The Red Laura!

anandbhat · 29th September 2008, 23:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

Thanx Anand.
I asked for VIN from Gurudev Motors.(i got URL from Briskoda too)
Once i get it i'll check it and let you know.
check list will be very useful and car is in PDI.
May be morrow it will go for Registration.
I planned to get it on Thursday.

Karthik,
I had asked the dealer to show the car before taking it to registration. He did so politely. Since my office was on the way between service center and the show room, sales rep came to my office previous day to my office, and I took the VIN code picture there!

Anyways! Congratulations and happy driving!

anandbhat · 3rd October 2008, 13:18

Problem crops up!!
Some how I cannot open the bonnet! I have got an appointment with *** tomorrow, will update what is the actual problem.

Today when I was washing the car, I though Let me clean under the bonnet, but couldn't open. Where as last week I did open the bonnet and checked oil level, etc., but some how lever is not operational any more.

Though last week when I did open the bonnet, I felt as though I need to pull little harder to open the bonnet! I though at that time it might be because of the heavy bonnet, but today I can't open it any more. I think some thing connecting to the lever is broken.
Will update once I return from the service center.

samirsarkar · 3rd October 2008, 14:27

Sorry to hear that, Anand. Hope the fault is trifle and will be set right without much ado. Just goes on to show us that mechanical or other problems can happen in the best of cars.

anandbhat · 4th October 2008, 14:44

Problem rectified.
Reached Vinayak Service Center at K.R. Puram at 10.45AM (Had caled up Mr Patil yesterday, and he had asked me to come any time).
I went to Mr Patil's cabin, warm welcome, and he asks one of the technician to check my car for the bonnet related problem.

While waiting for Mr. Patil to finish his work, I get a cup of tea served. After that, we went to check the car, problem was that the cable between the remote lever and the bonnet lock, got disconnected. So no major issue. Problem was solved in 30min.

Then I was generally chatting with Patil and he showed me VAS diagnostic tool, etc. I was asking for ORVM heating capability in Ambiente (this is there in L&K). When OVRM mirror was opened, heating element and every thing is there attached to the mirror, but some how disabled. When checked in VAS tool, it showed it is on, Mr. Patil was really enthusiastic to check this out and heelp me.

I think some fuses are taken out while shipping this model, this is what I found from cross checking the fuse box in the car Vs what is explained in manual, but there are atleast 4 fuses, that says something about heating, so I think I may have to try with all the fuses installed.

Any one in this forum have any idea? I'm going to search internet, if I can find some details!

shatrughna · 24th November 2008, 17:14

Hi Anand. It has been quite long since you updated this thread. Kindly, share the story so far from where you had left.
Waiting .

anandbhat · 29th November 2008, 16:05

Sorry folks for not being able to spend time to give an update here...

I'm yet to find the ORVM heater enabled, but will do it when I get some time.

Here is an update after 3500km on Odo.

Summary:
Odo Reading : 3668km
Using since : 3 months (3 days to complete)
Visit to work shop : 1 in the first month, none after that
Over all Experience : Excellent
FE (City) : 9-13kpl
FE (highway) : 17-21kpl (could manage 1 120km stretch to yield 20+ kpl)
Driving experience : Excellent, this is a drivers car after all!!
Handling on smooth road : Excellent
Handling on bad road : Good (Going through some bad patches on high ways, felt few scratches under the body!)
Road grip : Excellent
Gear shift : Now feels very punchy and accurate!!
Pick-up : Excellent (last trip was with 5 adults+2 children with almost full boot! but this car doesn't hesitate accepting it! Can reach 80kph+ on odo with breeze! In uphill, turbo kicks of below 1500 rpm!!)
Cabin noise : Minimal (I think now I'm getting used to this noise level, and feel like noise levels are normal even in idle inside, but that is not the case outside! it is aloud!!)

- Still feels the same as before, few more good experiences added!
- Some points noted during these trips:

Fuel efficiency:
--> Cruise at ~80kph in 5th gear, you get best fuel economy!
I could get 20kpl+ for a 120km stretch of drive on a highway, where I never got any adrenal rush to accelerate fast! Slow steady got me to this magic number!
--> Though on odo it read 4.8l/100km, in reality, it turned to be just above 20kpl upon refuelling! for that matter, trip computer did turn out to be some what accurate to believe it, but not very accurate as some one pointed before on this forum.
Have attached a picture of these reading on trip meter!

