[dkaile]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

Are these actual figures or MID figures? I have found that the avg fuel cons figures thrown up by my Laura's MID are optimistic by about 10%.

In city conditions I find that accelerating a bit hard in 4th gear and costing produces better FE figures as against upshifting to 6th and accelerating steadily. Guess that's because the car is accelerating with the turbo in boost, which burns fuel more efficiently than when the engine is running below the turbo zone.

- These were actual figures but you are right that the MID figures are about 10% optimistic from actuals.
- Now that's news to me and does sound a little improbable. Will give it a try and report back.

Originally Posted by .anshuman

The adjustable switch on top of the stalk adjusts the sensitivity of the Automatic Wipers, just reduce the sensitivity a notch down if you find them too sensitive.

I have set the sensitivity at the lowest (the top switch at the right most position). Still the wipers give a sweep once in a few days without rain.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

In city conditions I find that accelerating a bit hard in 4th gear and costing produces better FE figures as against upshifting to 6th and accelerating steadily. Guess that's because the car is accelerating with the turbo in boost, which burns fuel more efficiently than when the engine is running below the turbo zone.

Yes, I would tend to agree with this and with both my Yeti and the Laura (both Manual) I have seen that it delivers better mileage in 4th gear till 70kmph and then 5th till 85 Kmph. 6th in the Yeti only gives better mileage only post 90kmph. In fact at speeds of 75-80, 4th gear is the most fuel efficient, both in the Laura and the Yeti. The reason why this may be the case is that since the output torque required is high on the wheels, if we put it in 5th/6th gear at 80 and then want to accelerate, it injects the fuel but the air being supplied is not enough and it is not able to accelerate fast, which actually wastes fuel and does not lead to optimum fuel burn. I have seen many people who try to accelerate fast in 5th/ 6th gear from 80 and all the unburnt fuel actually comes out as black smoke - even with Lauras/ Vernas / Swifts (all common rail diesels). A better approach is to slip down to 4th and then accelerate to get the engine in the optimum torque band of 2000-2500 rpm. In this band the engine is also burning fuel optimally with the right mix of air / Fuel as the turbo is spooling fast and the air being supplied is high.
Correspondingly, in 5th/6th gear the engine rpms will be in the range of 1500 at 80 kmph and the turbo will take 5-10 secs to spool up to supply the correct amount of air required for the acceleration.

Regards,
Behemoth

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Yes, I would tend to agree with this and with both my Yeti and the Laura (both Manual) I have seen that it delivers better mileage in 4th gear till 70kmph and then 5th till 85 Kmph. 6th in the Yeti only gives better mileage only post 90kmph. In fact at speeds of 75-80, 4th gear is the most fuel efficient, both in the Laura and the Yeti.

Will this be the case with petrol engined Skoda's too? or does the petrol behave differently from the diesels, which you have tested?

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Will this be the case with petrol engined Skoda's too? or does the petrol behave differently from the diesels, which you have tested?

Yes, this would hold good for the Turbocharged engines, even petrol ones, though the speeds / gear ratios would vary. How you can test it out is see the real time mileage on the MID at different speeds / gears and you can find out the optimum range for the engine rpm at which the power and mileage are best.

The reason why this happens is that in case of Turbocharged engines, it depends on the volume of exhaust gases to propel the turbo to the required speed so that the impeller can push in the required volume of air for further acceleration. In low engine rpms, the airflow generated by the turbo is just not enough and typically would become sufficient only after 1600-1800 rpm. Beyond these rpms, the exhaust flow and corresponding intake air flow is much higher than required and the excess exhaust gases are only partially sent to the turbo and the balance are released through the bypass.
Basically the Turbo is just two fans - one fan being driven by the exhaust gases and the other fan pushing the air in and both fixed on the same shaft (so rpms are same).

One way to circumvent this technology limitation is superchargers, where instead of the turbo being driven by exhaust gases, it is driven by an electric motor/ direct engine drive - but this technology is more expensive and also less fuel efficient, hence almost all modern cars have adopted turbocharging as the means to achieve higher power and mileage.

