well i finally got back from france having completed 1600 miles with 5 ppl and a boot crammed full with clothes and a top box crammed full with even more clothes!!

have to admit....i didnt use the 6th gear, as i didnt want the dpf light appearing all those miles away from ole blighty.

so we cruised in 5th at 70mph and fully laden, we averaged 49.5 to the gallon.......personally i was rather impressed as i reconned on around 38 on a long run.

no issues at all, cept the usual top up fluids and the expensive 5w-30 oil . but as luck would have it......called in a large eleclerc store nr st crox-de-vie and bought exactly the same oil that skoda dealers sell for 34 euros for 5ltrs......is that good? must be as one

litre costs around 12 quid...so i reconned 5ltrs would be around the 50 quid mark.

what made journey effortless was the power and the cruise control and room for the kids in the back.....although i feel we did slightly overload the superb....it was perfect regarding handling.....performance......ecconomy....and the fact i stuck a 170 badge on the boot gave the french skoda drivers something to think about....will take some pics soon and show on here......keep on superbing!!

Having done a few Continental trips in my 130 PS 5 speed diesel, I can only agree with you - it's brilliant, especially on the nice smooth French motorways. Cruise control is an essential.

Bit of a waste of time having a 6 speed box if you feel you can't use top. In fact, if you look at the figures, the gearing of the 5 speed is nearly the same as the 6 speed gearbox in top and the diesel does not need closer ratios due to its wide spread of torque.

I think the 6 speed box was originally a marketing sop for Audi, but has found its way down the line. Quite unnecessary in my opinion on the diesels - the gearchange is rubbish anyway, so I wouln't want to have to move it more often.

rotodiesel.

I think the 6 speed box was originally a marketing sop for Audi, but has found its way down the line. Quite unnecessary in my opinion on the diesels - the gearchange is rubbish anyway, so I wouln't want to have to move it more often.

rotodiesel.

Nothing wrong with my 6 speed gear change Roto!

Try a BMW.

rotodiesel.

hi there.i agree it seemed a waste the 6speed not being taken up...but i just wanted to keep exhaust hot at around 2000 rpm in 5th...i spose i could of wacked the 6th gear in.but revs go down to around 1800 at 70mph...and having read previous threads on the dpf...last thing i wanted was grief.....was getting that in dover when the french fishermen were on strike and my wife mislaying the return tickets!!.and thats before we even joined the eurotunnel....but i do know flat out empty in 6th....things are happening rather quickly, and it kept wanting more.....maybe more diesel hehe...all in all.....a perfect cruiser

...but i just wanted to keep exhaust hot at around 2000 rpm in 5th...

At 70mph, mine does 2000 rpm in 6th?

Try a BMW.

rotodiesel.

I have - many of them, but c'mon, this isn't a BMW, is it? What would you pay for a BMW 5 series diesel with the level of equipment on the Superb... £40k? Compared to my wife's Focus, it is a much nicer gate and action and I have driven many VWAG vehicles with 6 speed boxes, all of which seemed very familiar and similar.

Any transverse gearbox will have a worse gearchange than an inline one because the linkage has to be turned through 90 degrees. This means stiction, angular loss of operating force and ultimately wear.

There's no excuse on the old Superb - the linkage goes straight into the gearbox. The throws are too long and the detent for neutral is the same as the in-gear detents. On a good gearbox, neutral has a slightly deeper detent notch so there is absolutely no doubt you have found the centre of the gate. Second gear synchromesh action with a cold box in cold weather is Third World standard.

When I was shopping for Superbs, the 5 speed was 33 mph per 1000 rpm in top and the 6 speed was 35. For 6% taller gearing and a less reliable gearbox, it wasn't worth the money.

rotodiesel.

When I was shopping for Superbs, the 5 speed was 33 mph per 1000 rpm in top and the 6 speed was 35. For 6% taller gearing and a less reliable gearbox, it wasn't worth the money.

rotodiesel.

Cheers for the mecheads Roto - I didn't know all that stuff, and seriously informative as ever. But this bit is a worry... what issues have there been on the six speed Superb box?

At 70mph, mine does 2000 rpm in 6th?

As does mine.

Jenks

2000 rpm at 70 mph is indeed 35 mph per 1000 revs - so nothing has changed. (My 5 speeder is 33).

The 6 speeder is a complicated box with an oil pump (see parts list). The main problem with it is that in order to accomodate the extra gear cluster in the same space, there is a higher overhung load on the bearings. The givaway is that the 6 speed box has a cast iron central section - the 5 speeder is all alloy. This is needed to take the reactive forces from the bearings and gives a clue as to how highly loaded they are.

