[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by androdev

Btw, about the last mileage you reported, is most of the route downhill? Usually round-trip numbers are more reliable because one-way numbers could be influenced by the terrain. Not saying the numbers are impossible - but I experienced this in Bangalore. Bangalore is at a higher elevation - so the FE figures differ based on the direction I am traveling.

No, the stretch between ambala to delhi isn't downhill. Infact around 50km of stretch between ambala to delhi has just two lanes operational as highway is being expanded. Also my last trip includes 4 stoppages at red lights & 2 at toll gates & traffic congestion on the 2 lane stretches. So the only trick i followed to get good FE figures was to drive in Manual mode, up shifting below 1.5k rpm. In manual mode i could shift up to 6th gear at 50km/h whereas in D mode it shifts up at around 70km/h.

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Car Mania, being an FE maniac myself, I am a huge fan of the Laura for a long time now and your FE figures have me salivating.

How many passengers have you travelled with in it and for what distances? I ask this since rear passenger room is probably the only reservation I have about the Laura.

On highways 60% of driving is covered by me & my wife alone, & remaining 40% with full load(rear seats occupied by 3 passengers). Center hump is uneasy for the person seating in middle on a long drive. Overall the rear seats are comfortable & have a fair amount of head room & leg room as compared to cruze.

Originally Posted by adi_petrolhead

its mazing how this beast of an engine returns such high FE figures. its worth all the extra money spent over a Cruze AT!

Ya mate, you are absolutely right. I never felt i was wrong in choosing laura over cruze. Though laura is way behind when it comes to equipment & feature list, but then after driving this beauty i dont miss those features at all.

[.cArMaNiA]

Yesterday while driving in S mode i observed something unusual. When i was revving up in S mode the car soon shifted up in 5th gear as usual till i reached 140km/h, after this due to traffic i let go the accelerator pedal & it immediately shifted up to 6th gear till the speed dropped to 100km/h & it again shifted down to 5th gear. I was under impression that in S mode the car never shifts up beyond 5th gear as mentioned in the manual. I guess this happened with me for the first time. After this i tried 2-3 times again, & the above sequence followed. Can anybody comment on this issue please?

[Akki_5]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

Yesterday while driving in S mode i observed something unusual. When i was revving up in S mode the car soon shifted up in 5th gear as usual till i reached 140km/h, after this due to traffic i let go the accelerator pedal & it immediately shifted up to 6th gear till the speed dropped to 100km/h & it again shifted down to 5th gear. I was under impression that in S mode the car never shifts up beyond 5th gear as mentioned in the manual. I guess this happened with me for the first time. After this i tried 2-3 times again, & the above sequence followed. Can anybody comment on this issue please?

Ofcourse the car shifts into 6th be it D or S mode. The only difference is, in D it would upshift at lower RPM and in S, it would upshift at relatively higher RPM. But if you let go of accelerator, the car realizes that you don't need power and will upshift to optimize efficiency. Try doing 180+ km/h, in S mode also it would be in 6th gear.

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by Akki_5

Ofcourse the car shifts into 6th be it D or S mode. The only difference is, in D it would upshift at lower RPM and in S, it would upshift at relatively higher RPM. But if you let go of accelerator, the car realizes that you don't need power and will upshift to optimize efficiency. Try doing 180+ km/h, in S mode also it would be in 6th gear.

Thanks for clarifying the doubt, Actually i think i did not notice this before as mostly i drive in D mode. Also i got confused after reading the manual(page no.118, which states " the gearbox does not shift into 6th gear in position S, because the maximum speed is reached with the 5th gear). But the asterisk at the end refers that above is not valid for vehicles with automatic gearbox DSG.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

page no.118, which states " the gearbox does not shift into 6th gear in position S, because the maximum speed is reached with the 5th gear). But the asterisk at the end refers that above is not valid for vehicles with automatic gearbox DSG.

So what kind of gearbox is this valid for???
Non-DSG automatic?

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

So what kind of gearbox is this valid for???
Non-DSG automatic?

That is still a mystery my friend,,,i dont understand which type of laura has S mode in it, but it does not have a automatic gearbox DSG, or it may be possible that i am not able to understand the below underlined quote.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

That is still a mystery my friend,,,i dont understand which type of laura has S mode in it, but it does not have a automatic gearbox DSG

Absolutely.
Very strange.

So do they sell Laura (Octavia 2) with traditional AT (or CVT or some other type of AT, that too with 6 speeds)? And that one does not actually need a 6'th gear except for FE reasons???

Thanks for putting up the scanned copy of the manual. In any case, Skoda manuals are very informative. In fact, this reminds me - the Laura manual is same for all engine/transmission options, I will go home and check if my manual mentions the same, may be I overlooked because mine is TSi (6 speed MT) and everytime I bump into the pages that describe the DSG, I become so envious that I just flip over.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

This is the arrangement in skoda laura. Accelerator Pedal is placed at the floor itself. I find this arrangement more comfortable on long drives.
Attachment 829582

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Have a look at the accelerator pedal in a bus or a truck. Additionally, in Laura it is drive by wire so there is a wire connected to the pedal (should be a sensor in the pedal that indicates how much it's pressed).

Yes, definitely this type is much more comfortable than the usual hanging types.
Even Honda Civic has the same setup. They call it as Organ type accelerator or something like that.