VW also have a Twincharge technology in TSI engines, which uses a combination of Roots supercharging + turbocharging for peak performance and very low turbo lag. More details in the youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20qqavckWdw

But this engine requires high octane fuel and I don't think that this is the engine variant being supplied in India and the 1.8TSi in India is only Turbocharged. Some TSI variants which I came across on VWVortex:

1.4 TSI TWINcharged
1.4 TSI Turbo-only
1.8 TSI Turbo
2.0 TSI Turbo (later version of 2.0 FSI)
3.0 TSI Supercharged (Audi S4)


Regards,
Behemoth

[VW2010]

Me and my friend had a similar discussion where we came to conclusion that you are better off driving in 4th gear it its power band rather than borderline lugging at higher gears. In fact the fuel efficiency in the power band torque is actually higher and lugging only drops the Fuel efficiency.

Cruise control saves a lot more if you can achieve consistant cruise control for a good distance. Right gear at right speed is the mantra.

[Sanjeev Rai]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

If you are looking at the Superb DSG, then I think it would be too optimistic to expect anything higher than 9 kmpl within the city. I drive a Laura TSI MT, which shares its engine with the Superb, in Bangalore city and I can tell you that I have averaged anywhere between 8.50 ~ 11.00 when driving within city limits. I think you can expect pretty similar FE figures within the city with the Superb DSG as the Vento AT, which is pretty good when you consider the fact that the engine produces more power and has to move the bulk of the Superb.

Well in Delhi normal traffic - not talking of heavily congested routes - but normal congestion in day - with petrol DSG I am getting average 7-8km in day. At night with open roads it may go 10+KM - so i wonder if new car takes time to "run-in" for better efficiency as all reported consumptions are much better - I did notice that signals - which are common and long in Delhi does bring down average significantly

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Sanjeev Rai

Well in Delhi normal traffic - not talking of heavily congested routes - but normal congestion in day - with petrol DSG I am getting average 7-8km in day. At night with open roads it may go 10+KM - so i wonder if new car takes time to "run-in" for better efficiency as all reported consumptions are much better - I did notice that signals - which are common and long in Delhi does bring down average significantly

Expect better efficiency after about 5,000kms or so. I saw my FE figures improve by about 8 ~ 10 % after about 5,000 kms.

Idling in traffic, with AC on does take its toll on the FE. I think for a big AT like the Superb, 7 to 8 kmpl in city conditions should be pretty acceptable. If it gives you any solace, my new i10 AT (which is still in its run in period) is not delivering more than 9 kpl in Bangalore city.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Yes, this would hold good for the Turbocharged engines, even petrol ones, though the speeds / gear ratios would vary.

Well, I tried very hard to get better fuel efficiency in 4th gear but I failed. This petrol engine behaves as contemporary as my previous Corolla's engine where the best FE is achieved only at lower rpm's and on as taller gearings as possible without stalling the car. This has been my experience so far.

[dkaile]

4000KM Report



Crossed 4K KM mark today.
Issues to report - NONE (100% self driven)

Temp. Encountered - Max 47 degree Celsius
AC Temperature Set - 22 degree Celsius
Result - cool as a cucumber

City Mileage - Around 10kmpl
Best Average Highway Mileage is achieved at 2K rpm (90kmph overage speeds) - 13kmpl
Highway Mileage at 160 - 10.5kmpl
Worst City Mileage on 2km daily crawl (tennis) runs - 8kmpl

Oil Top-up - None

Value for Money - You bet!
Overall experience till date - 5 Star!

[dkaile]

Here's the 36 page April 2012 Superb brochure from the UK in case anyone's interested. It's quite detailed and most of the features have been carried on in the Indian Elegance edition except the larger wheels, Bolero stereo instead of GPS enabled Columbus, Heated Front Seats (useless in India, anyways).

