[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

We left the car to cure in the garage for two days and later collected it. What a sight it was!

Attachment 2017246

Congrats on the half century! If I had a car which was shining like that it would take a lifetime to do 50k I guess since I would think twice before taking it out of the garage. So what plans next?

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I think its time for you to upgrade to an RS245 and for one of us to camp outside your place to buy this car!

Hahahaha.... Good joke! That is massively overpriced. Sure, it's a great car but not worth the 50% premium. I paid 31 OTR in Bangalore for the 230.

Originally Posted by audioholic

Congrats on the half century! If I had a car which was shining like that it would take a lifetime to do 50k I guess since I would think twice before taking it out of the garage. So what plans next?

Hahaha... no plans at all! Hoping to drive more this year as everyone's scared of flying and public transport!

[Nikhilb2008]

Just a simple post with pictures.

Got some new number plates gifted by a good friend. It also came with a small keychain. These number plates are the Gel number plates. They look pretty good.

They are stuck on the car with double sided tape and look really nice. The keychain is a nice touch. However, the standard vRS key is quite bulky and I dont want to make it bulkier by using a keychain, so the keychain is safe at home for now.

[Nikhilb2008]

The pictures on TBHP dont do it justice as I've had to compress them a lot.

This video on YouTube might do more justice when viewed in full HD.

https://youtu.be/_wKsFC_33zE

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Wow! Nice.

The alloys are really popping against the colour now.

00:22 - What was that expression from SunnyBoi in the reflection of the mirror?

[arjunrudra]

Hi Nikhil and other VRS owners,

A question for you. I have a vrs with the Michelin Pilot sport 4 tyres 225/45 R17.

Its generally only 2 people travelling in the car. What is the correct PSI for the tyre ?

Kindly advise.

[Mr.Perera]

Originally Posted by arjunrudra

Hi Nikhil and other VRS owners,

A question for you. I have a vrs with the Michelin Pilot sport 4 tyres 225/45 R17.

Its generally only 2 people travelling in the car. What is the correct PSI for the tyre ?

Kindly advise.

I normally keep it at 32 PSI on all 4 tyres. AFAIK anything between 30 to 34 is fine and see which one offers the best balance for your use.

[amar.madhavan]

Originally Posted by arjunrudra

Hi Nikhil and other VRS owners,

A question for you. I have a vrs with the Michelin Pilot sport 4 tyres 225/45 R17.

Its generally only 2 people travelling in the car. What is the correct PSI for the tyre ?

Kindly advise.

Hello Arjun,
I have the same set of tyres & use 32 psi for all tyres. I also drive with one or two people most of the times. Happy with the pressure.

Regards

[arjunrudra]

Originally Posted by amar.madhavan

Hello Arjun,
I have the same set of tyres & use 32 psi for all tyres. I also drive with one or two people most of the times. Happy with the pressure.

Regards

Thanks for the reply Amar. Also another question I have for you and other VRS owners.

I just noticed yesterday that one of the bold nut covers on my front left alloys look different. Picture attached below and i did some research and found another vehicle ready for delivery which had the same issue from the left rear tyre. is this common practice ? or has the cover fallen off ?

Kindly help. Thanks in advance.

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by arjunrudra

Thanks for the reply Amar. Also another question I have for you and other VRS owners.

I just noticed yesterday that one of the bold nut covers on my front left alloys look different. Picture attached below and i did some research and found another vehicle ready for delivery which had the same issue from the left rear tyre. is this common practice ? or has the cover fallen off ?

Kindly help. Thanks in advance.

This is not a bolt cover which looks different. The cover itself has fallen of somewhere. The part that you see is the wheel lug nut.

[amar.madhavan]

Originally Posted by arjunrudra

Thanks for the reply Amar. Also another question I have for you and other VRS owners.

I just noticed yesterday that one of the bold nut covers on my front left alloys look different. Picture attached below and i did some research and found another vehicle ready for delivery which had the same issue from the left rear tyre. is this common practice ? or has the cover fallen off ?

Kindly help. Thanks in advance.

The cover has fallen off. This had happened twice to me. I got the new cover from Skoda.

[TheGearBox]

What a great thread! And that blue is my favorite color on the Octavia RS. Although I must admit, I prefer the design of the stock wheels over the BBS's you have installed, but to each his own. Cheers!

[Nikhilb2008]

Phew, it's been a long time since I updated this thread with anything meaningful.

I've barely driven the car over the last 2 years. The first one year, my car covered 36,600 kms and since then, I've been able to add only 18,000 kms to the odometer.

Octavia vRS 3rd year anniversary 54,000 kms.

The car was delivered around 5:00 pm on 1st September and to celebrate it’s third birthday, I took it on a long business drive.

Before that however, it was time for a service.

