[.cArMaNiA]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on Team-Bhp.
My hunt for a C+ segment started about 3-4 months ago. I had already shortlisted between Civic,Laura & cruze. After hearing a lot about A.S.S of skoda i was considering cruze. Till then i had not taken a TD for any vehicle.
So first let me share how things started. After enjoying the ride of Maruti Zen for last 8 years, we were considering for a upgrade way back. Somehow i always had a liking for C segment car but budget did not permit for the same. I was considering Hyundai verna 1 years back, but then again this madness of driving a big car with powerful engine made me to wait for another year.
Now the time had come to chose a good C segment car from not so competitive segment in india. I started searching for the stuff related to cars on internet. Came across team-bhp forum, then there was no stopping. I spent sleepless nights reading the team-bhp forum. After going through various threads i could make out very easily that there is no comparison of Skoda Laura DSG when it comes to driving pleasure and built quality.
I wanted to purchase a Automatic car(though had never driven one before), so Laura TSI was off the list. With civic due for a change it was also deleted from the list. Since could not expect to stretch my budget beyond 17Lakh OTR, so i was left with only two options in automatic
1. Laura DSG
or
2. Cruze LTZ .

Finally decided to buy the car in august. First i took TD of Laura DSG, though i was offered a TSI first but i denied it (as i had made up my mind for an Automatic) inspite of knowing what the car is capable of (my mistake )and asked for TD of a DSG.
TD car was a DSG elegance, odometer read 12500kms. As i stepped inside the car it felt so spacious and interiors looked so classy & royal that i took few minutes to take a brief look from inside, checked the rear seats which i found comfortable for my family members. Had a brief explanation on how to use auto box, now it was the time to rev the machine on gurgaon expressway. Inspite of 12k on odometer, it was driving just as new. I was completely driven off by the engine.High speed stability was just awesome (pushed it to 160kmph couple of times), DSG rocks, shifting was lightening fast, superb braking gives you the confidence to rev up the machine. Rest all everyone know more than me about this car on Team-Bhp.

After this straight away went for a TD of cruze LTZ automatic. First thing which i noticed on getting inside the car was the quality of interiors, the plastic looked similar to our 8year old zen, also the music system was no where near to that of laura. Rear seats were cramped. Though the equipment list was endless but what matters for me is the driving pleasure. I dint find the drive in cruze good when compared to laura, also the DSG is far better than Cruze AT. Car did not feel confident at corners at high speed, tends to skid.

So now before finalizing we had to wait for another 2 days,as new jetta was about to be launched on 17th Aug. As expected Volkswagen provided DSG only in top end version(highline).

So the final decision was made, it has to be a laura DSG (white colour)
Giriraj motors in gurgaon promised delivery of Laura Ambiente in 10days.
I also contacted Fahrenheit Automobiles in delhi on 19th august, and to my surprise they told me that they have the car ready for delivery.
The very next day i paid for the booking amount, and asked them to show me the vehicle for PDI before delivery. In evening i saw the car, checked the VIN & verified other details to my satisfaction and asked them if the car can be delivered the next day on sunday. I was promised the delivery on sunday evening. So the next day we settled the payment, got activated the DRLs and auto lock and took the delivery. Buying experience with Fahrenheit was good, infact i asked them to change the car before delivery, as the car had plenty of brown aunts hovering around the dashboard, & they happily did so as they had one more laura ambiente white colour in stockyard.
The On Road Price till now is 16.7lakhs including Registration charges, this doesnot include any accessories. Got a corporate discount of 18k. Opted for ICICI lombard 0% dep insurance.

A special thanks to .anshuman for creating such a detailed ownership thread (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ighlight=laura) which tempted us to consider a laura, without this detailed thread we would have never ever come to a decision of buying a skoda one day.

Attaching few pics






DRL's with Super white xenon






My 8y old Zen




Till date i have clocked 2500kms.

Things which i liked
1. I personally feel exterior of laura has defining looks which gives a feeling of class & royality. Built quality is solid just as expected from the germans.

2. turbo kicks in at low rpm which makes city driving alot more comfortable if you are driving in manual mode, else in D mode there in minimal feel of turbolag.

3. DSG is just superb, the more you drive the more you fell in love with this beauty, i dont think any car below 20lakhs can give you such a sheer driving pleasure & feel good factor. i always look for reasons to take out the car for driving. Triptonic mode is as good as a manual gear box.
For fast overtaking on highways one can use the kickdown button.

