[razor4077]

Anshuman, slightly OT here, but since you were considering the Cruze AT during the decision making process, thought I'd ask.

- How was the turbo lag in the Cruze AT in comparison with the Elantra crdi? I found the Cruze MT to have more of a lag than the Elantra.
- And how would you compare the handling between the two?

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Anshuman, slightly OT here, but since you were considering the Cruze AT during the decision making process, thought I'd ask.

- How was the turbo lag in the Cruze AT in comparison with the Elantra crdi? I found the Cruze MT to have more of a lag than the Elantra.
- And how would you compare the handling between the two?

Hi razor4077, Cruze MT has more pronounced Turbo Lag compared to the Elantra, but Cruze AT is surprisingly good in city with that Torque Convertor Auto. Chevy did some updates to the ECU to get of the turbo lag but it makes very minor difference.

Cruze has better Ride than Elantra and Handling is in the same league. Cruze loses out on Steering feel.

Overall a very good buy at this price. Read my MT drive experience here: Cruze MT

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Anshuman, slightly OT here, but since you were considering the Cruze AT during the decision making process, thought I'd ask.

Also add to it the lower GC of the Cruze compared to the Laura. I haven't anyone complaining about the GC of the Laura so far in spite of having driven it on pretty bad roads.
Just my 25 naya paisa.

@ Anshuman: Do you think that the Laura is a comfortable 5 seater? How much of a hurdle do its "hump on the floor" and the arm rest pose to an average sized middle passenger?

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

@ Anshuman: Do you think that the Laura is a comfortable 5 seater? How much of a hurdle do its "hump on the floor" and the arm rest pose to an average sized middle passenger?

The hump at rear is quite huge and is inconvenient to the fifth passenger. I am not the right person to comment on rear seat comfort as rear seats on my cars are rarely ever used.

[VW2010]

@Anshuman

Great pictures. Keep it coming. I test drove the DSG version and was blown over by the DSG transmission. The major difference, me coming from a smaller segment was the car never felt like it was driving at over 80kmph. The DSG does take a little time to kick in when moving from Stand still. But you can watch the speedo move so smoothly towards 100 with so much ease. I drove it on a highway and can say the engine is quite "torqy" and responds to every little movement of your foot.

Happy that you chose White. If its a laura its either a black or the white. Other colors dont carry the added elegance the white or black does.

[.anshuman]

^^ The Absence of torque convertor was quite a pain with the PD Engine which suffered from turbo lag, newer CR engine with Zero lag(You know this since you own the Jetta with CR engine) is much more suited to the DSG 'box. Only when starting from standstill one can tell the difference but the DSG 'box is brilliant, it does not waste power and FE is as good as MT version.

Euro VRS version comes with the 170hp version of this same Engine, those who want more can always go in for a Remap.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

The hump at rear is quite huge and is inconvenient to the fifth passenger. I am not the right person to comment on rear seat comfort as rear seats on my cars are rarely ever used.

Ok, let me ask you something different. There is/was a thread on TBHP where a few Laura owners have said that an SUV is better than a Laura in case the owner has back pain whereas I felt that cars are ergonomically better than SUVs.

Going by your experience, do you think that an SUV like the Fortuner, for example is more comfortable than the Laura for the driver either in the city or on long drives?

[.anshuman]

^^ Fortuner has more space + All seats recline but Ride in a car is anyday better, there is no contest. I find the rear seat in Laura too upright for my taste, others who've sat in my car say it's OK.

[.anshuman]

I just got back from a 600kms+ trip that included National highways, several state highways, Link roads, Kuccha roads,Towns, Villages and what not. This was the first time on a highway i did the trip with a heavy foot with a burst of acceleration after every speedbreaker. This trip also includes 100+ kms of flatout driving on an empty stretch in S mode(which means car never shifted to 6th gear).

So the overall FE turned out to be 6.0L/100kms = 16.6667(According to MFD, which is quite accurate.) for a trip of 647kms.




Fed up of driving with a heavy foot, went back to driving in my normal mode with light foot with speeds limited to 120kph on good stretches with gentle acceleration with hitting kickdown button only for rare overtakings. FE came out to 4.9L/100kph= 20.40Kpl





The Best FE figure i have seen till date is 3.8L/100km = 26.31kpl for stretch of 29km with very light Accelerator input on a highway stretch during run-in and top speed limited to 90kph.




