[Sam Kapasi]

It's hard to begin the description. I'd like to go with "One day I drove to..." - but I'd rather share it my way. There's plenty more people who will give you details of pickup and horsepower and whatever else it is that car enthusiasts talk about.

Me, I don't car so much about these things.

I've opened the bonnet once since I bought the car. To take a power tap out for my JBL MS-8 that's installed in the boot.

It looks nice, impressive. Everything looks like it has a place. Lots of small parts made in Germany and the Czech Republic. It looks clean and dry with a nice black cover.

Why are you holding on to the bonnet lid and looking around the engine bay?
I'm looking for the uhh.. danda to keep the bonnet up.
You don't need that. It's got things.
Things?
You know, these things that keep it up.

Ah. Bonnet Viagra.

[Sam Kapasi]

And then I drove the car.

It is amazing to drive the car. She floats. There's hardly any noise inside the car. The car feels quick and responsive, rather than sluggish like a big ship.

This DSG thing is supercool. I've tried all the DSG options.

Normal driving is done in D. The car takes off in D1 and then the gears change progressively. It goes not to D2, D3, D4, D5 and then (I was surprised) D5, D6, D7 and D8. It's like 8 forward gears. COOL!! 3 gears came for FREE!!

While driving if you feel like masti you can muck around with the paddle shifts on the steering while. I do that when I'm alone. Pull the paddles on the steering and the display changes from D1 to just 1, 2, 3 and so on.

I paddle the gear upwards and watch the tachometer rise unexpectedly.

Michael the car is overheating and losing traction. You've got to keep the revs below 18000 rpm.
I'm sorry Ross, I cannot let Fisi pass.
But Michael, the engine is losing pressure and heating up, it could be dangerous to your life!
Pushing harder as I drop into 5th gear manually No Ross, leave me be, I know what I'm doing. I know what I need to do to win this race.

After some time I get bored of the game. It's hard to pretend to be an F1 driver when there's a spitting rickshaw-wala in front of you.

When I stop fooling with the paddles, the car quickly realizes I'm bored of playing the F1 game and goes back to D1 with a sigh.

Sometimes I miss having my hand on the gear shaft. While driving I slide the gear shaft to the left with a dramatic thunk. Then I can change gears by pushing the gear shaft forward or back. These are exciting times indeed.

Once I put the gear shift into S mode. I'm assuming it meant sports mode. I did that and slammed the accelerator down. The car lurched forward and went madly fast. Oh it was such a rush to listen to the sounds of screaming girls in the back of the car.

That day about 1 lac of the money spent on the car was vasooled.

[samyakmodi]

Bonnet Viagra!!! now that's novel for sure!!

again made a mistake of opening your thread during office hours. but luckily you have just posted twice since i last came here.
i think i m suffering from mixed-feeling-syndrome. mind says that "u r lucky sam hasn't written much otherwise you would end up reading, re-reading and hoping to re-re-read the entire thread again"
heart says - buss aaj ke liye itna hi?!? bring on some more.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Normal driving is done in D. The car takes off in D1 and then the gears change progressively. It goes not to D2, D3, D4, D5 and then (I was surprised) D5, D6, D7 and D8. It's like 8 forward gears. COOL!! 3 gears came for FREE!!

Either your eyes are deceiving you or you were drinking and driving Because there ain't no D8, its a 7 speed DSG.

[tsk13]

Sam, when is the ICE thread coming up? We're looking forward to JBLman's JBLfied Superb.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Because there ain't no D8, its a 7 speed DSG.

Oh, then I must be mistaken. So I got only 2 gears free along with the first 5. My apologies. I was busy talking to Ross Brawn.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The car has already suffered its first minor mishap.

The story goes as such. We had an event by the beach in Goa, a dealer conference. Part of that event's purpose was to introduce them to the unit in my Skoda Superb - since it was the only car that had this installed correctly. My car is no demo car and believe me, I was not looking forward to having hundreds of people sitting on that leather. I'm funny that way.

So here's what it looked like.





Akbar drove the car safely to Goa, there was no mishap and nothing to report. It was a fun drive.








The marketing team and I were in Goa for a long while, as three cars were brought to Goa. Of these 2 were driven from Mumbai.

I (please try and understand my reasons) chose to fly there with my team as my driver drove the superb to Goa.


Now I come to my story. On the way back home I chose not to drive either. This time however, it was in order to rent bullets and drive through Goa after a long and tiring event.
On the way home, one tyre was destroyed.

I'm not sure how and why. All I got from Akbar was phattar laga, tyre burst ho gaya.
That was upsetting. What was more upsetting was to purchase another Goodyear NCT something for the car.

