Car Skoda Laura Review

The Laura is actually Skoda’s new Octavia based on the VW Group’s A5 platform. A new, grounds-up design that was put on sale in mid-2004 in European and other markets, this is one of the most important cars in the carmaker’s 100-year history. While the current Octavia will continue to be sold, the new Laura, as Skoda has named the car in India, will take on heavyweight competition like the Accord, Sonata and the Camry.

There’s no mistaking the Laura for anything other than a Skoda. It is sharper looking and has a more prestige-like exterior style than the Octavia, but the design cues from its smaller sibling are all there. The prominent grille, the elevated ridge at the centre of the bonnet, the kink in the rear or C-pillar and the squared-off tail give it the look of a grown-up Octavia. But at the same time, if you look closely at the Laura’s nose, you also see hints of its larger stable-mate, the Superb, especially around the area of the headlights. Longer, wider and taller than the current Octavia, the Laura is a half size bigger with the new A5 platform, adding much-needed additional rear legroom and better stability.

Bristling with technology, the Laura has features like Electronic Stability Control, Park-tronic parking sensors front and rear, rain sensors that start the wipers automatically, six airbags, a system that monitors the tyre pressure, puddle lights at the base of the outside mirrors and should you ever need it, enough space in the 560-litre boot for a kitchen sink. Like all Skoda’s sold here, the Laura has also been kitted out with what is known as a bad road suspension, essentially raised springs for greater ground clearance and marginally stiffer dampers for better body control.

Inside the Laura you will be bowled over by the solid tree trunk-like build quality. Everything functions with a slick quality feel, the plastics used are much superior to those on the Octavia and the design of the dash is modern if slightly sedate. However the interiors look rather dull as if someone’s emptied a pail of paint on them, their shades of black being monotonous and boring in the extreme. Splashes of silver span the cockpit in an attempt to liven up the gloomy cabin, but it’s a gesture that feels like an afterthought. Driver and passenger comfort, however, is top notch. The large seats are extremely supportive, the power adjusters are nicely calibrated and don’t need much fiddling around with, and there are even features like electric lumbar support adjustment and seat memory to pamper you. The additional wheelbase or the distance between the front and rear wheels also mean much greater legroom, something the Octavia desperately needed.

On the whole, the Laura’s engine is similar to the Octavia’s. It uses the same 1896cc iron block with a single camshaft and two valves per cylinder. However, the injection technology is different and the Laura comes with unit injectors known as pumpe düse (PD), which is unique to cars from the VW Group’s stable. PD technology combines the fuel pump and injector into a single entity, known as the unit injector, and each cylinder gets one. Developed by VW and Bosch, and tested extensively on Indian fuel, it allows for far greater injection pressures (up to 2068 bar in this case). The benefits are better throttle responses and greater control over the combustion process. Power and torque, as a result, are much higher and the motor makes 104bhp and 25.49kgm of torque over the Octavia 1.9Tdi’s 90bhp and 21.4kgm. The Laura also uses turbochargers with variable vane geometry for quick throttle response at low speeds as well as higher levels of resistance and thus, higher power. If you thought the Octavia was good, wait till you drive the Laura. The well-sorted suspension and longer wheelbase chassis deliver a flat and composed ride which is truly exceptional.

The manual transmission Skoda Laura which we tested first returned an amazing 12.9kpl in our city cycle and 18.65kpl on the highways. The automatic Laura with the DSG gearbox gave 11.4-kmpl in the city and 16.8-kmpl on the highway, a shade below the manual version. Skoda has however launched the DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox) version of Laura first since luxury car buyers have a distinct preference for automatic transmissions. DSG uses two clutches simultaneously to ensure smooth and quick shifts without interrupting power delivery from the engine to the wheels. It can be operated in a fully automatic mode or Tip-tronic manual mode.


With the Laura, Skoda has used the same formula that made the Octavia the best diesel car in its class. Solid engineering, state-of-the-art technology, phenomenal fuel efficiency and superb quality being the big strengths of the Laura. At around Rs. 17-lakh, it is the only diesel car in this price bracket and that is sure to give it a huge advantage. The Laura is considerably more spacious; especially at the rear with internal dimensions that clearly puts it in a higher segment. The design may disappoint and the engine could have been a touch more refined. But the pay-off is a car that is now quite simply in a league of its own.