[Akshay1234]

Damn these kinds of bikers. No point in saying anything more about them.

But luckily the alloy seems to have taken the damage well. Lol do be careful about the PS3s, or just buy another tyre and keep it as a spare.

The only good thing is the first scratch hurts the most.

[sagarpadaki]

Hi santosh, I think I saw your laura today evening at chinnaswamy stadium signal at around 6 pm. I saw borbet alloys. That's what made me think it might be your car.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Hi santosh, I think I saw your laura today evening at chinnaswamy stadium signal at around 6 pm. I saw borbet alloys. That's what made me think it might be your car.

Hi Sagar. Yes that was me

[Santoshbhat]

45,000 Kms Update

Its time for another update. The car completed 45,000 kms last week. That's 45,000 Kms from May 2011 to Nov 2013. That's 45k kms in 2 1/2 years or 18,000 kms per year in a petrol car. The petrol bills would've hurt if it was any other car. But not this one. Its been an absolute joy to drive every one of those 45,000 kms. At this juncture this car wears the crown as the most trouble free car that our family has seen in its history of car ownership which inludes car's like the M800, Esteem, Santro, WagonR, Corolla etc... Very rare statement for a Skoda, but that's exactly how its turned out to be. .

Even after 45k kms it still feels showroom fresh. Since most of its running has been on the highway there are very few scratches on the exteriors. The interiors also have held up extremely well. No rattles whatsoever. Door rubber beadings tend to squeak every now then. Nothing a lubricant spray can't fix.

The next 45 ~ 50K will be the acid test for the car as this is the period when Euro cars tend to play a few tricks. One of the advantages when you buy a base trim is that there are basically very few things that could go wrong. There's no DSG, no ACC, no auto this, no Auto that. Thank you Skoda for not giving me the option of say, a Laura TSI LnK.

For the last 3 tank fills I've been using speed 97 and boy what a difference it makes. I've always said I've hardly felt any difference with 97 octane over 91 octane. But boy was I wrong! I used to tank up 97 just before a long drive and would burn up a tank full by the time I reached the destaination, where again 97 would not be avaialable and I would switch back to regular 91. THis never gave the ECU any time to adapt to the better fuel. THis time I tanked up with 97 while I was in the city and persited with it for a couple more tank fills. About three or four days after the first fill I started feeling the difference. THe engines is smoother, there's instant power right through the rev range and the car just gallops ahead the moment you floor the accelerator, any gear, any rpm . Its just too addictive. As if regular petrol at Rs. 80/ litre was not enough, now I'm addicted to 97 octane.

THere's another little addition to the car. The car now sports a glossy back top! Its a wrap from 3M. The new Octavia with the panoramic sun roof sports a similar black top. I really liked the way it looked on the silver Octavias and thought that it will look good on my car and will also go well with the dark grey Borbets. The quality of the wrap and quality of the job from 3M is very good indeed. It looks like OEM black paint rather than a wrap.

[F150]

Looks very clean. Please change the number plates to Embossed ones, it will add to the looks.

Yeah, any part failure that I can foresee would be FUEL PUMP, A/C compressor and Clutch.

How are the stock brakes doing with the additional power ? Any plans for slotted rotors ?

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by F150

Looks very clean. Please change the number plates to Embossed ones, it will add to the looks.

Yeah, any part failure that I can foresee would be FUEL PUMP, A/C compressor and Clutch.

How are the stock brakes doing with the additional power ? Any plans for slotted rotors ?

Thanks for the number plate suggestion. I will look to do it sometime soon.

The parts you have mentioned can fail on you at any given point of time. But I do my best to make sure that they are taken care of. For eg. I never let the fuel level to drop very low. When it gets very low the fuel pump has to work extra hard. I am also choosy with petrol pumps so that I don't get contaminated fuel. As for the clutch, I expect my car's clutch to last really long as my car is more of highway rider rather than stop and go traffic. The AC performance of my car has been excellent too. It cools the cabin very quickly and in fact I rarely set the AC to its lowest temp setting. Thanks to the 3M heat resistant films that I've got on all glass areas.

The stock brakes have adequate stopping power for my driving style atleast. Though I like to drive the car fast, I rarely drive 'on the edge'. I don't feel any need for upgrading the brakes as of now. As long as the pads are replaced at prescribed intervals they do their job effectively.

[Hayek]

Santosh, glad to see that you have had such a fantastic experience. The good experiences that others have makes one feel better - as it creates hope that one's most recent set of problems are not likely to be repeated. Noticed that you mainly do highway runs - so do you have a sense on what is the average speed at which you covered your 45,000 kms?

I sometimes wonder if the problems I have are a function of the fact that my runs are almost always in stop and go traffic with an average speed over 100 hour MID resets varying between 16 kph and 20 kmph, and my median run (to and from work) being less than 10 kms (even if it takes anywhere between 25 and 45 minutes).