It also details a very beautiful Laurin & Klement Luxury pack for the Superb which is not available here which includes even larger wheels, 10 speaker system (instead of the standard 8), Boot net, Brown Leather upholstery with ventilated front seats, TV Tuner and LED Brake Lights.

Nice reading and great to see that we in India have not been short changed much and get what is practically useful in our conditions. There's also a great list of factory fitted optional accessories which sadly we don't get in India.

PS - As the pdf file size is 3.6MB (higher than our Tbhp 3MB limit), it can be downloaded from here - brochure_superb_apr2012.pdf - 4shared.com - document sharing - download - D K

Right now I am enjoying E class comfort at a thinking man's price. Enjoy...

[dkaile]

At the Tennis Courts. This 2 km daily run is what the car mostly does so its difficult to calculate in-city mileage on such short runs. The ACC switches on the recirc mode is an irritant with most german cars I presume. So the habit has become to press 2 buttons to switch on the AC, first the Auto AC button and then the recirc button.

Contrary to belief, it's a perfect driver's car. I drive it myself 100% of the time and people who believe that it's smaller sibling, the Laura, is more of a drivers car, need to seriously drive a MT Superb. It handles beautifully and its linear acceleration is a delight everytime I press the pedal. I try to achieve best FE by keeping a eye on the MID for real time consumption but it tempts me every now and then to just floor the pedal and let the efficiency figures go marbles.

The wowing factor of the car's profile is yet to die down...

[dkaile]

Today it was raining heavily in NCR (Faridabad) and I faced the issue of windshield fogging near the lower center for the 1st time. It got really irritating after sometime. Never happened before, guess it was related to the humid weather. I lowered temperature to 24 and it still persisted for sometime. I could feel some air coming out from the top center vent even though Auto AC was on.

Any solutions how to get this sorted permanently?

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Today it was raining heavily in NCR (Faridabad) and I faced the issue of windshield fogging near the lower center for the 1st time. It got really irritating after sometime. Never happened before, guess it was related to the humid weather. I lowered temperature to 24 and it still persisted for sometime. I could feel some air coming out from the top center vent even though Auto AC was on.

Any solutions how to get this sorted permanently?

Happens regularly in Bombay as well. But fog formation is usually on the outside of the windshield, and can be remove using the wiper (happens automatically if kept at high sensitivity).

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Today it was raining heavily in NCR (Faridabad) and I faced the issue of windshield fogging near the lower center for the 1st time. It got really irritating after sometime. Never happened before, guess it was related to the humid weather. I lowered temperature to 24 and it still persisted for sometime. I could feel some air coming out from the top center vent even though Auto AC was on.

Any solutions how to get this sorted permanently?

THis is quite a common issue with the Laura. When the AC is on, the top part of the dash leaks some air, which results in fog formation on the outside part of the windshield. Many owners have reported this to the A.S.S and have got it fixed. This involves opening up of the dashboard. I was not comfortable with this. So what I do is, I keep the air flow control knob ever so slightly turned down towards the feet. This seems to stop the air leak from the dash and prevents the windshield from fogging up. It has worked for me so far, so I haven't bothered to report this issue during service.

[dkaile]

^
Thanks Hayek and Santoshbhat. Yes Hayek, the fog was forming on the putside of the windshield and disappeared with a wiper stroke but was irritating. Will talk to the ASC when I return to Meerut. Since this issue is there in both the Laura and the Superb, it cannot be a manufacturing defect but seems more like a design flaw. Will try to keep that top vent covered during monsoons to prevent fogging. Small irritant.

Also checked oil level today and it had 'dropped' to the L level and needs a top-up. Odo reading is around 4200km mark. Arshia Motors in Faridabad quoted me 970/- for a liter of their OE oil. I suppose I will try the Spare parts shops here for Castrol Magnatec Synthetic 5W/40 oil and if I don't get it then will I proceed to the ASC, otherwise I will top it up myself.