High speed handling:
- Reached 150kph as the best on NH4, but still much energy left in this beast!
150kph was reached at about 3000 rpm mark, it may take upto 4000rpm to reach 180kph
- At 150kph, this car felt like going at 100kph, that is the stability factor!
- Stability at this speed is amazing!

Cornering:
- Was driving in Malnad Ghat section, with fully loaded vehicle (5 adults+2 kids+lot of luggage in the boot), could feel the turbo effect as early as just above 1200 rpm! cornering is excellent (though not at high speed), will be able to test cornering at higher speed while driving down the ghat next time around.
But I could manage for most of the parts in 3rd gear, which is pretty good for the laod that my car was carrying!

Turbo:
I was told that Lauara has geometrically variable Turbo (known as GVT), which means, turbo kicks of at a variable rpm, and not fixed RPM.
e.g. in uphill, turbo kicks of much before hitting 1500 rpm mark, while on a straight road, it kicks off at 1500rpm
This really helps in terms of getting quicker acceleration in uphill roads.

Torque:
Since this 1.9PD has lower rpm band for peak torque, this helps keep the wheels rolling even at higher gears and low rpms!
i could leave the vehicle in idle still it could roll with ease on third gear, which is hard for a petrol engined vehicle that I have driven before!

Rear parktronics:
This has been one of the best part for me while reversing! the beep gets continuous, as soon as car reaches closer to the object behind beyond 6" gap! so reversing makes it lot easier and accurate, not to hit some thing!
This had been my one of the weak points in past driving, has helped a lot!

Road clearance:
Though road clearance is much much better than Civic for sure and to some extent even octavia (Octavia's L&K variant has a very low front bumper, that pretty much touched ground at every single pot holed road), it could have been better.
Most of the times when I scratched the underbody on a big hump, what really touched the road was a triangular shaped channel, made of platic/ fibre. I'm not sure why this has been place right at the center of the car under the body, but this is the only part that made contact with humps!

Tyre pressure:
Surperisingly, the variation in tyre pressure recomended varies over a large band!
For e.g. with minimal loading (2 adults+luggage) is 2.0/2.1 bars on front/rear, while with 5 adults and full luggage, it is 3.1 for the rear!

Smoke!!
I did find that while hard acceleration, there is some smoke that comes out of the exhaust pipe!! Though this is not visible from the RVM, some one following the car from behind can notice it!

Though I think it is normal for a diesel vehicle, not desired! So it is best to keep a light foot on the accelerator always!

Accelerator!
Laura has electronic acceleration, what that means is, there is a wire going from the accelerator paddle to the engine bay, but accelerator does engage even while break is pressed and this is not supposed to happen per briskoda, this is some thing that has been done in Indian version of the car to take out some component to keep the cost lower I think (not sure if this is a problem in my car).

That is all for now, and will have 5000km+ report comming out soon, though not sure I'll find any thing new in the next report!

white_vdi · 29th November 2008, 16:38

a very nice and detailed report anand

anandbhat · 29th November 2008, 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by white_vdi

a very nice and detailed report anand

Thank you White_vdi!!

Flintstones · 5th December 2008, 03:21

really nice report.i've been thinking of buying a laura,your report is great help.

raj_5004 · 5th December 2008, 11:10

great report buddy.
but have you manually calculated the FE too? the in-car FE meter is not the most accurate.

anandbhat · 15th December 2008, 19:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by raj_5004

great report buddy.
but have you manually calculated the FE too? the in-car FE meter is not the most accurate.

Raj,
Yes FE mentioned in the report are manually calculated.

unni.ak · 16th December 2008, 04:38

Laura is a dream car for me. I've never driven one yet, though have sat in one when I went with a friend to check out Fabia!!! The red color suits the car well. Good choice.

A well written review. Happy mile crunching.

PS: Do post more pics of the car.

hitinv · 18th December 2008, 14:30

Now I truly miss this car while i settled in for the Octavia earlier this year.
Great write up buddy.

anandbhat · 19th December 2008, 22:41

Not much to write a report at this time, as I have no really driven my car much after last report.

