We drove down to the Inlaws in Perpignan from Geneva for a few days over the Christmas break.

We discovered passport on child two (now 19) was out.....so plan B put into action for a four day road trip and an unexpected New Year in the UK to get new passport sorted.

Geneva - Perpignan - Geneva - Guildford - London - Exeter (family hit) - Guildford - Geneva

Just arrived in Dover having spent some 15 hours on the road so far (with brief stop in Geneva) car and comfort going well. Four up, bit of kit....two tanks of fuel and got off the ferry on fumes. Autoroute all the way at a steady 130-150 (officer) where appropriate as on winter tyres (17" rims....look lost in the arches )

First time on a ferry for years (£96 return as opposed to £256 on Chunnel) and actually, although a bit rough coming in to Dover it was not a bad crossing...just takes so long compared to the train (1.5 hrs as opposed to 25mins on train...)

Touch wood car running like a dream so far and family seem okay (or at least they are not moaning yet....). Only issue was hitting something on the autoroute at speed (rabbit?) which has annoyingly broken the r/h/s fog light mounting (not the lens but has snapped off one of the retaining clips - duck tape to the rescue...) and left some mild roadkill mess on the front end....nasty

Will try to take some photos/post en route.

Dave

Edited 31 December, 201510 yr by Wile7

The big advantage of the ferry is that you can have a 'proper' relaxing time with a bit of retail therapy thrown in too. What mpg have you managed so far?

Wow... Proper road test here.

Following with interest....

As above - wondering what the mpg will be like?

But I'm sure the driving experience will be awesome!

That's an extensive road test. Glad to see the car is going well

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk

Nice one.

 

I decided to brave a long road trip this winter too instead of flying. I can certainly +1 the ferry. It was really nice to get a good rest and a bit of fun along the way. The longest single-day drive we did swapping between myself and my other half was about 750 miles.

 

I was impressed with the comfort of the car (my Scoob). No aches or pains at all. Which is a relief as I traded in my previous car due to backache after an hour of driving.

 

Really worth doing a proper road trip at least once in your life Especially with such a nice car as the Superb V6.

A tip for rough weather on the ferry

 

Eat Jam sandwiches they taste just as good coming up as they did going down

 

 

 

Another useful travel tip from AG

Edited 31 December, 201510 yr by Auric Goldfinger

A tip for rough weather on the ferry

 

Eat Jam sandwiches they taste just as good coming up as they did going down

 

 

 

 

Another tip:- When we were going on honeymoon long long ago we were on a really really rough North Sea Ferries crossing where the boat stabilisers were broken. In the restaurant that night we were the last two standing, every one else was throwing up. What was different - we had been drinking champagne 

 

Clearly not recommended if you are about to drive - we were on an overnight crossing!

Lie down, flat out; on the floor, if necessary.  Guaranteed.

Lie down, flat out; on the floor, if necessary.  Guaranteed.

 

Champagne more fun though 

Edited 1 January, 201610 yr by bigjohn

Update so far.

Car running like clockwork (touch wood). MPG has been between 27-31 approx based on Maxidot.....so anything between 25/30 in real world terms I guess.

Only hitch so far? Fog light aside (see first post) I tore off a plastic under tray and damaged the cill driving into a driveway in Cobham last night! Couldn't believe it. My car is lowered but even so, bloody annoying. It's all those flaming Chelsea tractors - folk don't notice the bad angles on driveways any more (that's my excuse). Picked up the broken bits and will try to get them back on with some cable ties. Will deal with the cill bit when we get back home.

Dave

Update: yesterday (Saturday) we were in Guildford, Surrey. It was about 11.45 and I stopped off at Lookers Skoda just on the off chance that they might be able to help.

Long story short, even though they shut at 12.00 and had shut down the workshop, the workshop technician took my car in, put it up on ramps and sorted the problem out for me (tucked the undertray back in with new fastenings....I thought it had been ripped up but what had happened was that it had been pulled apart in one of the sections so both sides were hanging down). He even pulled straight the cill for me with some soft nosed welding clamps. 20 minutes was all it took. And my family were offered coffee and water in the showroom (the kids loved going over the VW camper vans they had and The wife and I nosed around the new Superb...).

I asked how much - he said no charge....happy new year! Gobsmacked. Great result. I will write to Lookers Skoda to thank them when we are back. Fantastic service.

Now hitting the road to Dover and across on the ferry. Trying to sort out which way to go back through France now....decisions. Fun or quickest route?