Extracting jaw dropping FE figures is so much easier without any effort with DSG, just keep the Accelerator pedal inputs gentle. But then driving this car like this is a waste of the 320nm torque available all across rev band and the Genie from bottle the DSG loves to have fun. Best part is you can keep up with a VRs on a highway and still get 16kpl that with the cheaper fuel.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Best part is you can keep up with a VRs on a highway and still get 16kpl that with the cheaper fuel.

I love diesels for this.

Do Cars during run-in use a lot more fuel?

[noopster]

Awesome stuff. I tried the same thing on my (petrol) Vento on the Pune-Mumbai e-way recently and the best I could land was 18 kmpl over a 70 km stretch. Mind you, am quite happy with that!

[dipen]

Originally Posted by noopster

Awesome stuff. I tried the same thing on my (petrol) Vento on the Pune-Mumbai e-way recently and the best I could land was 18 kmpl over a 70 km stretch. Mind you, am quite happy with that!

ARAI ratings for Vento are: 20.54 (Diesel MT), 15.83 (Petrol MT) and 14.4 (Petrol AT).
Not sure how people manage way above figures that too with spirited driving.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

I just got back from a 600kms+ trip that included National highways, several state highways, Link roads, Kuccha roads,Towns, Villages and what not. This was the first time on a highway i did the trip with a heavy foot with a burst of acceleration after every speedbreaker. This trip also includes 100+ kms of flatout driving on an empty stretch in S mode(which means car never shifted to 6th gear).

OMG, you make my mouth water by posting such achievements by the Laura. Anyway, back to my questions:

1. What is the S mode? What does it do and what does that imply?
2. How many people and luggage were in the car and what was the length of the stretches covered? Were all passengers including the driver comfortable?
3. Did you face any GC issues? Did you face any other issues?

Thank you once again for regularly updating the thread with such minute details.

[VW2010]

@Anshuman

Fed up of driving with a heavy foot, went back to driving in my normal mode with light foot with speeds limited to 120kph on good stretches with gentle acceleration with hitting kickdown button only for rare overtakings. FE came out to 4.9L/100kph= 20.40Kpl

That's a very good FE considering you are driving between 100-120 all the time during this stretch. But I am still not convinced the MSD gives the correct value. Do calculate the FE during refill to double check.

Do Cars during run-in use a lot more fuel?

Atleast the Laura would not show any difference during the run-in or after run-in. My assumption is that these engines are run in in the factory for performance right outside the showroom. In fact the same engine running in Europe or US would require to do atleast 65mph on the highways right out of the show room.

My Jetta just completed 1350KMS with my ~700kms two trip to banglore. My run-in usually involves variable acceleration or variable RPM(In terms of RPM) at different speeds. And so far in the high way i am getting around 21km/L and in city i am getting around 15.5-16 with lot of start stops/idling and waiting for the railway gates with AC on. I have not pushed the car to do 140+ but have been within 100-120 all the time. I can say run-in or not the mileage does not differ much.

WRT both laura and Jetta, i feel these cars consume more fuel while idling and likes to move as soon as they are started.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

OMG, you make my mouth water by posting such achievements by the Laura. Anyway, back to my questions:

1. What is the S mode? What does it do and what does that imply?
2. How many people and luggage were in the car and what was the length of the stretches covered? Were all passengers including the driver comfortable?
3. Did you face any GC issues? Did you face any other issues?

Thank you once again for regularly updating the thread with such minute details.

S mode is the Sport mode in DSG. In this mode the gearbox is setup for maximum performance, the shift times are as fast as 8ms, the car holds on a gear longer to extract maximum performance.

We were 2 persons occupying front seats and almost 70% bootspace was occupied.

No issues faced till date.

Originally Posted by VW2010

@Anshuman

That's a very good FE considering you are driving between 100-120 all the time during this stretch. But I am still not convinced the MSD gives the correct value. Do calculate the FE during refill to double check.

The last time i checked the FE, the MFD was quite close and similarly the trip computer in my Punto to is quite close, so i nowadays refer the the MFD of my cars for approx FE. Anyways 20 +/-2 is anyways a good FE.

Originally Posted by Sheel

Do Cars during run-in use a lot more fuel?

My experience of Running in says not much. The FE increase after running in negligible, but it sounds like a good excuse. Yes the NVH and overall smoothness of the car increases after initial few 1000 kms, i noticed more so in case of Punto. Most people might confuse Laura CR to be a Petrol when it's cruising at triple digit speeds with AC blower in position 1.