I got the 52,500 kms service done recently and it was by far the quickest service experience I have had at any dealership. I was in and out in less than 2 hours. Honestly, this was simply exceptional. Yet again, the team at TAFE knows how to take care of a passionate enthusiast. This service was actually done a little bit before my own schedule of 52,500. It had been exactly a year since the previous service and I decided to get it done even though I had just covered 7,000 kms.

The car has met every expectation I have had in the last three years. Skoda, actually TAFE Access Limited has exceeded every expectation I have had with regard to service and basic maintenance. Thanks a lot to everyone at TAFE. Mr Krishna, the current Front Office Manager has been phenomenal. A lot of other Skoda owners as well rave about him. On the Skoda Bangalore group, everyone is thankful to Krishna and he is really energetic and genuinely interested in doing the best for the customer. Once I made a comment that billing takes longer than the service at TAFE. At the next service, Krishna actually remembered, tried his best to speed up billing and then asked me if I was happy with the speed.

If only every Skoda manager had taken this interest, they would have enjoyed the best service reputation in this country.

The usual was covered. Engine oil change, oil filter and inspection of the brake pads.





This time I was too distracted at work and forgot to take my Motul Xcess oil for the oil change and I got the regular Castrol oil filled in.

After I returned from my North Karnataka trip, I needed to change the wiper blades. I spoke to Mr Naveen, the service manager at TAFE and he immediately billed it and kept it at the security booth. I got the payment transferred and then arranged for a Dunzo pickup and delivery to my house.

A few days after this, I realised that given my upcoming driving business trips, it would be safer to have a set of break pads also ready with me in case I need to change it at short notice. The same arrangement was followed, payment was made online and Dunzo picked up and delivered the brake pads to my house.



Absolutely phenomenal response and service from TAFE during the entire ownership of the car.

Thanks to Mr Naveen the service manager, Mr Venkat and Mr Sanjeev who run the bodyshop and always drop by to talk to me and speak for a bit when I visit.

And Mr Jose Thomas, the VP who I am sure has played a role in developing such a team.

Our other friend Shankar Narayanan who was in the spares department unfortunately was transferred to Chennai within TAFE. Well, Chennais gain and Bangalore's loss!

Anyway, coming back to the car....

It was after months that I was taking it out and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive. Left on Monday, the 31st of August towards Hubli.

I spent 6 days on the road. Covering Hubli, Belgaum, Bijapur and Gulbarga. On the 7th day, I drove back from Gulbarga to Bangalore via Mehbubnagar-Kurnool-Anantpur.

A few days before leaving, I got the tyres and wheels balanced and the car aligned.




The front toe had changed a lot. No idea why. The rear camber and toe settings were AFTER adjustment. I personally prefer a more aggressive negative camber at the rear which is the standard setting on the international RS variants.

I also installed a Sensairy TPMS from an Indian company called Tymtix.

This is basically a version 2.0 from their previous system which I tried in 2018. In 2018, they used a normal valve which held the sensor. After some high speed driving, the valve started leaking and I had to use my donut tyre to drive back to BLR.

I had then returned my TPMS set and the parent company Tymtix was courteous enough to give me a full refund as we had installed it and used it as per their guidelines.

After 2 years, they approached me in July asking me to try out a new and improved system. They have made the sensor lighter and are using a completely different valve as well. The valve is very similar to what we see on Porsches and BMWs. It’s shorter, it’s made of aluminium and feels sturdier. It needs to be completely rigid and not tear or deform because of the weight of the TPMS sensor.





The sensor also is a new design. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy and communicates with a mobile phone.





The app that Sensairy has designed is very elegant and simple. I personally love it’s interface. The old version of the app also did not have an easy way to move your tyres/wheels from front to back or left to right while rotating your tyres. The new app makes it very simple.





What personally makes this nice for me is that unlike the stuff available on AliExpress, this is developed and made by a BLR based company called TymTix. They have a production plant in Whitefield. Of course, some components could be outsourced from across India or outsid India. But their R&D, marketing and service team are based in Indiranagar. I have met the key people in this organisation and I thoroughly enjoyed my interaction with them.

Installation is pretty simple. Install the valve and tighten the top part by hand. Then screw in the sensor to the valve. Then holding the screwdriver, tighten the valve's cover with another wrench.







Anyway, on this drive to Hubli, I was doing some consistent high speeds on the Tumkur to Chitradurga stretch. Last time, it was on this stretch that the valve gave way and I had to switch to my spare tyre. This time, absolutely no issues.

I deliberately tinkered with the pressure on the front right and it was consistently about 0.7-0.9 PSI lesser than the front left. The below two screenshots show that the readings are consistent.




The below screenshot shows an almost perfect reading. This was after about 1 hour and 20 minutes of driving from BLR towards Chitradurga on my way to Shimoga.


