Toyota Corolla Altis or Skoda Laura or VW Jetta

[mayankjha]

I am looking for a new car.

The price range is 12-15L range, Petrol/Diesel, feature rich, self driven hence needs to be a pleasure to drive, will be mostly driven within city (10-20 Kms a day) with few long drives. My old Baleno has done 45k in 5 years hope you get an idea of amount of driving we might do.

The options Civic, Altis, Laura, Cruze.

Did not like the Cruze and the Civic. Found Civic fun to drive but seating to be uncomfortable for long drives hence not considering it at the moment. The Cruze is a good drivers car but the power delivery isnt smooth (Which is not to my liking) and scrapes its bottom more often than the Civic.

Carolla, Laura, Jetta (Which is a slight streach) are the options that i am left with. Liked the Carolla and Laura (Yet to drive a Jetta), have concerns on service availability of Jetta and little higher price hence might not choose it. I hear lot of horrer stories about Skoda and would like to hear views on that. Laura is more pleasure to drive then the Altis, Wife loved its music system.

Forgot to add that i live in Bangalore, not sure but there might be some suggestions depending on city and quality of After Sales Service.

 

[Akash]

Hello Mayank,

Welcome to The Automotive India.

Since your monthly running is less than 1000km, i would suggest you to go for a Petrol. You may go for a diesel if the long drives mentioned in posts exceed the 1000km mark.

Petrol-

Among petrol sedans, i would suggest you Civic. Corolla Altis is great car but somehow i personally dont prefer it since it is very common among cabbies.

Diesel-

Laura and Cruze, both are good options. The Cruze has considerable amount of turbo lag which makes City driving a stressful experience. So the best diesel in the segment imo Skoda Laura.

 

[cooldhaya]

Hello Mayankjha welcome to TAI!



Since your monthly running is too low its wise going in for a Petrol. Civic is the best choice but sadly you are not finding it comfortable. My next suggestion is Altis. Reliable and comfortable but wont be fun to drive! Jetta stay away as new Jetta is coming next year with improved engine and features. Skoda Laura i have read good reviews for its Petrol engines only diesel Laura's are a bit naughty! But ofcourse Skoda's A.S.S is still a concern!


So my suggestion go for Altis!

 

[mastersquall]

my suggestion would be corolla and Cruze(just for its look :P)

 

[type-r]

if driving pleasure is what u seek, then rule out Altis first. it is quite a boring drive. get a laura. it is fun to drive and goes like stink in the TSi form. go for that!

 

[mayankjha]

In Bangalore any experiences with Skoda dealers (TAFE & Vinayak)?

 

[mayankjha]

Thank you all, any idea if new Laura Petrol is coming soon?

Also Akash, you did not recommended Laura Petrol, any specific reason/experience?

 

[Zinam]

Hello Mayankjha,

Welcome to The Automotive India!

Laura either petrol or diesel will really suit your needs.

1.8 TSI is gem of engines & you wont mind getting out of it anytime

 

[mayankjha]

The other thing that surprises me is that most of the cars in this price range do not support USB (Altis and Laura support AUX) which is there in some of the lower segment cars like Sx4 and others.

 

[350Z]

I know that for a new car buyer it becomes very confusing with several different opinions, but in the budget of Rs.15 Lakhs, You can get a decent luxury sedan. My personal recommendation for you would be the Toyota Corolla Altis, but still it will be better if you could brief us about your top-priorities under this much budget. Good luck for the search.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[Zinam]

The other thing that surprises me is that most of the cars in this price range do not support USB (Altis and Laura support AUX) which is there in some of the lower segment cars like Sx4 and others.

Its just that manufacturers feels that best quality can be only out of a company disc or ipods.

An USB device can never reproduce original source quality of an cda or ipods original tunes.

So they avoid unneccessary junks in High end cars.

 

[Akash]

Thank you all, any idea if new Laura Petrol is coming soon?

Also Akash, you did not recommended Laura Petrol, any specific reason/experience?

I dont have any info of any New Laura coming any time soon.
As for the recommendation of Civic, i feel it the best of the lot when it comes to petrols.

 

[jayadev]

Its just that manufacturers feels that best quality can be only out of a company disc or ipods.

An USB device can never reproduce original source quality of an cda or ipods original tunes.

So they avoid unneccessary junks in High end cars.

if manufactures feel usb is junk then....

i dont own a ipod (and never will)

i quite burning cds and storing them in car.they wont last an year due to heat.

aux is nonetheless getting obsolete i often forget the aux cable and the pins and sockets are usually incompatible to each other.

but the usb drives its like plug n play...far better sound quality than ipod.

why does anybody feel usb sound quality cant be like that of cda? cda is mechanical usb memories are static,solid.

now how does the car manufacturers justify usb as unnecessary junk??

 

[Zinam]

Good question.

I really can't justify because I even like using USB in my cars & even my faces turn red on cars without USB.

That was some piece of information from various manufacturers.

Thats why premium cars have 6CD changers, 18CD changers & lot more to keep you going :)

 

[yahabhiyah]

go for laura as you will be driving yourself..altis is a bit bore to drive but altis is a better car overall..