It's been a long time since I posted an update. I plan on posting my 45k service experience in my next post (Spoiler Alert: It was another great experience)
I just want to pen down some of my thoughts as I completed 2 years of ownership. As I have been posting, I havent driven the car much in the past 1 year. The first one year, I covered 36,600 kms and in the second year, I struggled to cover 8,000 kms. The main reason was due to the fact that I now have two kids and I had to help out at home. Leaving little to no time for long drives. Work or otherwise.
I've pretty much stopped meeting my vRS buddies on drives even though they drive occasionally, but the initial excitement has worn off and everyone has settled down.
The car itself is still brilliant. Feels tight and nice when I drive. I drove it to the Chennai racetrack in July and it felt incredible. The car just flies when you want it to. The brakes are good. They stop strongly and with the right amount of bite. Not too sharp, and not dead either.
The steering is a bit light on the highways but I've gotten used to it. The suspension is just fantastic. Keeps the car steady and planted when I am clipping along at highway speeds.
The roads(

) in Bangalore are in terrible shape and I was feeling quite uncomfortable in the car off late. Recently, one of my tyres was looking underinflated but when I checked, it was fine. Around 33-34. For the first time, I opened the fuel filler cap and saw the recommended pressures. Skoda recommends 35-36 PSI officially and if the driver wants better fuel economy, they recommend 39-40 PSI. Both of these are not for full load. But part load. Full load is almost 48 PSI at the rear and 38 PSI in the front.
I decided to try 38 PSI on my car and honestly, it's made a big difference. the car rides so much better over the Lunar surface we Bangaloreans call roads.
I was flabbergasted that I didnt think of this sooner.
The car is a very nice place to sit in and because I've been driving more in Bangalore, I have been spending more time inside. The AC works well enough for India but there are times I felt it could have been stronger. In Bangalore, we missed summer this year and I never felt the AC system was really worked hard.
Since I've been spending more time inside the car, I've been listening to more music and cranking up the volumes. The sound system is strictly adequate. It's good for an OEM system but when I'm listening to music I know well and love, it falls short by a big margin.
The sunroof beading and door beading squeaking issue has also quietened down. I havent applied Gummipflege in many months but I havent heard many annoying squeaks in a long time.
The interior is still tight and rattle-free. If at all I have a complaint, it's the right side scroll wheel on my steering wheel which works well only occasionally. At this moment, it has stopped working.
Except for the tacky looking shiny black buttons for the AC and related operations, the interior looks very classy and elegant and the big screen surely helps give the interior a modern look. I am glad I still have physical buttons and dials for handling the AC.
The service experience at TAFE which was the most worrying point before I purchased the car has been exceptionally good. I cant believe that my luck has lasted 2 years and the guys at TAFE continue to work honestly and sincerely to perform the usual services.
There are minor bugbears like charging the customer for small consumables like the steering wheel cover, seat cover, gear knob cover, but overall, I am very happy.
The new front office manager, Mr Krishna Murthy takes very good care of us and gets us inside as soon as possible.
More details in my upcoming post.
I have ended up adding a couple of minor damages to the car. Purely carelessness. Kerbed the wheel once and another time I scraped a small metal board somewhere. The edge of that metal board took off the paint on my rear right door. Smack bang in the middle of the door.
Apart from that, I continue to get my car washed only at Feynlab. If not Feynlab, then I wash it myself at home. The car continues to look stunning.
I felt at one point a couple of months back that the water beading of the Kamikaze coating had reduced, so I used the P&S Beadmaker which I got from the US in October and holy hell! It brought back the gloss and the shine which I felt the car had lost. The water beading was also back to where I wanted it.