4. 320NM of torque over a wide range of 1750-2500rpm makes sure that the car is never under power. Even accelerating beyond 100kph will push you back into your seat. Infact as long as the car is driven between 1750-2500rpm, fast overtakes can be acheived comfortably without the need to use kickdown button.

5. Inspite of Being a 2.0lt car the Fuel efficiency is best in class, infact i would say its much better than most of the sedans.In city driving i get an average of 14km/lt & on highways 20-21km/lt. As i am getting use to the DSG, i am getting better fuel figures daily. By improving on my driving styles with light footed usage, i hope to attach the pics of MFD showing some astonishing fuel figures soon.

6. MFD has plenty of information to play aroung with.(I often activate the wipers while fiddling around with MID controls on RHS stalk, it takes time to get use to it while driving)

7. Laura is rock solid at high speeds. I pushed her to 190kph a week ago and there was no hint of any loss of stability.

8. The fragrance inside the cabin when one uses the windscreen nozzles to wash the windscreen gives a refreshing feel in the cabin( I dont know whether such thing is common on other sedans, but my zen does not have this feature).

8. Interiors are nice, at night the white lit dials with light green colour display looks awsome. Needles and MID are always lit irrespective of light conditions.

9. Music system has top notch sound quality. If you mute the song playing through a CD, it automatically gets paused & when you resume the volume it starts from the point when you muted it. Controls on music system are very simple to understand and use.

10. Presence of dead pedals are a boon on long drives.

11. Unlike other cars the accelerator pedal is placed the other way round.

12. Front centre hand rest can be adjusted in both lengh and height as per the needs of driver.

13. Airconditioner is a absolute chiller, no complains about AC from my side though i had heard that older Lauras had complain regarding inadequate cooling.

14. Ground clearance is adequate for the types of deadly breakers in haryana, in fact it is best among its competitors. Even with 5 persons sitting, the car has not scraped the bottom even once.

15. Cabin seals the outside noise disturbances very well.

16. Front seats hug you tightly, which doesn't make long drives tiresome. With height adjustment lever one can find comfortable driving position very easily. Rears seats are very comfortable, Rear AC vents in centre and below the front seats makes passengers at rear at ease.

17. Boot space can be accessed from inside the cabin through handrest, as well as by lowering the rear seats. Also the bootlid opens like a hatchback.
Emergency escape from the boot space by lowering the rear seats is a good safety feature.

18. High beam and Low beam lights are very powerful.

Few dislikes
1. Removal of Auto dimming rear view mirror & rain sensor for wipers from the Ambiente trim.

2. Non-Convex type right side ORVM, which creates a blind spot. (i purchased a convex mirror online from e-bay)

3. It being a white colour and Automatic, the rear bumper around the exhaust pipe gets blackish because of carbon deposit.( Still to figure out the remedy for the same) Pics attached.

I think laura with manual gear box doesn't have this problem as exhaust pipes are bend downwards whereas in DSG these are straight.

4. Stock good year tyres are not upto the mark when it comes to emergency braking. Grip levels are low. Infact i had a narrow escape last month when i was driving at 150kph & had to apply sudden brakes to avoid banging in an alto, when ABS got into action and the car came to hault only after kissing Alto's rear bumper.(front bumper managed to bear the impact with a small bruise).

5. Wish all models of laura had steering mounted audio controls as standard fitting.

6. Front mud flaps(hard plastic ones) not available as standard fitting. Its hard to find those with same quality as the company fitted rear mud flaps in after market.

7. FE is displayed in lt/100km instead of km/lt.

[Maibaa]

Congratulations on your new purchase and wishing you many happy miles with this beauty.

I had test driven the Laura with the DSG and got blown away by its responsiveness. The only deal breaker was the diesel as I was looking for the petrol variant. Hence I opted for the TSI and enjoying every bit of it since 6 months.

[knob]

First of all welcome to TBHP.

Congratulations on your new acquisition. Unlike most you have taken a big leap from a baby zen to a Dsg beast. Wish you happy miles crunching ahead.

I hope you have a covered parking space

[Vik0728]

Congrats on your latest acquisition .cArMaNiA and what a masterpiece at that!!

Just had one small query, are those DRL's in the pics 3 and 6 ?
If Yes, I might be wrong but I don't think these were present on the older version rite ?

