Finally after 10 years of ownership and 1, 55, 000 KMS of blissfull drive with wonderful memories, we have decided to say good bye to our beloved Skoda Rapid and welcome pre-worshipped Skoda Superb.
It was 2011 December when we bought Skoda Rapid home after a last minute cancellation of Fiat Punto. Long story short, I wanted a good frugal hatch whereas home minister wanted a sedan. That was one of those rare moments, where I got bigger and better car after compromise. By and large 10 years of ownership was a bliss and many memorable road trips. In those 10 years we visited 9 different states and numerous Hill stations, Jungles, Beaches, Temples and Heritage monuments.
There were only two instances, where we have to turn back in the middle of a trip. First instance happened in 5th year of ownership, when the Intercooler developed a leak. This was not caused due to any accident, but opening of a weld along the edge of the intercooler. This resulted in intake pressure drop and subsequent glow plug plus engine light on display. Immediately turbo was cut-off and maximum speed limited to 80 KMPH. Due to this I had to drive back ~200 KMS w/o air-condition that to with a max speed of 80 KMPH.
Second instance happened in September 2020 which is the nightmare of Rapid/Vento owners, yes your guess is right, injector gone kaput. To avoid this very situation, I did injector overhaul when Rapid hit 1L milestone. Off late I became lazy and many times drove the car with low fuel warning, which I have avoided first 9 years of ownership. I used to tank up most of the times when the fuel level is 1/4th that to from selected/regular fuel pumps. The recent negligence could have also contributed to the injector blockage. In this instance I was forced to maintain the RPM within 2000-2500RPM range and appropriate gear (2, 3 & 4 only) to match the above RPM range. This was needed to avoid the vibrations caused by lack of fuel supply to one of the four injectors. I had done this circus for ~100 KMS.
There were two more instances (7th and 8th Year of ownership) when I have got only glow plug warning due to contaminated Air Mass Flow sensor. Off late we are having frequent hiccups hence itch to upgrade.
Adieu shots of Rapid (taken on the last day).
Search for that dream car:
As usual there is a lot of confusion all though the selection and purchase process. I had helped quite a few friends and colleagues in their car selection process by clearing their confusions/doubts. However, when I am in that situation, Team-BHP came to my rescue. As a first step, listed out “must” and “good to have” in the new car.
Must:
• Multi-link suspension
• Automatic
• Sunroof (this is the only requirement for son)
• Luxurious than Skoda Rapid
• Split and foldable seats
• ~500L boot
Good have:
• ~200 mm ground clearance
• 4X4 drive
• Reclining rear seat
• Apple Car play/ Android Auto
• Ventilated seats
Just to add little more context, there was no specific need for SUV. All elders in the family are for Sedan and only son is in favour of SUV. However after couple of test drives on SUV’s and crossovers, entire family could converge to the ultimate choice that is sedan. Here I should thank horrible Bangalore roads which made the SUV test drives very bumpy and unsettled. I have never considered C1/2 segment sedans and cross overs as we are looking for upgrade. We have a budget of ~30L and open for both new and pre-worshipped options (~2 years and < 20K KMS on the ODO). As a thumb rule, I always consider top end variant. I have spent about three months from test driving to closing the deal. Starting from November till mid-January most of my weekends have gone into the dream car search.
Shortlisting and Test Drive experience: Harrier XZA: This is one of the car which I have been following very closely since its launch. Harrier is a head turner on the road and a very good value for money proposition. I did couple of test drives and came impressed on the engine response and the real estate. My last test drive car had broken door handle, which forced the sales advisor to open the door from outside. Home minister is not impressed with the interior fit and finish, especially the materials used for upholstery.
Compass Limited Plus 4X4: Facelift is due for launch in couple of months and pre-facelift price already crossing 30 big ones. Drive and comfort is good but narrow rear bench is the real deal breaker. We are not ready to settle for such as small car (I mean inside) after paying north of 30 big ones. Thanks to over optimistic pricing of the facelift, which ended the road for Compass.
Endeavour Titanium Plus: We were not ready to spend 40 big ones on the car, but wanted to give a try and see if we can get any good car in the used car market. This beast is such a pleasure to drive and manoeuvring in the narrow city roads is also not as cumbersome as I initially thought. The biggest negative for me is ~2.3 Tonne weight and of course the size. Brand new car is out of my budget and used ones are very expensive in the market.
Kodiaq Style 4X4: This is a perfect blend of a spacious sedan and 4X4 capability. I have tried two 2018 model cars. Test drives left me impressed on how the speed and size is masked, unfortunately one car is with higher ODO reading and other one is having dubious re-paint work. Here the dealer tried to hide the repair/re-paint. This was noticed during the second visit by my companion. This is where I realised the importance of multiple visits and that to accompany by a different person.