Look on ukpassats.co.uk to find the problems. Basically they tend to whine a lot in the upper 3 gears and then the bearings break up. Fixing it is hideously expensive and the breakers know what they're worth.

rotodiesel.

i did say around 1800 revs for 70mph.maybe that was on an incline to join motorway hehe.....but i find the 6speed box a delight to use

I too enjoy taking my Superb to France - nice to have an autoroute to stretch legs on.

I always buy my oil (Shell Helix) in a French supermarket - about a 3rd cheaper there even with the present £/ Euro value, and their own brands really make UK prices a joke. A few beers and wines hold the back end down nicely on the return journey.......

Second gear synchromesh action with a cold box in cold weather is Third World standard.

That I agree with 100%.

Thanks for the clarification on the 6-speeder, I was looking at getting one next. Perhaps I won't bother...

have to say there is nothing wrong with the 6speed box on the new superbs......main reason i used 5th was because of the weight i was carrying in france inc the passangers.....of course we did open her up when car was empty and no roofbox on.....and then 6th gear comes into its own.....just makes high speed cruising effortless......wudnt go back to 5 speed in a million yrs hehe ^_^

5 speed motor that is hehe

I've just returned from a continental trip to eight European countries in my 2.5 V6 and I agree with other comments here that it is an excellent car for long distance tours.

I zeroed the computer readings before we left and the readings when we arrived back home were:-

Total distance: 2,839.8 miles

Average fuel consumption: 45.8 mpg

Average speed; 49 mph

Driving time: 57 hours 56 minutes

The car used no oil at all on the trip and one tyre lost about 1/2 bar, so it couldn't be much better, which is more than can be said for the driver! I missed a small post sticking out behind a barrier when I arrived at our hotel in Hungary and scrapped the offside rear bumper and pulled the mudflap off! It's going in next week to the local bodyshop for repair, but they only quoted £65.00 plus VAT, so it's not too painful!

The fuel consumption wasn't too bad as the boot was full all the time and the back seats were folded down coming back from Calais to take the beer, wine, champagne and other things we bought. We had alraedy started buying some wine and beer in the Czech Republic and, as the boot was filling up, we started standing our suitcases in the rear foorwell behind our seats as there were only two of us on the trip. How many other cars can do this? I saw 50 mpg for the first time in Hungary and also in Austria coming over the Alps. There were tunnels to avoid most of the hills and they were usually 80 kph or 100 kph limits, which is good for improving your mpg!

Diesel was cheaper in all the countries we visited when compared to the UK. Best of all was Luxembourg which we visited on the way back - that was £1.00 per litre!

Places we visited on out trip included Mlada Boleslav, where we visited the Skoda Museum, Vienna, a week in Herviz (a spa in Hungary) and we also went to see friends who live near Munich.

The Sat Nav was very useful, but it's a pity it doesn't include Hungary in the countries covered. It was very welcome in Vienna and it took us straight to our hotel that I'm sure would have taken much longer without it! I bought the CD's on E Bay for the various countries we went to. New they would have been about £600, compared to about £125 I paid! They are a little out of date, but apart from it telling you are off road on a new bypass, etc, there wasn't any problems.

I was a bit disappointed that the only Superb in the new car display next to the Skoda Museum in Mlada Boleslav was the old model. I only saw one new one on our holiday and it was in front of us as we left Mlada Boleslav for Vienna. I managed to take a photo when we stopped at traffic lifgts for road works.

There are a few photos of our trip if you're interested.

AOL Pictures - Slideshow

Glad to hear your trip was so successful andf ure right you can't complaiun at that performance from a hefty V6. I really love mine.

Hope the car continues to please you as I do mine!!

The speed limit on the french autoroutes is 82MPH (130kmh). I have just completed a trip to spain and back via bordeaux and managed a real world average of 46mpg over 2300 miles, most of it carried out at the speed limit of 80mph in 6th in my octy 2.0tdi.

I just drove to Dubrovnik and back in a Mercedes E320 (petrol V6) and averaged 34mpg which I thought was very good.

Wish I could get 50mpg out of it though. I think next year I am going to have to buy a diesel for next years trip.

I agree with johannapam1 and I too am very pleased with my Superb, even though the 2.5 V6 auto often gets plenty of stick on this website! I'm happy with it and I don't care if others don't like it!

The speed limit was 120 or 130 kph on most of the motorways we were on and we were travelling about 70 to 80 mph, which is not far short of mannyo's speed. There is no limit on much of Germany's motorways, but we still stayed at the same speed as we were not in a rush. Our average speed came down as we were travelling on non-motorways through Czech Republic and Hungary, which included a number of towns we passed through. We also drove into the centre of Vienna and we spent some time stationary in Belgium when there was an accident on the motorway ahead of us. When in Czech Republic and Hungary, we were slowly driving around looking at places of interest too.

I think James Rothwell's average of 34 mpg in a V6 Mercedes is very good and I'd certainly be happy with that if my car was petrol!