Uploading few pictures of Laura on request

3rd October 2008, 13:18	#77
anandbhat BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 136 Thanked: 15 Times	Problem crops up!! Some how I cannot open the bonnet! I have got an appointment with *** tomorrow, will update what is the actual problem. Today when I was washing the car, I though Let me clean under the bonnet, but couldn't open. Where as last week I did open the bonnet and checked oil level, etc., but some how lever is not operational any more. Though last week when I did open the bonnet, I felt as though I need to pull little harder to open the bonnet! I though at that time it might be because of the heavy bonnet, but today I can't open it any more. I think some thing connecting to the lever is broken. Will update once I return from the service center.
	() Thanks

3rd October 2008, 14:27	#78
samirsarkar BHPian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Pune Posts: 166 Thanked: 5 Times	Sorry to hear that, Anand. Hope the fault is trifle and will be set right without much ado. Just goes on to show us that mechanical or other problems can happen in the best of cars.
	() Thanks

4th October 2008, 14:44	#79
anandbhat BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 136 Thanked: 15 Times	Problem rectified. Reached Vinayak Service Center at K.R. Puram at 10.45AM (Had caled up Mr Patil yesterday, and he had asked me to come any time). I went to Mr Patil's cabin, warm welcome, and he asks one of the technician to check my car for the bonnet related problem. While waiting for Mr. Patil to finish his work, I get a cup of tea served. After that, we went to check the car, problem was that the cable between the remote lever and the bonnet lock, got disconnected. So no major issue. Problem was solved in 30min. Then I was generally chatting with Patil and he showed me VAS diagnostic tool, etc. I was asking for ORVM heating capability in Ambiente (this is there in L&K). When OVRM mirror was opened, heating element and every thing is there attached to the mirror, but some how disabled. When checked in VAS tool, it showed it is on, Mr. Patil was really enthusiastic to check this out and heelp me. I think some fuses are taken out while shipping this model, this is what I found from cross checking the fuse box in the car Vs what is explained in manual, but there are atleast 4 fuses, that says something about heating, so I think I may have to try with all the fuses installed. Any one in this forum have any idea? I'm going to search internet, if I can find some details!
	() Thanks

24th November 2008, 17:14	#80
shatrughna BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 894 Thanked: 68 Times	Hi Anand. It has been quite long since you updated this thread. Kindly, share the story so far from where you had left. Waiting .
	() Thanks