Tiguan Highline: I personally liked the understated looks and considered only used ones. The biggest let down in this is the black interiors especially the leather grade used for seats. I explored two cars, one is ruled out because of body color (silver). The other one is in perfect condition but 2017 model.
Octavia L&K: This is the perfect sedan with perfect blend of space and luxury. I had test driven 2018 with 20K on the ODO. The car is in perfect mechanical condition but one door is repainted, which was disclosed by the dealer himself. Otherwise also this could have been caught easily due to the poor workmanship.
Superb L&K: New car on road price is north of 40 big ones hence decided to explore in the used car market. The options were very limited for my requirement. I have tried two cars one I let it go due to 40K KMS on the ODO, the second car is of 2018 model with 20K on the ODO. We couldn’t like anything else after an extended Superb test drive. The icing on the cake is higher state of tune of 2.0 TDI engine compared to Tiguan/Kodiaq. After the second test drive son also convinced for the used car.
Few important factors that helped during my selection process: No of seats: We were confused 5 vs 7 seats in the beginning of our search. As our search progressed, it became clearer. Most of the time (90% of time) only three seats will be occupied including driver, then why three rows? We decided to go for spacious two rows against three tight rows.
Petrol/Diesel: I am the one always preferred diesel over petrol. In total 60% of drive will be long drives on highways, where the torquey diesels are effortless to cruise in triple digits. Advanced turbo petrol engines are pretty close to diesel in terms of performance, but higher torque and lower fuel bill made us to stick with diesel despite the trending inclination towards petrols.
SUV vs Sedan: I do trips occasionally to odd/remote locations, where that additional ground clearance comes very handy. However I am not ready to trade off those relaxed/settled long drives (~700 KMS a day) for occasional off road capabilities.
Manual/Automatic: Manual gearboxes are my forte, I rarely enjoyed the automatic cars. I used to drive home ministers Ford Aspire 1.5AT fitted with Torque converter gear box. Off late my left knee started feeling the weight of extra hard clutch of Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI, hence decided to go for automatic only.
Challenges I faced in purchasing a pre-worshipped car:
1. Convincing my 9 year old son for purchasing a used car. He don’t want to miss the showroom reception and the photo opportunity. I could convince him with lot of difficulty by explaining my budget constraints and of course luring him for a bigger/better car.
2. Missing that new car feel and of course new car smell.
3. There is a little bit of doubt/confusion in the mind. Not really about the price but about any invisible damages/scratches/dents etc. In order to comfort myself, I did the following
- Always visited at least twice to inspect/test drive the shortlisted car.
- Made sure that a different person accompanies me on my second visit.
- Always performed my visual inspection in open place (typically middle of test drive) that to under day light.
Purchase Experience:
Only few used car dealers have given positive experience, rest are not really interested to sell. I have visited seven different dealers, only two bothered to call back and check if I have made any decision. In general used car prices in Bangalore is an eye sore, always prices are on higher side. Agree, Bangalore road tax is high, however used car dealers are very difficult to bargain may be formed as a cartel?
RC ownership transfer is part of the deal which is completed as promised, however timeline has been pretty long. Post transfer of RC, I have visited Reliance insurance along with NOC from the first owner. I had to pay the pro-rata NCB amount for the reminder of the policy and luckily I could complete the vehicle inspection also on the spot. Overall insurance transfer process is seamless and received the revised policy in 3 working days.
First few weeks with Superb:
Finally we got the vehicle on the day and time of our choice, drove straight to home. Next day early morning we visited Gali Anjaneyaswamy Temple in Bangalore for divine blessings. The dealer hadn’t cleaned the vehicle to our liking, hence decided to go for a through detailing session at 3M, JP Nagar. Team at 3M did a great job
![Clapping](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Clapping.gif)
Here are the two pics shot using iphone XR @ 3M, JP Nagar.
Next few weeks we couldn't manage to venture out of Bangalore city but had multiple drives on the NICE road. Here are my first impressions.
Like the most:
- Multilink suspension gobbles up minor road imperfections without any sweat.
- Gear shifts of the 6 speed DCT are precise and quick. My left leg relaxing on the perfectly positioned dead pedal.
- Spacious and comfortable cabin and of course huge legroom at rear. Now son prefers rear seat against his usual choice of co-driver seat.
- All around disc brakes inspires confidence during emergency breaking.
- Steering is very accurate and loads up very well at higher speeds.
- I can’t thank enough of the cooled seats once the outside temperature crosses 35 degrees.
- Electical seat adjustment for both front seats.
- Adaptive cruise control is very handy on wide and lazy highways.
- Huge boot with foldable split seats is a dream. I have used once to transport my sons bicycle to mechanic.
Not so good:
- Rear view mirrors are one size smaller for the car.
