[lamborghini]

Final Report: 75,000kms

Hey guys,

Our chapter with the Laura has finally come to an end - a little earlier than I had anticipated but hopefully there will be no complaints on that front.

With 75,000kms on the odo, we sold it this Sunday to a buyer from Aurangabad, and I hope the car will serve his as faithfully as it did us.

There were no real plans to sell the Laura - in fact I had gotten it re-remapped (after the VWAG De-tune), and was planning on doing her up with a new steering and some other goodies.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) though a combination of events over the past 3-4 months had seen this plan do a complete about turn: India's take on being an EV only marketplace by 2030, small niggles with the car, some body damage thanks to some stuff falling on the roof during the recent Mumbai thunder storms, and some small concerns about the reliability of the de-tuning done by Skoda; were the key drivers in cutting this story short.
Of course the EV news was the key driver, because the itch for a fast, fun, free-revving petrol motor was too much; and the other factors just contributed in making the Laura the prime candidate for replacement (compared to the other cars in the garage which were newer).

Since the last update on this thread, the car has covered nearly 20,000kms (55K - 75K) and has been solidly reliable! There have been some niggles such as:
1) VWAG Emissions scandal, which resulted in the car getting detuned (65Kkm service) and then retuned by TOT (67Kkm). A side effect of this is that the battery seems to have drained considerably which is impacting the AC behaviour in stand still traffic.
2) ABS Sensor went kaput (74Kkm)
3) Headliner has begun to sag (74KKm)
4) Front Left Passenger window switch isn't working smoothly (72Kkm)

As you can see, apart from the VWAG Scandal related issue - the other stuff is routine small niggles given it's age and this aside, the vehicle has been performing flawlessly!

It's this performance + the stability and safety on board that made it do several Mumbai-Pune trips & other trips over the course of it's lifetime - the most memorable one being a trip to Goa where it gave a 530D some company.

I won't lie - it did have a fair share of small niggles (some my fault), and I have complained endlessly about rattles and average Skoda service; but never has it let us stranded on any road - always making sure to get us home safely, no matter how tough the going was.
This has become equally hard as the replacement for the Laura (preowned F30 328i) is a polar opposite of this car - doesn't have the same go anywhere capability with it's lower suspension, cramped boot, and 18" alloys; I will be seeing significantly higher fuel costs; and driving in the city is so much more a pain without the lighter steering and without the ability to absorb all the bumps and undulations with ease!
Heck - i've done some stupid things with the Laura which I can never dream of doing with any other car; and it has given me moments that have just plastered a huge grin on my face!

I hope the new car lives up to the benchmark the Laura has set (just as the Laura did compared to our old Fiesta), and I hope the new owner does frequent trips to Mumbai - just so I can bump into her every now and then!

Just some recent pics:



A quick pic from the last long drive! 3AM blast to Lonavala with 5 people on board and some crazy smog on the expressway with visibility down to less than hundred meters in some patches - just another day for her!



Odo reading shortly before selling her off - in fact we breached the 75,000km mark on the trip to Lonavala. Final odo when the buyer came to pick her up was 75,046km.


With the F30 (thanks to Akshay1234 for his help and support on this vehicle)