Skoda Kodiaq after 7000 km : My car's triple personality disorder!

Overall, the experience was very “digital” - most part of the drive being either accelerating or decelerating hard.

BHPian Old Dude recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My 700KM drive observations

Had to make an impromptu trip from Bangalore to Coimbatore and back yesterday and compared with my other recent experience, I’m thinking my Kodiaq has a triple personality disorder! Well, not exactly a disorder, let me try to explain.

My daily City drive ( Bangalore, with notorious bumper to bumper traffic): I find Kodiaq is best driven sedately - with the initial lag, it is too jumpy if trying to do the jack rabbit sprints to close the sub 3M gap opening up - something which an Alto beats the Kodiaq hands down. During my morning commute of 9KM, I get a mileage of ~ 7 km/l as opposed to a psychologically satisfying double digit crossing when driven sedately, both taking the same time to reach my destination in traffic.

Bangalore-Mysore expressway drives ( which I have done few times): What makes this drive different are the excellent road surface, three lanes all through with decent entry / exit merges, relatively orderly traffic & lane discipline and a paltry speed limit of 100kmph enforced by cameras practically throughout the 118km stretch. This makes the road an excellent candidate while driving the Kodiaq to set the cruise control, sit back, relax and enjoy the onboard entertainment system ( AKA the excellent Canton Music system) - a Zen experience, and giving me the highest ever mileage of 16.4kmpl.

Now for my latest drive - Bangalore to Coimbatore and back: The traffic is heavier, roads are 2 lanes per direction for about 40% of the distance, road surface has undulations in many areas, construction detours, a bit of ghats section, and not many speed cameras ( I hope ). On my onward drive, used cruise control but found the highly erratic traffic - slow moving trucks, vehicles coming on wrong side, slower vehicles hogging the fast lane, slow 2 wheelers etc making the drive a very “rough” one - have to swerve and make sharp lane changes, on and off cruise control very often having to tap the brakes, accelerating back to cruise control being very aggressive and so on. Overall, the experience was very “digital” - most part of the drive being either accelerating or decelerating hard. The overall mileage was 11 implicitly. While returning, did not use the cruise control and boy, what an enjoyable drive it was - being able to feather the throttle to decelerate gracefully and accelerate effortlessly through the erratic traffic made the drive a lot smoother and much less wear on the brake pads. I was easily the fastest vehicle on the route without feeling that I’m driving fast or the vehicle feeling strained at any point, and my passengers feeling the refined experience all through. Also, kept the DCC on comfort ( engine mode normal) on the return drive that made for a bit floaty but supremely comfortable drive over the occasional undulations while not feeling it affected the handling adversely with more sweeping lane changes afforded by the manual throttle control. Overall, a supremely comfortable journey and being fast without feeling strained, and an overall fuel consumption of 12.4kmpl.

Curious to hear on your experience and tips on your road trips.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.