[mrsherlock]

Welcom to TBHP and Congratulations on your acquisition of an awesome ride! Wish you miles and miles of driving pleasure

[vb-saan]

Congratulations .cArMaNiA on your Laura DSG! Great choice indeed. Can you please pen down a bit more on the car, what you liked / not liked etc.?

Happy driving

[Porschefire]

Wow!!!It just couldn't get any better for you with your first post on the forum being the ownership of your new car and that too a Skoda Laura,possibly the most driver focussed car in that price range!!!
Welcome to TBHP and enjoy your ride!!!!

[vinj14]

Congrats mate! My laura dsg elegance came home in july and driving the car over the last two and a half months has just been awesome!
Have you changed the bulbs of the drl's? .. Well, if you did then good choice as it certainly looks better than the yellow light of the stock drls!
According to me this is still the best diesel automatic sedan in the sub 20 lakh group.

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by Maibaa

Congratulations on your new purchase and wishing you many happy miles with this beauty.

I had test driven the Laura with the DSG and got blown away by its responsiveness. The only deal breaker was the diesel as I was looking for the petrol variant. Hence I opted for the TSI and enjoying every bit of it since 6 months.

thanks mate, i know TSI is a great car for enthusiasts, but for me the deal breaker was DSG, as i had to purchase a car with autobox, to cope up with the delhi city traffic. Anyways me too enjoying every bit of this turbo beast.

[.cArMaNiA]

thanks everyone, it feels so great to be a part of Team-BHP. i hope to keep this ownership thread updated and share my experience with this german beauty.

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by knob

First of all welcome to TBHP.

Congratulations on your new acquisition. Unlike most you have taken a big leap from a baby zen to a Dsg beast. Wish you happy miles crunching ahead.

I hope you have a covered parking space

For taking this big leap i had to wait for few years to pass. Its like a dream come true to own a laura, it drives much better than my zen( to write this),but i haven't driven any car apart from zen till now so laura feels way way ahead when it comes to driving pleasure.

Nope, you spotted it right, we do not have a covered car parking yet . Thanks for reminding me, i almost forgot everything after driving this beauty.
Does open parking effect car paint after prolonged sun exposure?

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Congrats on your latest acquisition .cArMaNiA and what a masterpiece at that!!

Just had one small query, are those DRL's in the pics 3 and 6 ?
If Yes, I might be wrong but I don't think these were present on the older version rite ?

Ya, those are the DRL's. I dont know about the older version, but since the launch of face lifted version DRL's are provided as standard fitting.

Originally Posted by vinj14

Congrats mate! My laura dsg elegance came home in july and driving the car over the last two and a half months has just been awesome!
Have you changed the bulbs of the drl's? .. Well, if you did then good choice as it certainly looks better than the yellow light of the stock drls!
According to me this is still the best diesel automatic sedan in the sub 20 lakh group.

I have been following your detailed thread since july . Infact got the idea of getting the DRL's activated at the time of delivery after reading your thread, otherwise i was under impression that these can be activated only after first service. Ya i have changed the bulbs, these are xenons, purchased online from HIDS-UK. These look classy than the stock bulb, and also these are CANBUS free.

I also liked your Beige 3D mats, i am also searching for the same in delhi.

[Repsol]

Congrats on the great buy mate. I have a small question for you. Just noticed that the DRL's of your car have white bulbs. Is that part of the standard equipment or is it an aftermarket accessory ? The reason why I am asking this is, I have noticed yellow halogen bulbs in many lauras. Take the case of .anshuman's laura itself.

[acsandeep]

Originally Posted by Repsol

Congrats on the great buy mate. I have a small question for you. Just noticed that the DRL's of your car have white bulbs. Is that part of the standard equipment or is it an aftermarket accessory ? The reason why I am asking this is, I have noticed yellow halogen bulbs in many lauras. Take the case of .anshuman's laura itself.

No,they are not stock,.carmania have changed them to Xenons as told by him in his previous post,stock laura comes with yellow halogen bulbs.BTW @.carmania congratulations for this beast,drive safe.

[bloodred]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

I also liked your Beige 3D mats, i am also searching for the same in delhi.

I got beige 3D mats for my Laura from a dealer in Faridabad. Charged 6k including home delivery. Might be a bit on higher side but couldn't find a cheaper deal in gurgaon. Send me a PM if you want his number.

Cheers!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line, back to the Initial Ownership Forum. Thanks for updating the opening post with your review!