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Santosh, glad to see that you have had such a fantastic experience. The good experiences that others have makes one feel better - as it creates hope that one's most recent set of problems are not likely to be repeated. Noticed that you mainly do highway runs - so do you have a sense on what is the average speed at which you covered your 45,000 kms?

I sometimes wonder if the problems I have are a function of the fact that my runs are almost always in stop and go traffic with an average speed over 100 hour MID resets varying between 16 kph and 20 kmph, and my median run (to and from work) being less than 10 kms (even if it takes anywhere between 25 and 45 minutes).

I'd say about 30,000 out of the 45,000 kms has been done on the highway. And most of these 30,000 also have been done on four laned NH4. My average speed during these journeys (from start to end) shows up anywhere between 85kmph to 95 kph on the MID. On good sections of road I easily average above 100. The 6 speed gear box really helps at highway speeds. Even at very good speeds the engine is never strained.

I agree, any automobile will be happier cruising on a smooth highway rather than crawling in our hot and humid cities. But I doubt whether driving in stop and go traffic all the time is the reason behind all the issues that you've faced with your Superb. The mechatronic failure maybe. But I doubt if fuel gauge failure and fuel pump failure have anything to do with the average speeds.

In the initial six months of ownership I did use the car for intra city use. But soon realised that its no fun piloting this car on the crazy roads of Bangalore. So I got myself an i10 AT. I am extremely happy with this decision as the smaller dimensions of the i10 and the convenience of AT have really taken the stress out of city driving. The MT Laura is no fun in the city, but out on the highway she is in the zone.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

I'd say about 30,000 out of the 45,000 kms has been done on the highway. And most of these 30,000 also have been done on four laned NH4. My average speed during these journeys (from start to end) shows up anywhere between 85kmph to 95 kph on the MID. I agree, any automobile will be happier cruising on a smooth highway rather than crawling in our hot and humid cities. But I doubt whether driving in stop and go traffic all the time is the reason behind all the issues that you've faced with your Superb. The mechatronic failure maybe. But I doubt if fuel gauge failure and fuel pump failure have anything to do with the average speeds.

The way I was thinking of it is as follows: You have spent about 400 hours ( even at 75 kph average) for the 30,000 highway kms, and say 750 hours for the 15,000 City kms (assuming Bangalore like Bombay ends up at 20kph averages). So your car has run for about 1150 hours.

I have probably done 3500 highway kms at 70 kph (50 hours) and 29,000 city kms at less than 20 kph ( 1450 hours) - getting to about 1500 hours. So while I have ostensibly used my car for only 70% of the distance you have covered, I have used it for almost 25% more hours. To what extent are part lives linked to the number of hours they run as opposed to the distance they run? Though I do agree that parts like fuel pumps and injection coils should not fail in 1500 hours - after all, even at an average speed of 60 kph that you expect to see in developed markets, this adds to only 90,000 kms of usage.

Anyway, probably getting off topic here.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Hayek

The way I was thinking of it is as follows: You have spent about 400 hours ( even at 75 kph average) for the 30,000 highway kms, and say 750 hours for the 15,000 City kms (assuming Bangalore like Bombay ends up at 20kph averages). So your car has run for about 1150 hours.

I have probably done 3500 highway kms at 70 kph (50 hours) and 29,000 city kms at less than 20 kph ( 1450 hours) - getting to about 1500 hours. So while I have ostensibly used my car for only 70% of the distance you have covered, I have used it for almost 25% more hours. To what extent are part lives linked to the number of hours they run as opposed to the distance they run? Though I do agree that parts like fuel pumps and injection coils should not fail in 1500 hours - after all, even at an average speed of 60 kph that you expect to see in developed markets, this adds to only 90,000 kms of usage.

Anyway, probably getting off topic here.

That's a very good point hayek. Due to higher speeds my car has spent less time on the road than yours. Parts like the fuel pump and AC compressors are doing their jobs be it 100 kph or 10 kph. The fuel pump, AC compressor and ignition coils are definite weak areas in these Skodas. At times I feel like I am sitting on a ticking time bomb.

[Santoshbhat]

Update!

The ODO is currently at 48,500 kms. The trouble free ownership experience continues with the car still being able to put a smile on my face during every single drive. Its been about 10k kms after the remap and I am happy to report that the remap has not affected the car in any adverse manner. The Bilstein B6s too are just awesome. The best part is that they have improved handling without sacrificing the ride quality much. The mods carried out at 38k kms have truly upped the fun factor of the car. I am so happy I overcame my fear of modding the car and went ahead with the mods. Thanks once again to Robimahanta for being the inspiration.