What was MOST upsetting was that my spare wheel was an ugly black steel monstrosity that looked like a wheel from a Maruti Van.

Shame on you Skoda! I thought I had 5 nice alloy wheels. -10 points to you.

And so it happened that I had to buy a new tyre to fit on my ugly black spare wheel.

So far, that's the only bad thing that's happened to the car.

[Sam Kapasi]

So with this post I'm approaching the end of my review for the next 2 months.

Everything works great. It is an awesome car. Both from the driver's seat and from the rear seat.
Every morning I pick up S & Z, 2 lovely girls who are part of the marketing team. They sit in the rear as I listen to my MS-8 in the passenger seat, singing and/or dancing as usual.

If you ever see a white superb with a large man in the passenger seat pretending to play the drums and guitar simultaneously as he sings and a blonde and a brunette half asleep in the back seat, you will have found my car.
Or you might find me alone in the rear seat as Akbar drives.

No you won't see me. I like to raise the sunshade on the rear windows and sit like a moviestar in my car, wondering how the front seat is so far away from me.

It might be raining, but you will not see Akbar reaching out for the wiper switch. he doesn't need to put the wipers on, they turn on automatically when water is detected on the windshield. The speed and cycle of the wipers is also determined automatically depending on how much rain there is falling on the windshield.

The sensitivity of the wipers to water on the windshield is adjustable with a little half-rotary switch on the wiper stalk, similar to the half--rotary switch on the other side that controls the speed you plan to leave the cruise control on.

And that more or less explains what the new Skoda Superb is all about.

The End.

-------------------------------------------------------

Thank you reading my rather informal and stretched review. I plan to write again after 2 months talking about further experiences. At this moment everything works beautifully and I have no complaints or anything but praises for the car.

If something does go wrong and if Skoda service does not live up to the standards this beauty of a car deserves, you will be the first to know.

Cheers and keep driving,

The Yeti® a.k.a. Sam Kapasi.

[holysmoke]

Sam,
Just one simple question. Have you used the umbrella yet?


And a question for everybody else...
Does anybody know whether the superb comes with Launch control in the DSG? Do all DSG's come with Launch control inbuilt?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by holysmoke

Sam,
Just one simple question. Have you used the umbrella yet?


And a question for everybody else...
Does anybody know whether the superb comes with Launch control in the DSG? Do all DSG's come with Launch control inbuilt?

Not yet. But I've heard that even if the umbrella is wet you can still stick it in the door and it drips through a special wet channel constructed into the door that lets the water out while you drive.
Stuff like that gets me all excited and stuff.

The Superb DSG does indeed come with launch control as well as ESP and ABS. These features can also be switched off if you choose. Not the ABS, the other features.

[SmartCat]

This Akbar guy seems to be having more fun (look at his Goa photos again) with your Skoda than you.

From what I hear, some manufacturers put a smaller wheel or an ugly steel wheel to discourage people from using the spare wheel for a long time. By their logic, spare wheel ought to be used only for emergencies. Nothing to do with cost-cutting as such.

[holysmoke]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Not yet. But I've heard that even if the umbrella is wet you can still stick it in the door and it drips through a special wet channel constructed into the door that lets the water out while you drive.
Stuff like that gets me all excited and stuff.

Yep. The umbrella is a quality one too. The honeymoon period for this car is quite long, because you discover a new feature everyday.. one that you had not known about.

This is what got me all excited.

YouTube - superb xenons moving + headlight washer

[rxpaul]

Wow....a great thread. I've just seen it today and have spent the best part of about 3 hrs reading through. Thank you Yeti, thank you T-Bhp and thank you Skoda Superb for making the smiles of t-Bhp members (well some of 'em) come back to Skoda. What with all the Skoda bashing going on it was a little tough for a Skoda lover like me.

Btw is it possible to change the consump units of an el-cheapo 1.8 TPI also to km/lit ?

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

At this moment everything works beautifully and I have no complaints or anything but praises for the car.

Thank God you listened to me for once.

If something does go wrong and if Skoda service does not live up to the standards this beauty of a car deserves, you will be the first to know.

(Let's hope not) but that's what we are waiting for

*runs away to hide in a corner that the Yeti can't find *

EDIT - Just noticed, Akbar is dressed like his Boss too -- he sure is learning fast !

[ivar1951]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

And then I drove the car.
It is amazing to drive the car. She floats. There's hardly any noise inside the car. The car feels quick and responsive, rather than sluggish like a big ship.
T.

Did it really "float?" I would be very disappointed if my Superb did that. When a car floats, it is usually not a good sign. It should remain stable and under control.

[pranava999]

Sam, when can we expect the ICE and MS8 install thread?