Laura Lovegood

Since we have moved back, we have been looking at buying a new car. Not that we have a problem with the old one, but that's been around for more than 8 years and is a bit cramped for us now (not that it was no cramped then...but that was all I could afford at that time). The specs this time were that the new car should have a lot more space, be more comfortable (three out of the five people in my family hover around the 6 ft mark), be powerful (my input to the list), be economical (my wife's input) and be cool (my daughter's input). Finding something which fit the bill was going to be a challenge.

Going by size, we thought we will get an SUV. Naturally, all the usual suspects were in contention. The Ford Endeavour, the Honda CRV, the Mitsubishi Pajero, the Chevy Forrester. Of these, I personally think that the CRV is a bit to cramped for my taste and definately not value-for-money. The Pajero, from all the reviews I have read, is an old version which they are hawking into the Indian market at a hefty premium. And Chevy is not exactly a great brand in India, mainly because of their support capabilities from what I have heard. So it came down to the Explorer.

When the car arrived for our test drive, I was impressed with the size of the thing. It could intimidate any vehicle on the road! The seating for the front passenger and driver are extremely comfortable. The beast has some power too. The diesel engine delivers a fair bit of punch and the car is quite manouverable in traffic. But what I didn't realize, and something that my wife pointed out to me, was that the seating for the back seats is not exactly comfortable. She was sitting in the back for most of the test drive to judge just that. As I got out of the car to check this (and by this time, I loved this car), I had trouble getting into the back seats with ease. This was going to be a BIG problem. Mainly because my mom has recently undergone a hip replacement surgery and so getting in and out of the car would be a problem for her. That nixed it.

When we got back, my daughter was all for the Endeavour as she loved the third row of seats which, she said, was just perfect for her "and her dog". We had to do a Strengths Weaknesses listing on paper as part of our evaluation. Obviously the car failed.

So one afternoon, my wife and I were just going around town doing some shopping for the house and we happened to pass the Honda showroom. I had sat in my friend's Civic and so had had that experience, but I wanted to know how the Accord feels. When we walked into the showroom, I distinctly remember feeling like the people there were pushing the Civic more than the Accord...almost like they did NOT want to sell the Accord. They did not even have a brochure for the car! So we had a looksie. We sat in the car, absorbed the marketing banter and then took the car out for a test. I was intent on the Automatic transmission (as most people in Bangalore will attest to the traffic conditions and the incessant gear changes that one has to make). The car felt quite agile and responsive...until I stepped hard on the throttle. It took almost a second for the car to upshift and rev up to go the way I wanted it to. Sure, it has a few nice things...like F1 like gear paddles to shift up and down in a semi manual mode. But overall, it felt OK. They did not have an Accord available for a test drive.

So we left the showroom and were circling back towards home when we noticed the Skoda showroom. In we went.

I was promptly shown the Skoda Superb, an Audi A6 class car which has all the trimmings that you would expect from a luxury car. It is immensely spacious, has a bunch of features and is very comfortable. Looks great too (to someone like me who likes European styling more than the Japanese look). The only problem was price...too darn expensive.

So the guy then smartly manouvered us to another car which he claimed has almost the same number of features as the Superb, but was a bunch of money less expensive. The moment I sat in the Laura, I was in love. The dashboard stole my heart! Clean, elegant and informative. They had achieved perfection. And then the guy started to talk.

The car has a bunch of features which are mindblowing. Nowadays, every car has ABS, but this one has Acceleration Skid Restrain which manages skids and slides, it has traction control (they call it the Electronic Stability Program) which makes for a smoother ride around twisty terrain, it has SIX airbag protecting the entire cabin, has an electronic tyre pressure monitor, it has a four point parking sensor which tells you exactly what is how close to the car. And this is only safety. It has another bunch of stuff that makes the spec sheet drool worthy.

And then there is the car.

We took the car for a spin (all three of us had to do it together, of course) and so the car needed to come home on a weekend for us to drive it. The moment I turned the ignition (actually, even as I just held the car key in my hand, I knew this was it), I loved the way the car behaved. Not a waggle, not a murmer, not a tremble. Commendable for a diesel.

Once on the road, the car purred along and behaved better than my small car traffic. The way it handled sharp turns and roundabouts, I was amazed at how a car of this size handled it with such grace. When stepping on the power, it roared away instantaneouly (no lag) and gave me the feeling that I was extremely under control even at extremely high speeds. The car just feels safe and solid all around.

The individual climate control was under continuous threat from my daughter (who insisted on sitting up front in "her new Girl car") as she twiddled the knobs and set the temperature until she felt comfortable. Then we opened the skyroof and just the look on her face made it all worthwhile. We had connected our iPod to the car's music system (12 speakers...more than the number in my home theater) and were happily enjoying the thump of the music system. I even tried enabling the parking system in traffic. It was so responsive that the display would light up mometarily when a bike went past us, so fast that the indicator would come on before I could see the bike come around!

As we entered the basement of our complex (to see if the car will fit in the parking space), the lights came on by themselves (I was told that the wipers would come on by themselves too if it were raining and that the sunroof would close by itself as well). The lit dashboard looked even better. We stepped out of the car to admire the lines and the Skoda guy continued badgering us with the features of the car.

Intelligent rear view mirror to cut glare, air drag coefficient of 0.30, huge boot space (my daughter actually climbed into it and sat there comfortably while we closed it!), nice little touches like lights under the side mirrors which enable stumble free access to the car, a nice sun screen to pull up to avoid the Sun scorching one's back. I can just go on and on.

So there we were. Stunned and pleased as punch with the car. So much so that we did not even feel like looking at anything else. In our mind, we had bought the car. It was only a matter of logistics before it came home.

That day, Laura Lovegood was born. Taking off from the Harry Potter character (Luna Lovegood), my daughter pounced on the fact that the car is called Laura ("so she's a girl, Pappi") and christned the car Laura Lovegood. She even got home and made the car a birth certificate. She was clever enough to leave the day of birth space blank!

So now we have been waiting for the formalities to be completed. There was a lot of running around to be done, following up with my office Finance team, the leasing company and the Skoda dealer in Bangalore. Finally I have been told that most of the formalities are done and that the car should go in for registration tomorrow. If all goes to plan, we will have our new car, the lovely Laura Lovegood, become a part of the family by tomorrow evening. Hopefully!

Until then, it's just waiting for the "World's Most Beautiful Car" (as they called it at the Italy Car Show).