep assistance and lane depart warning, we can control how obtrusive it can get.

[ulag62442]

One of the earliest videos of the new Verna being driven. Has some shots of how it looks from outside as it is being driven on the road (13:47). For people who believe it looks hideous or polarizing, i'm not really seeing that. Looks fine on the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY7O4EnhAlc

[condor]

Originally Posted by apramey

One of the videos on Youtube clarified, that because DCTs have a transmission control electronic module, the manufacturer would almost always program it to recognize that you have come to a stop, in say, a traffic signal, and thus engage neutral instead of actually keep the clutch engaged, so that they can prevent unnecessary wear. So it would not require us to manually shift to N whenever we stop for more than 30-45 seconds.

Thanks for this video. I think #3 about avoiding inching ahead in traffic is almost unavoidable in Indian metro situations, and this could be the main cause of clutch problems in these DCT cars.