29th November 2008, 16:05	#81
anandbhat BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 136 Thanked: 15 Times	3500km Report! Sorry folks for not being able to spend time to give an update here... I'm yet to find the ORVM heater enabled, but will do it when I get some time. Here is an update after 3500km on Odo. Summary: Odo Reading : 3668km Using since : 3 months (3 days to complete) Visit to work shop : 1 in the first month, none after that Over all Experience : Excellent FE (City) : 9-13kpl FE (highway) : 17-21kpl (could manage 1 120km stretch to yield 20+ kpl) Driving experience : Excellent, this is a drivers car after all!! Handling on smooth road : Excellent Handling on bad road : Good (Going through some bad patches on high ways, felt few scratches under the body!) Road grip : Excellent Gear shift : Now feels very punchy and accurate!! Pick-up : Excellent (last trip was with 5 adults+2 children with almost full boot! but this car doesn't hesitate accepting it! Can reach 80kph+ on odo with breeze! In uphill, turbo kicks of below 1500 rpm!!) Cabin noise : Minimal (I think now I'm getting used to this noise level, and feel like noise levels are normal even in idle inside, but that is not the case outside! it is aloud!!) - Still feels the same as before, few more good experiences added! - Some points noted during these trips: Fuel efficiency: --> Cruise at ~80kph in 5th gear, you get best fuel economy! I could get 20kpl+ for a 120km stretch of drive on a highway, where I never got any adrenal rush to accelerate fast! Slow steady got me to this magic number! --> Though on odo it read 4.8l/100km, in reality, it turned to be just above 20kpl upon refuelling! for that matter, trip computer did turn out to be some what accurate to believe it, but not very accurate as some one pointed before on this forum. Have attached a picture of these reading on trip meter! High speed handling: - Reached 150kph as the best on NH4, but still much energy left in this beast! 150kph was reached at about 3000 rpm mark, it may take upto 4000rpm to reach 180kph - At 150kph, this car felt like going at 100kph, that is the stability factor! - Stability at this speed is amazing! Cornering: - Was driving in Malnad Ghat section, with fully loaded vehicle (5 adults+2 kids+lot of luggage in the boot), could feel the turbo effect as early as just above 1200 rpm! cornering is excellent (though not at high speed), will be able to test cornering at higher speed while driving down the ghat next time around. But I could manage for most of the parts in 3rd gear, which is pretty good for the laod that my car was carrying! Turbo: I was told that Lauara has geometrically variable Turbo (known as GVT), which means, turbo kicks of at a variable rpm, and not fixed RPM. e.g. in uphill, turbo kicks of much before hitting 1500 rpm mark, while on a straight road, it kicks off at 1500rpm This really helps in terms of getting quicker acceleration in uphill roads. Torque: Since this 1.9PD has lower rpm band for peak torque, this helps keep the wheels rolling even at higher gears and low rpms! i could leave the vehicle in idle still it could roll with ease on third gear, which is hard for a petrol engined vehicle that I have driven before! Rear parktronics: This has been one of the best part for me while reversing! the beep gets continuous, as soon as car reaches closer to the object behind beyond 6" gap! so reversing makes it lot easier and accurate, not to hit some thing! This had been my one of the weak points in past driving, has helped a lot! Road clearance: Though road clearance is much much better than Civic for sure and to some extent even octavia (Octavia's L&K variant has a very low front bumper, that pretty much touched ground at every single pot holed road), it could have been better. Most of the times when I scratched the underbody on a big hump, what really touched the road was a triangular shaped channel, made of platic/ fibre. I'm not sure why this has been place right at the center of the car under the body, but this is the only part that made contact with humps! Tyre pressure: Surperisingly, the variation in tyre pressure recomended varies over a large band! For e.g. with minimal loading (2 adults+luggage) is 2.0/2.1 bars on front/rear, while with 5 adults and full luggage, it is 3.1 for the rear! Smoke!! I did find that while hard acceleration, there is some smoke that comes out of the exhaust pipe!! Though this is not visible from the RVM, some one following the car from behind can notice it! Though I think it is normal for a diesel vehicle, not desired! So it is best to keep a light foot on the accelerator always! Accelerator! Laura has electronic acceleration, what that means is, there is a wire going from the accelerator paddle to the engine bay, but accelerator does engage even while break is pressed and this is not supposed to happen per briskoda, this is some thing that has been done in Indian version of the car to take out some component to keep the cost lower I think (not sure if this is a problem in my car). That is all for now, and will have 5000km+ report comming out soon, though not sure I'll find any thing new in the next report! Attached Thumbnails
	() Thanks

29th November 2008, 16:38	#82
white_vdi BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: new delhi Posts: 857 Thanked: 38 Times View My Garage	a very nice and detailed report anand
	() Thanks

5th December 2008, 03:21	#84
Flintstones Newbie Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Mumbai Posts: 22 Thanked: 0 Times	really nice report.i've been thinking of buying a laura,your report is great help.
	() Thanks

5th December 2008, 11:10	#85
raj_5004 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Dubai/Mumbai Posts: 5,238 Thanked: 3,139 Times	great report buddy. but have you manually calculated the FE too? the in-car FE meter is not the most accurate.
	() Thanks

16th December 2008, 04:38	#87
unni.ak BHPian Join Date: May 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 777 Thanked: 84 Times View My Garage	Laura is a dream car for me. I've never driven one yet, though have sat in one when I went with a friend to check out Fabia!!! The red color suits the car well. Good choice. A well written review. Happy mile crunching. PS: Do post more pics of the car. Last edited by unni.ak : 16th December 2008 at 04:39. Reason: Added PS!!
	() Thanks

18th December 2008, 14:30	#88
hitinv BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 36 Thanked: 8 Times	Now I truly miss this car while i settled in for the Octavia earlier this year. Great write up buddy.
	() Thanks

19th December 2008, 22:41	#89
anandbhat BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 136 Thanked: 15 Times	Some pictures Not much to write a report at this time, as I have no really driven my car much after last report. Uploading few pictures of Laura on request Attached Thumbnails
	() Thanks