[ESK]

I was looking at a buying a Diesel Sedan. I have read different threads in the forum. I liked the Skoda Laura specs. But many of you guys were bashing Skoda for the spare parts. In my observation there were not many complaints about the quality or comfort. I am still holding to my choice
I still have few questiobs before closing down.
1. is PD an obsolete technology? VW has just launched Jette with the same motor?!
2. is Automatic better option? what will be the imapct on FE? Is there any AT owner in the forum to give feedback on any other aspect of AT?
3. They claim that in AT model, you can still drive like a manual, using the tiptronic. It will provide same FE and pick up will be similar too. Is this claim correct?

thanks a lot.

This is my first posting on the forum. thanks in advance.

[abhinav.gupta88]

1. yes PD is a bit old but none the less a pretty well built engine.
2. At should return you 1-2 kmpl less
Lets say about 11
and in manual about 12
3 . Very true. Actually the tiptronic is faster than the mt to the 100kmph by three-tenths of a second

A Very good buy , go for it.

[androdev]

Service and Spare parts department is definitely not wallet friendly. If you are on tight budget, or stretching your budget to buy and maintain a car in this price range: it has the potential to upset you. Not every owner has bad experiences - and mostly they are in comparison with Honda/Toyota who are no doubt better in the quality and service department.

I have never gone on a drive that is longer than 3 hrs duration. But yesterday I drove B'lore to Trichy non-stop (6 1/2 hrs). I could attend to my business without feeling tired. And I drove back today from Trichy to B'lore non-stop. I did not plan them to be non-stop drives, but I never felt tired to take a break. Roads are in terrible shape and I am an average driver but this car (Laura L&K Manual) has been fantastic. Zero body pain.

If you are comfortable financially, Laura/Jetta is a very compelling diesel option in 20Lac range. Does not mean that you are bound to spend lot of money, but you should be ready when Mr.Accident knocks on your door.

Btw, welcome to the forum. Enjoy.

[ESK]

thanks a lot Abhinav and Androdev.

Androdev - would you recommend Auto or manual? Do you think Auto would have made your long drive more comfortable? On my budget front, its true i am stretching my budget. I wanted to have a diesel as i would be driving about 70-90 KM per day. Octavia has the perception of an old model. So landed up checking out the Laura.

[androdev]

I wanted a manual only so DSG was not an option for me. However people all over the world (and India) have only great things to say about DSG. You must test drive DSG even if you are not planning to buy. It is that good it seems.

If you decide to go with Manual, you can buy the entry-level Laura which is I think is priced significantly lower and will have better reliability because of fewer gizmos.

In short: Go for DSG if you are looking at the top end specs. Otherwise stick to entry level manual variant and save some money.

BTW: Auto would make driving in congested city traffic less tiring. Manual should be more fun on highways. Just my opinion.

[ESK]

Originally Posted by androdev

If you decide to go with Manual, you can buy the entry-level Laura which is I think is priced significantly lower and will have better reliability because of fewer gizmos.

In short: Go for DSG if you are looking at the top end specs. Otherwise stick to entry level manual variant and save some money.

BTW: Auto would make driving in congested city traffic less tiring. Manual should be more fun on highways. Just my opinion.

thanks. The gizmos are making my choice difficult. Not sure if there are really worth. If i look at differences between Ambiente and L&K -
1. R15/R16 wheels ( will it make any difference in ride quality? i am keen on ride quality.
2. 2/6 air bags Additional air bags (useful?)
3. Projected headlights/ Xenon headlights - again looks exciting. not sure of the usage
4. ASR/ ESP - The ESP is not there in Ambiente. how good is it?
5. 4 way manual seat adjustment/ 6 way electric - i liked the electric.
6. 1 CD / 6 CD changer - i would like the 6 CD ( surprised to see 1 CD changer at this price range. Cars below this level have 6 CD)
7. Cruise control ( is it really useful?)

the following, i can live without ( please comment)
1. Leather seats
2. TPM
3. Rain sensor
4. Coming home feature ( what is it?!)
5. Rear sun screen ( can be fitted extra?)
6. Sun/Moon roof (any use in India?)
7. Front parktronic
8. Light asisit system ( not useful in India?)