- There is ample storage space for the driver however the real estate had been split all around the driver seat. In general storages are small in size, except the storage under the hand rest. Agree all the storages are intended for a specific purpose like phone, cup holder etc., but this limits the flexibility of open storage like the one I had in Skoda Rapid. May be I have to get used to the new layout.
- Glove box is also one size smaller for this XL size car, heck even smaller than Rapid. I used to keep one tissue box inside the Rapid glove box, can’t do it anymore in Superb.
- Sunroof opening is smaller compared to the size of the sun roof. Sunroof pops-out on opening.
Few observations and glitches during the initial days:
- Engine start/stop button location is little annoyed on day one but after a week I got used to and not a problem at all. I never expected I will get used to it so quickly. Funny enough, I started searching for the start button on steering column of Ford Aspire (start button is on dashboard).
- The 360 degree sensors are an annoyance in the city traffic, where two wheeler riders stand right next to you (or on top of you?). Not an issue post adjusting the type of beep tone and its intensity.
- I didn’t find right place to keep my wallet (I hate driving car with my wallet in back pocket especially on long drives). I used to keep my wallet in common storage of my rapid, where the storage is deep enough. One another option is the cooled storage underneath the armrest (I know this is not the right place for wallet), but opening and closing this storage itself is a big exercise. One may think, what was the need to have access wallet frequently during the journey as? I stay far away from Bangalore city and have to use NICE ring road frequently, where one has to pay cash.
- Apollo tyres doesn’t do justice for Superb, quite a bit of road noise peeps into cabin. I will be waiting for the tyre upgrade.
- Engine has to be cranked in order to bring the wipers in service position. Why to crank engine unnecessarily? I just want to wash the car.
- TMPS setting doesn’t show individual pressure values. I am re-setting after every re-fill. Am I doing something wrong here?
- Low windscreen washer fluid level warning message popped up on the driver display.
- Car remote low battery warning also came on driver display, which I did myself. Why did the battery drain so fast?
- Unavailability of 3D mats for Superb MK-III model (something like Kagu).
- First owner couldn’t pass on Skoda Umbrella’s, I have to wait until my next trip to UK.
- None of the three 12V sockets works. Yet to check fuses. Right now managing with USB port.
First long drive:
After a long wait we decided to go for a four day holiday to Chikmagalur during the last week of February. First long drive excitement helped us to start early @ 5.30 AM. In no time we were cruising at triple digit speeds towards Chikmagalur. Made a breakfast stop near Hassan and the next stop is Belur Chennakesava Temple. After spending couple of hours at temple, finally headed for to Chikmagalur and we stayed at beautiful Honeydewwz exoticaa resort.
Highway drive had been excellent and the way Superb masked the speed is pretty amazing. Occasional overtakes were breeze, surprisingly adaptive cruise control is pretty handy during quick overtakes. I may be little gentle on the throttle hence taking that extra second or two during overtake. I was totally spoiled by the adaptive cruise control, due to which I started feeling that the accelerator pedal is little harder and/or slow throttle response. Surprisingly the wind noise is little higher side, may be due to good cabin insulation. That was not an annoyance anymore with a slight uptick on the music volume. Do note that my reference here is Skoda Rapid, which doesn’t have so good cabin noise insulation.
Next day morning before starting to Amruthapura and Kemmenna Gundi hill point.
We thoroughly enjoyed the curvy roads and scenic views alike. Superb handles the twisty roads extremely well that too without any sweat. Few click shot with DSLR near Amruthapura
Few more clicks enroute to Kemmenna gundi, shot using Samsung S9 plus
Third day morning we decided to visit Baba budangiri, initially we thought of Mulyangiri but given a skip as we have visited just about a year ago. Again amazing views enroute and below are some more pictures. Home minister couldn’t control her frustration by third day and asked, “Does this trip is for car shoot or for us”? I couldn't control my laugh (tried my best to hide facial expression
![Rolling Laughter](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Rolling laughter.gif)
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Apollo tyres doesn’t compliment Superb’s handling and performance, tyre noise is on the higher side especially on highways. Steering weighs-up pretty nice at high speeds and always encourages to push around the corners. All around disc brakes inspires confidence during emergency breaking.
Three nights stay at Honeydewwz exoticaa had been excellent. Here is the beautiful view from the balcony.
Son before starting a chess game
Return trip to Bangalore is pretty smooth and comfortable. I can’t appreciate enough of the cooled seats. Wow, I didn’t realise the benefit earlier. So far driven ~2500 KMs in about two months which includes 750 KM drive to Chikmagalur. I will try my best to keep this thread alive with regular updates as there are very few Superb threads in our forum.
Concluding this post here with a parting shot (location: Baba Budangiri)
![My pre-worshipped Skoda Superb | Jumped from one Skoda to another Skoda, jumped a segment too-superb1.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/2136497d1688024267t-my-pre-worshipped-skoda-superb-jumped-one-skoda-another-skoda-jumped-segment-too-superb1.jpg)