The below screenshot is after a long stretch of some aggressive driving.


The entire 1700+kms, the TPMS didn’t give me any cause for worry. It saw some consistent highway high speed driving, some absolutely terrible roads(from Gulbarga to the Hyd-BLR highway), some nice state highways and the TPMS stopped being at the back of my mind after Day 2.

I am convinced on this product now.

As with anything in life, your mileage may vary, but a few friends who bought it after my recommendation seem to be happy as well.

The one problem is that this app will never be available on Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. That is because Apple and Google are only allowing music apps or chat apps to be on their platforms for automobiles. Tymtix does support Android users with an unofficial APK if anyone is interested for Android Auto. A friend used it and says the day mode looks bad but the night mode looks good.

TymTix also has a Heads Up Display under development, but I was told not to hold my breath as it wont be released anytime soon.

Before my North KA trip, I went to Feynlab's Felicity Detailing Studio for a full wash. I had made a mistake when I installed these new number plates almost a year ago. I had not removed the brown paper and stuck the plates as it is using 3M Double sided tape. During the wash I noticed that the rear number plate had become a bit loose.

The guys at Felicity were very helpful and cleaned up the rear number plate, applied a good amount of 3M Double sided tape and installed it perfectly.











The car performed superbly on these two trips. Didn’t put a foot wrong. I am really enjoying this car. When I am in the mood to have fun, it is a hilariously fast car. When I am in the mood for some twisties, the car keeps up and makes it obvious I don’t have enough talent to exploit the capabilities of the car. When I just want to drive to the next city after a long day’s work, it is calm, relaxing, comfortable and the sound system is more than enjoyable for me.

On my recent drive to Mangalore and back, I especially enjoyed my car. The drive and the roads were nothing great but on the return journey from Hassan, it was post sunset and it had started raining. Heavily at some points. The car didn’t give me a single scary moment. I had a very well drive, fast Hyundai Venue 1.0 Turbo DCT in front of me as a pace car (some random car on the highway who I anointed as my pace car because of his speed) and he was clearing up the traffic ahead of me for me. I was head-banging to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and later to Joe Satriani and it was so enjoyable! Even though I was driving fast and covering a lot of ground, the car was perfectly stable, planted and safe. Braking is exceptional in those rare moments where badly placed barricades caught me off-guard.

Sudden lane changes due to a dog or a random two wheeler were executed quickly without any drama.

I cant imagine any car that is faster than this from Point A to Point B. And when driven peacefully on the highways (even at good speeds), the car returns good fuel economy. Which means minimum fuel stops.

Before my Mangalore trip, I requested Sunny to help me coat my windshield with a hydrophobic coating.

We used a Proklear windshield coating.

I've also been using Power 99 before my long drives. It's been such a long time since I drove on the highways, I want to enjoy the full power of the car. I've also carried Proctane to be mixed with the normal fuel I fill up on my road trips.



In these COVID times, just to ensure I dont bring germs inside my car after my meetings, I carry a 20 litre can of clean water. This is for hand washing purposes only by the side of the road or something. I am not a fan of sanitisers and prefer to carry soap and use clean water to wash my hands.

[Nikhilb2008]

Another post with just pictures, nothing much more to say.

I plan to use this car heavily in the coming months and I hope the car stays as reliable and trustworthy as it has been till now.

Many cars want to stand next to my blue vRS and take pictures. I'm happy to oblige of course...












At a Shell petrol pump in Hubli.



Somewhere on the state highways of North Karnataka.









Final reading for the North KA trip


A dirty, well used car.


Twin with slightly different wheels!


Excellent water beading after a good car wash!


Water repellant windshield.


A fellow vRS owner in Shimoga. He owns an vRS 245 though. (Masks were removed only for a pic. We took all relevant precautions)


Team BHP meet with samaspire and Dr Naren


Special thanks to Samarth for giving me a full tour of Manipal.


Somewhere on the road between Mangalore and Hassan


Total trip statistics for BLR-Shimoga-thirthahalli-Udupi-Mangalore-Hassan-BLR


Mangalore to BLR via Hassan. Multiple stops were made to meet clients in various towns along the route. Including 4-5 customers in Hassan city.

[rahulb22]

Hey Nikhil,

I guess if you leave the car near the showroom, people may mistake it for a new one. In fact, it might worry them, since it looks better than new.

I also installed the Sensairy kit on my Crysta in Jul 2020 along with a new set of XM2s at Madhus. The experience has been good so far. In fact, already a saviour, as it helped me catch a puncture on my trip to Coorg last weekend. There was a nail in the tyre but the air was flowing out really slow. If not for the sensors, I could not have discovered it. However, it was quite sad to have a puncture on a brand new tire.

Cheers
Rahulb22