One more question on DSG - will the tiptronic give you similar fun as manual ( on highways?)

thanks in advance.

[aks_karthik]

Hey Friends,

I too booked a Cappuccino Beige Laura L&K MT Today in Chennai.
Car will be delivered in 15 Days time.
DSG is not at all fun as Manual.
But heard while manual mode in DSG,It reaches 100kms in 11.8 Secs compare to 12.3 Secs of Manual transmission.
But i love to have Manual and L&K has all gizmos and we can keep this car for more than 5 years.
First i planned for Ambiente and once i saw L&K i changed my mind and settled in L&K MT

[GTO]

One of the best things about the Laura is its DSG transmission; automatics don't get better than this. The shifts are butter-smooth. Go for it.

3. They claim that in AT model, you can still drive like a manual, using the tiptronic. It will provide same FE and pick up will be similar too. Is this claim correct?

You'd be better off using the sport mode on enthusiastic drives.

[Sahil]

Quick question: Why not the Jetta?

[ESK]

Thanks everyone for the replay.

Karthik - congrats on the new buy. I am actually confused by all the gizmos, not sure whether they are worth.

GTO - in the AT, if we use tiptronic, will it provide similar FE?

on Jetta - they dont have dealers in Chennai yet. Not a ' proven' car too.

[anandbhat]

Originally Posted by ESK

thanks. The gizmos are making my choice difficult. Not sure if there are really worth. If i look at differences between Ambiente and L&K -
1. R15/R16 wheels ( will it make any difference in ride quality? i am keen on ride quality.
2. 2/6 air bags Additional air bags (useful?)
3. Projected headlights/ Xenon headlights - again looks exciting. not sure of the usage
4. ASR/ ESP - The ESP is not there in Ambiente. how good is it?
5. 4 way manual seat adjustment/ 6 way electric - i liked the electric.
6. 1 CD / 6 CD changer - i would like the 6 CD ( surprised to see 1 CD changer at this price range. Cars below this level have 6 CD)
7. Cruise control ( is it really useful?)

the following, i can live without ( please comment)
1. Leather seats
2. TPM
3. Rain sensor
4. Coming home feature ( what is it?!)
5. Rear sun screen ( can be fitted extra?)
6. Sun/Moon roof (any use in India?)
7. Front parktronic
8. Light asisit system ( not useful in India?)


One more question on DSG - will the tiptronic give you similar fun as manual ( on highways?)

thanks in advance.

ESK, Good choice. I bought Laura 3 days back and I'm still in honeymoon period with it

Below is a link of my previous post on my thoughts on why I chose Laura.

As Adrodev mentioned, I feel ambeiente is good choice of Laura those looking for manual, because, it is ~4lac cheaper, and has much more gizmos when compared to a top-end Octavia (L&K) and price is almost same.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...-driven-2.html

To help find answer for your questions.
1. IMHO, 15" alloy with higher rubber depth of the tyre, 15" with 205/60 R15 would be less bumpiar on bad roads/potholes.
2. IMHO, 2 airbags should be good enough on our roads, where we cannot normally drive at very high speeds, but would also depend on typically how many ppl on your car. In my case, I typically drive all alone (90% of the time), or with my wife... so back side airbags are not needed... but this might be stupid...
3. At least I found projector handlamps are probably better than 100/90W hellogen I used in my previous car, so I'm happy, but may be Xenon is stil better...
4. ASR/ESP may be worth it, can't comment on it.
5. Yes electric seat adjustment and electric lumbar support are really great...
I found with electric lumbar support, pretty much you could massage your back pretty well but chances of faults/getting faulty is high (Japanese would be best at it)! So I chose mechanical seat adjust against electric!!
6. For Metros, mostly one would use FM... but definitely there is a difference with 12speakers Vs 8 in Ambeiente. this is a personal choice though!
7. With so many blind turns on our highways and trucks comming every where onto you, I'm not sure how much one can use it. When I drove in US with cruise control, I felt drive to be boring...

Other points:
TPM: I think this would be very useful, from my experience on my previous car, even if I used to visit petrol bunk every week to check air pressure, I would always find 5psi less on 2-3 tyres, I even checked for puncture, but none, so TPM would have been a good stuff.