[.cArMaNiA]

Inspite of driving to chandigarh from delhi a couple of times, i was very eager to drive my laura on a very long drive. Somehow i was never satisfied with the 500km round trip to chandigarh. I always felt like driving this beast to its limits someday.So planned for a week road trip to udaipur from delhi.
Day1 13th nov
So on sunday we started at 6am in the morning reached jaipur by 11am, had our lunch & again started at 1145am. Finally reached udaipur by 1600hrs. Road from jaipur to udaipur is just awsome(touched 190km/hr uncountable times, one can very easily get an average speed of 100km/hr from jaipur to udaipur). Total distance covered from my home to RTDC hotel in udaipur was 704kms. We took almost 9hrs of driving to reach udaipur. we spent the evening at fateh sagar lake.

Day2 Monday
local sight seeing in udaipur.

Day3 Tuesday
Road trip to MOUNT ABU(guru shikar) & back to udaipur(Distance covered around 400kms).


On way to guru shikhar


Day4 Wednesday
At 9am we left for jaisamand lake which is 60km from udaipur city. Reached there by 1030am, spent an hour over there & then we were on the way back to delhi via udaipur. After covering a distance of around 60km from udaipur, my mom saw signboard showing distance to mumbai 867kms. The signboard, quality of roads & the temptation to drive the beast for few days more, changed our plan & i took a U turn, and now we were heading for unplanned trip to mumbai. Bearing in mind that we had to be back in delhi by saturday, i had to drive really fast and safe. We again passed udaipur around 3pm. Touched speed of 210km/hr after entering gujrat border on way to ahemdabad. Reached vadodra by 0730pm. Took an hour break, had our dinner. Continued our journey to mumbai.

jaisamand lake



Day5 Thursday
Reached hotel at Nariman point,mumbai at 2am on thursday(Distance from udaipur 802kms). Woke up at 11am, i frequently go to mumbai, but it felt so good to be in mumbai in my own car. It was hard to beleive. Spend the entire day in mumbai relaxing around.

At Marine drive

Day6 Friday

Early morning at 5am we left for lonavla to avoid traffic congestion. reached lonavla by 0730am. Met my brother in law over there who was shocked to see us driving all the way to his college from delhi.
We left lonavla by around 11am. Got packed some eatables from Mcdonalds at 1215pm from khargar.
I continued driving, we took a hault at ahmedabad - vadodra expressway at around 0630pm, had refreshment & refuelled. Reached RTDC hotel in udaipur at 1130pm.

At lonavla



Day7 Sarurday
Started again at 10am from udaipur. Reached jaipur by 0330pm. From jaipur to delhi stretch we encountered hell lot of traffic congestion. Reached home by 11pm.


Summary of the 7 days road trip

We were 4 persons in the car, me, my wife, my younger brother & my mom.
Boot space was fully packed. Car was almost fully loaded.

Total distance covered by car 4120km.
The beast guzzled 265lts of diesel for the whole trip.
Through out the road trip i was flooring the accelerator pedal, so she gave an overall FE 15.55km/lt, which i think is just awsome for the way i was driving.
Touched a max speed of 210km/hr with still some reserve left in the pedal.
After 200km/hr it accelerates at slow pace. May be the car was fully loaded so she took considerable time from 200km/h -210km/h.
But i can bet that she can easily do 220km/hr with 2 persons.

Refueled her 7 times whenever reserve fuel lamp was on.

Rear seats are very comfortable. Not even once my mom complained.
DSG just rocks. Its a breeze to drive on highways as well. I frequently used S mode & Manual mode. I could easily drive 15-16hrs a day without much fatigue.

I finally lost count of how many times i stopped at toll gates, but apart from delhi-jaipur stretch, all the tolls paid were worth it for the quality of roads we drove through.

[neoonwheels]

Man !!! This is awesome ! You did Udaipur - Lonavala just for fun

[vinj14]

Sounds like a wonderful drive!! Im jealous !!! You've covered more distance than i did in 4 months in 4 days!! Yup..my car has only done 4000kms! Cant wait to take her out on a loooong drive!!

[.cArMaNiA]

Originally Posted by vinj14

Sounds like a wonderful drive!! Im jealous !!! You've covered more distance than i did in 4 months in 4 days!! Yup..my car has only done 4000kms! Cant wait to take her out on a loooong drive!!

Yup, 4000kms in 7 days is a looong drive for me finally. Actually even my car had done just 4000kms in last 3 months, so i planned for this trip, else this beast is not used too often in city driving. Laura is being driven just for driving pleasure. Whenever i get bored of the polo, i uncover my laura & out she is to give a total satisfaction.

[diesel_power]

That was one amazing long long drive mate. I haven't drive the Skoda yet but your trip has assured me that its very comfortable.

I dream to drive like this. Whole India from Mumbai to Rajasthan, to Delhi and Himachal, Sikkim, Kolkatta, Kerla and to Mumbai back. Will surely do it someday.

diesel.

[.cArMaNiA]

I got the stock horns(pe pe) replaced by a set of new mini trumpet(high tone & low tone). Purchased the trumpets from Volkawagen workshop as skoda doesn't provide mini trumpet in laura any more.(cost cutting i guess). I fell in love with the stock horns provided in polo which we purchased last month, so got laura's horn replaced finally. It was grueling task to procure a set of mini trumpet from volkswagen showroom as they donot have permission to counter sell the spares, but somehow managed to get, that too with a warranty of 4 years.