The car lets you munch miles with no strain both on itself and the driver. Both ways, I could do 450kms with one break on non expressway roads.
BHPian audioholic recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Long time, no update from my side – Means all is well
I finished 7500kms on the Odo in eight months of owning the Slavia. Thats in line with my expectation considering I do not commute to work daily and most of my highway runs also make use of our Crysta. That said, I got a chance to take out the Slavia for a 1000km drive to the west cost between Kundapura and Udupi with a ghat run both ways and a mix of great to non existent roads. Had a blast with the car throughout.
The car lets you munch miles with no strain both on itself and the driver. Both ways, I could do 450kms with one break on non expressway roads and attended an evening function without breaking a sweat. Spent two days in the middle roaming around beaches. At no point of time do you have to push the accelerator hard or revv the car high. It just picks up speed graciously and passes through everything and anything that comes on the way. Ride is very settled and everyone who rides in the car compliments how comfortable the ride is at high speeds and how well the speeds are masked by the car. The car is very quiet even after crossing 100 and you can enjoy a calm conversation.
AC worked flawlessly even in the coastal heat and could cool a baked car within 3mins of running. Only after which I realized that the AC was still in Normal mode. Aggressive mode is even better. Though there is an AC fix announced, I will wait until they roll it out to quite a few cars. For me this configuration works well.
Tyres and steering response:
After the tyre change and steering mod, steering is excellent and weighs up very well. Before this, there was a need to do slight corrections on the steering on highway due to its lightness. But now thats history. Steering is as precise as any other German car at all speeds. Have hit a few potholes hard and there is no issue with bulging or cuts.
Braking:
I had explained earlier that the Goodyears used to squeal under moderate-hard braking and the rear would lose track. With the Vredesteins that issue is resolved and I had two incidents where I had to do hard braking so far in the last 5k kms with the tyres and they have held composure well and grip very well on tarmac.
Traction issue:
Only issue I have observed with these tyres is that on lose surfaces the traction is poor, thanks to the tarmac oriented tread pattern. So on muddy roads it tends up locking for a brief while which is the same with my Crysta as well.
The car got stuck on a pit of sand by the side of a road where I had asked a friend to stop while I was shooting a video and that royally swallowed the car. He didn’t notice that there was sand since next to it there was another car parked which was on solid soil. Of course the tyres had no fault here since the sand was too loose and maybe only off road tyres would have helped. It was post sunset by the time I got back to the car and with windows rolled up, I tried reversing back to the road and there was no movement. Realised that both the tyres got bogged down in the sand and the car was resting on the suspension bed Nothing worked like shovelling the sand around the wheels and packing it with stones.
Called Skoda RSA thinking if they can send me a recovery truck but they would take time. A Bhpian friend already had dispatched help from nearby with an SUV and a tow rope. However, few helpful locals appeared out of nowhere with a thick rope meant to anchor boats. However they did not have any tractor or other heavy vehicle and instead told me we would take help from a vehicle passing by. There was a Nexon that came with a family and due to an element of surprise they agreed to help. With a slight tug from the Nexon the car got back traction and in two seconds was back on its power. Profusely thanked the couple and the locals and continued to drive with everything in order.
Noted to myself to get carried away again and also to drive by myself all the time to take better call of the surroundings. Thankfully no damages incurred and car was recovered systematically with the tow hook connected on both cars and a slow pull instead of trying to accelerate hard.
All is well that ends well. Even after wiggling out the wheels stuck in the sand, alignment hasn’t taken a hit and there is no underbody damage.
Replaced the 3M vinyl on the roof with a glossy black PPF, which gets rid of the orange peel present on the 3M vinyl and now gives a paint like appearance:
Back to the car, the return journey was through Agumbe ghats and here I switched off AC, rolled down the windows and switched to manual mode – Not because of power but to listen to the turbo spool up every second during the climb. That’s just too sweet to listen to along with the DSG shifts and the clatter that come along with it and it climbed up the ghats blissfully. Ensured to keep a tab on oil temp and not let the auto start stop trigger during this just to keep the turbo healthy.
After the ghats and after reaching Hassan, the car went back to flight mode and reached Bengaluru in no time. 80 in this car feels SLOW and 120 in this car feels like 80 in the Crysta.
The headlights perform decently for a stock setup.:
Back to home and VCDS, I had not enabled any window or horn related features until now, but ended up enabling driver side window automation namely window close and open via remote, and also automatic roll up of driver window while locking. Since both these are now configurable via the infotainment, I can turn it off when needed without access to VCDS.
Also enabled accoustic confirmation only on lock and not unlock since I prefer it that way(due to obvious reasons, I dont need to be told I have unlocked the car since I anyway would open the door):
Keyword: Did a 1000 km drive in my Skoda Slavia DSG: Key takeaways from the trip