[shuvc]

Originally Posted by MrBoombastic

learn a few ethics from Maruti

3 separate MUL dealers at Kolkata .. Baleno test drives .. all on customer cars .. all with ODO's disconnected. One of them even bragged that they were doing a 120kmph in the city while bringing the car for the test drive.

Also ...

Optra test drive - only GM dealer in Kolkata - customer car , ODO disconnected, sales person said there was a demo car .. but test drives on old demo cars create a bad impression .. he said they had even sold the Demo car !

Petra test drive - Only dealer in Kolkata - customer car, ODO disconnected.

What's the fun of testing a performance car if the tacho doesn't move ?

[Ram]

For the last fifty years or so, we, the Indian car buyer have gullibly consumed cars of internationally old and discontinued designs, at unfairly high prices.

A partial list:
The pre-Korean War, Jeep CJ-3B and its agricultural diesel engined relatives.
The 1957 Morris Oxford (Hindusthan Ambassador)
The 1963 Fiat 1100 (Premier Padmini)
The 1966 Fiat 124 (Premier 118NE)
The 1972 Vauxhall Victor (Hindustan Contessa)
We have the 1986 Suzuki Alto (still being sold as Maruti 800)

In keeping with this tradition, we have the Škoda Octavia which has been sold unchanged in India for the last four years.

The millionth Škoda Octavia car came down the assembly line in a Škoda Auto plant in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic on Tuesday 17 February 2004 at 11.00 a.m.

A new Škoda Octavia was presented on 2nd March 2004 in the 2004 Geneva International Motor Show. It had modern technologies such as fuel direct injection for the petrol version, DSG six-speed gearbox (6 forward gears, one reverse gear), and a new multilink rear suspension.

The BorgWarner DualTronic Direct-Shift Gearbox (DSG) uses two clutches to achieve fast shifts. The engine drives two clutch packs simultaneously.
The outer clutch pack drives gears 1, 3, and 5 (and reverse), while the inner clutch pack drives gears 2, 4, and 6. While the car is in gear using one clutch pack, the next upper gear can be pre-selected on the other clutch pack. This lets upshifts occur in an impressive 8 milliseconds as opposed to the normal 1000 milliseconds, typical of ordinary gearboxes.

The new Octavia also has a rounded more-aerodynamic front end and larger wrap-around tail-lights
http://www.germancarfans.com/news/20...413.022.1L.jpg
http://www.germancarfans.com/photos/...04/1039big.jpg
For how many more years will the older Octavia still be foisted on us as a new car?

The Diwali-2005’s new Octavia combi station-wagon was no new car. Just this old 1996-1999 one.
http://auta5p.car.cz/katalog/skoda/octavia_n02.jpg

For India, the older and the newer generation will be concurrently sold as two different models with two different pricings.
The four-year old Škoda Octavia will continue to be sold in India as a new Škoda Octavia. And the 2004 Škoda Octavia upgrade, will be ’’introduced’’ to the Indian consumer as a whole new model called Škoda Laura!

Then towards Diwali 2006, maybe India can have the 2004 Škoda Octavia Combi
as a new 2006 Škoda Laura Combi!

http://www.skoda-auto.com/NR/rdonlyr...gallery_08.jpg
http://www.skoda-auto.com/NR/rdonlyr...gallery_09.jpg

[amit]

For the last fifty years or so, we, the Indian car buyer have gullibly consumed cars of internationally old and discontinued designs, at unfairly high prices.

Why did you leave out India's largest and home car maker, Maruti out of this? If there is one company that's really ripping us off with old out dated cars, it's Maruti. The Alto (Zen here) was phased out and the new Alto (Alto here) was launched but in India we have both the cars being sold together! The Esteem/Swift/Baleno has been phased out many years back in western countries and the Maruti 800 was phased out decades back in it's home country. In fact, just a few years back Maruti launched the Wagon R but internationally Suzuki sells the Wagon R+. This, from a company that has had over a 15 year headstart over every other company in India today. Compare that to what Skoda and VolksWagen do in their home countries. VW launches it's new cars first in Germany. It's best models are reserved for Germany, in fact, they even sell the Golf with the 2.0Tdi 140hp engine equipped with 4Motion there. At least, they respect their home country buyers unlike MUL.

As for outdated cars, it happens all over the world. VW launched the MK V Golf in Europe in 2002-03 but they are still selling the MK IV Golf in North America.

[Beemer]

So guys , i ve made my decision ... I am not going for the Laura for sure(unless they launch the lower end version ,that too within a month or two) ..

Now the only option left for me is to start where it all
ended... I mean ,theres no other option left except to go and buy the Octavia once again and thats exactly what i am gonna do ...

Thanx a ton to all those who helped me out in choosing the right car ...

Thanx n tk cr friends .