Rain sensor: This is there on all versions of Laura, and you would really love it. With Rain sensor, wiper speed varies based on the amount of rain and speed of the car, really cool.

Leather seats: I bargained to get leather seats free of cost on Ambiente, and it is really cool!!

Rear sun screen: You get it in the market for 2k or so... (show room prce is 6.5k)
Light assist would be useful, since you don't need to switch on headlamps when sun sets down! you just leave the knob to automatic, and you can forget the light switches!

Front parktronics: I found it usefull, but, my friend tells me, don't get so much sophesticated!!

Sun/Moon roof: May not be really useful with lot of dust every where here on our roads. even if I had one, I would have never opened it unless I go to a green place, at the cost of getting my intiriors dirty. Other problem is, if the beeding gets hard, it may start leaking!

Originally Posted by Sahil

Quick question: Why not the Jetta?

See the link above. Jetta IMHO is a very good car, but I would rather wait for an year atleast before buying this car, because of the dealership network, accessaries being not available, etc.

[androdev]

There was no ambiente (entry-level) when I was buying Laura. I had to choose between elegance and L&K. If I were to buy now, I would be choosing between Ambiente and L&K and I might have bought Ambiente because of so much price difference and I was not considering DSG.

My take on the features listed:

R15/R16 - Should not be very different as far as ride comfort goes. I am an average driver and these are finer details that I fail to appreciate.

Airbags - More the better. Seriously.

Xenons - Look hot, better visibility if you do lot of night time driving.

ESP - Sounds important, but if you are a sedate driver ABS + all-4-discs is enough. I don't drive in snow, gravel and other demanding terrains and aggressive cornering,etc.

Electric seats - Extremely useful if you have multiple drivers because of memory settings. Can be skipped for single driver.

CD player - Buy iPod/digital music player and use the AUX-IN. CD players are history.

Cruise - HA HA!

Leather - Easiest after market stuff.

TPM - Useful unless you are disciplined to check pressure often. TMP alerts pressure drops significantly low - like 20psi or less when other wheels are in 28psi range. Still useful. TPM is mandatory safety equipment in newer cars in western countries.

Rain/Light sensor - Can be skipped. Useful but they are not perfected yet. For instance the lights come on pretty early in the evening and people may feel you are showing off your xenons. Rain sensor is also not too perfect especially when there is intermittent drizzle - you will be forced to do a manual flick once in awhile. Rain sensor works good when the rain is anything more than a drizzle (adjusts to vehicle speed and rain intensity).

Coming home: Headlights remain ON few seconds (30-60,etc.) after you come home and switch off the engine and lock the doors so that you can find your way in the garage and dark streets. Leaving home is the same funda before you start your drive. People often tell you that "Saar, you forgot to put off the lights". Leaving Home is cool though. Lights come on as soon as you press the remote unlock from a distance and it puts a smile on your face :-)

Rear sunscreen: It would have been very good if it were automatic. It being manual, you can't easily pull it up/down. You can try sun-film as an alternative. Also, this can be fitted as an accessory.

Sun roof: Love it. Gives the car some character.

Parking sensors: Not a substitute for careful/skilled parking. Can be skipped.

Light Assist: Covered in Rain/Light sensor above. Can be skipped.

Few more features:
Climatronic: I am not lazy to turn few knobs.
Trip Computer: Very good in L&K.
Colour choice: I like Black which is available only in L&K

Bottom line:
Need DSG (Airbags and DSG are the real stuff, other features listed are just bells&whistles): L&K

Got spare cash: L&K

Or else: Ambiente

[artofzen]

How much is the price difference between Laura ambiente MT and L&K MT . I didnt know that they had L&K MT , thought it was available only in DSG.

[ESK]

Originally Posted by artofzen

How much is the price difference between Laura ambiente MT and L&K MT . I didnt know that they had L&K MT , thought it was available only in DSG.

the following are the prices on road - Chennai

Ambiente : 15.2 L
Elegance : 16.87 L
L&T Manual : 18.5 L
L&T DSG : 19.1 L

Thanks Androdev and Vinodh for the detailed answers.

[ESK]

thanks Anand. I checked your earlier link as well. Good info. How is the vehicle running?

AKS_karthik - whats the deal you got from Gurudev in Chennai? Any discounts?