The Borbet alloys + 225/50/16 Michelin PS3 combo is also working well for me. The tyres are extremely grippy and have handled abuse from bad roads pretty well. Since this is my primary outstation car and is still a family car, I did not go for 17 inchers as it would affect the practicality to some extent. With this combo I can have fun when I’m alone and the family will not curse me when they are travelling with me. No underbelly scraping issues even under full load as I have not lowered the car. In fact the car scrapes even less than when it was stock as the B6’s have higher damping power, so the rear squat under load is less than when the car was stock.

I have all along used regular unleaded 91 octane petrol from Shell (if available) or else from trusted BP pumps. I tried 97 octane a couple of times during the initial ownership period and I could not make out much difference. So I never went back to 97. After the remap I decided to give it an extended run and Boy! what a difference it makes! It took almost one tankful of running within the city for the ECU to adapt to 97. After that I filled another tankful for a highway run and that’s when I got addicted to the higher octane fuel. With 97 octane you feel like the power has gone up by min 20HP extra. The way it accelerates and moves on the highway makes you wish you never reach the destination! The sad part is that 97 is not available outside Bangalore. Once you are out of Bangalore and fill up regular fuel, the difference is immediately noticeable.

Blaupunkt Philadelhpia 835 HU installed.
I got the Philadelhia 835 unit made by Blaupunkt specifically for VAG cars, installed recently. Thanks to Rajeevraj who got it for his Vento and posted about it in his thread . The stock Swing system, though had good audio quality, had very limited input options. The P835 unit has bluetooth, USB, SD card and CD options and is a touch screen unit and comes with MMI navigation standard. The audio quality is the same as before and I don’t find any improvement. The front facia had to be changed to accommodate the Blaupunkt unit. Blaupunkt India’s support was very good and they sourced the front facia from Bombay and got it to Bangalore just for my car. I am not an audiophile but am considering upgrading the speakers as my installer says that HU deserves better speakers. Gannu_1 has reviewed the system here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3335889, so I will not go into much details about it.
I’ll just list out my likes and dislikes.

Likes

• Nice big touch screen display.
• Easy to use interface.
• Variety of input options.
• Remote control for rear seated passengers.
• 3D Navigation works well. Some famous buildings show up exactly how they are on the screen.
• Specifically made for VAG cars + Canbus compliant = Plug and play and no cutting of wires
• Vario backlight options, so that the back light matches with the rest of the car’s backlight colours.

Dislikes

• Pricey.
• Interface could have been better
• Parking display requires the system to be switched on manually, whereas in the stock system it showed up even if the system was off.
• Music volume would get suppressed when reverse was engaged. This happens with the BP 835 as well, but not in radio mode. In radio mode the volume goes up! Hope I can find a fix for this.
• There is a 5 sec boot up lag. Can be irritating, esp if you want to reverse in a hurry.

A few other minor updates have been made as well. The bulbs for the DRLs are regular P21W bulbs. With regular usage, the bulbs were on their last days. I like the DRL function as I drive on the highways a lot and the DRLs make my car more visible to other motorists and pedestrians. I ordered for a set of LED DRLs from Super Skoda. They claim that these are error free bulbs and will not show the ‘broken bulb’ error on the dash. Thought I’ll give it a try. While I was ordering, I thought I’ll get the car a set of VRS badges as well.

The package arrived in about two weeks time.





The install is a simple 5 minute DIY job. They have made a video on how to install it. Followed the procedure and sure enough there’s no error on the dash. The LEDs are nice and bright and look cool . I only hope they last.

DRL bulbs installation procedure :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnT4c...ature=youtu.be

And then installed the VRS badges as well.








The fourth service is due and I am planning to give the car this week. I am planning to get the door rubber beadings replaced as at times there is some wind noise creeping in at high speed. Also the rear brake pads seem to have come close to the end of their service life, so will be replacing them . Any other suggestions?

[megazoid]

Why is the number plate KA 04 at some places and KA 05 at others?

[trumpcard]

@santosh can you help me with the link from where you purchased these drls and pardon my ignorance but do the customs guy keep these packages with them... And you need to go there to collect these?

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by megazoid

Why is the number plate KA 04 at some places and KA 05 at others?

The number is KA-04 XX XXXX. I've camouflaged the no. plate for privacy reasons.

Originally Posted by trumpcard

@santosh can you help me with the link from where you purchased these drls and pardon my ignorance but do the customs guy keep these packages with them... And you need to go there to collect these?

I bought it from here http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/OCTA...ht-system-KI-R

It was sent thru air mail and was delivered to me directly. There was some kind of a clearance check seal on the package. I guess they scan the package thru X ray machines and since these are low value items they don't bother much.

[anandpadhye]

The LED DRLs are looking good. I am thinking they will look even better on my white TSi. Apart from installation, you had to enble them in s/w? Can you also post a picture with DRLs and fogs ON? Thanks!