Dave

Update: yesterday (Saturday) we were in Guildford, Surrey. It was about 11.45 and I stopped off at Lookers Skoda just on the off chance that they might be able to help.

Long story short, even though they shut at 12.00 and had shut down the workshop, the workshop technician took my car in, put it up on ramps and sorted the problem out for me (tucked the undertray back in with new fastenings....I thought it had been ripped up but what had happened was that it had been pulled apart in one of the sections so both sides were hanging down). He even pulled straight the cill for me with some soft nosed welding clamps. 20 minutes was all it took. And my family were offered coffee and water in the showroom (the kids loved going over the VW camper vans they had and The wife and I nosed around the new Superb...).

I asked how much - he said no charge....happy new year! Gobsmacked. Great result. I will write to Lookers Skoda to thank them when we are back. Fantastic service.

Now hitting the road to Dover and across on the ferry. Trying to sort out which way to go back through France now....decisions. Fun or quickest route?

Dave

Absolutely fantastic to know you can still expect service of this type. Stunning result Dave I must say!

Safe journey...

We decided quickest route. Stopped in Arras in France (hour and a bit from Calais going south) to have feed and find a cheap hotel for the night. Recommend B&B hotels - cheap, comfortable and really well equipped.

Hotel wise we have used Premier Inn in the UK (great) and travel lodge (mediocre). In France we have used B&B and Novatel which have both been pretty good and cheap.

Geneva tomorrow with luck....

Mornin' all.

Back safely at home (midway between Geneva and Lausanne). Car ran faultlessly over the 4500 odd Km's (2800 miles approx). we covered. Some key points:

My car is lowered by 40mm. Four up with kit it was fine except for badly designed driveways, McDonald's speed humps and ferry ramps. On the motorways/autoroutes it was stable and solid.

Comfort - everyone onboard commented on how good she/he/it was. I must admit that I had a very good trip with the drivers seat adjusted to suit. No back or leg aches. Girls in back had acres of space.

Boot space - car swallowed everything we threw at it. No top box, just footwells in rear and passenger side plus the boot and false floor space. The big Skoda is massive...just as well given the amount of stuff the girls bought in the UK January sales!

MPG - a genuine 30mpg +/- with a best of 34 and a worst of 15. Majority was on the autoroutes at an indicated 140kmh (134 on my app which I downloaded to my phone as I don't have mph on my speedo....a really great free app that was very useful on both sides of the channel).

Other points:

That damn plastic under tray kindly fixed by Lookers Skoda in Guildford eventually got ripped off getting on the ferry at Dover...I need to reattach it. But it raises the question....is my car too low? On my own (majority of use) it's not an issue but loaded up she has a few problems. Maybe move to 30mm springs?

With the removable tow hitch attached (for no other reason than urban parking battles...) the car grounds out on the bottom of the hitch in car parks. The Skoda is a long car and the overhang at the rear is significant on a shallow incline I.e. Multi-storey car parks.

I'd recommend the plastic/rubber over mats supplied by Skoda (or through Superskoda as mine were). With all the rain/wet in the UK they held back puddles of water (wet brollies, sodden shoes...) and were easy to decant when needed. I sat them on top of the existing fabric mats and they did not move or slip at all.

Internal heating/ventilation worked a treat. With all the wet weather misting up inside happened a lot when we all climbed back in the car with wet clothers etc. Air con and auto mode cleared windows within seconds and on the journey it was easy to find a level of comfort that everyone was happy with. I like cool whereas wife likes warmth...so individual climtronic was great. Kids didn't really care and never complained.

Any small collapsible brolley fits in the rear door - no need for a Skoda unit. No misting up inside either when wet brolley placed in door - the ventilation in the brolley space works well it seems....

The sat nav was brilliant - it showed its age on two sections of new autoroute in france but otherwise was spot on in the UK. I need to upgrade it though (I think it's still the 2010 map set...).

Sunroof and blind packed up - fortunately in closed position Pretty sure it's a fuse issue and will look at it this week.

Overall, very impressed. A great car for the journey. I just need to think carefully about the lowering moving forward.

Dave

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by Wile7

Yeah, even the stock V6 Superb was too low for me, especially combined with the long wheelbase. I couldn't imagine lowering it further. My Octavia 4x4 bottomed out on a crest in my driveway if I had 3+ people in the car. It was pretty much the biggest reason I had to discount the Superb when looking for a new car.

Just about to set off for Austria via Hull - Rotterdam.  Done this trip many times.  Previous Yetis were good but the Superb Estate with 4x4 is, well, superb!

 

John.  

Yeah, even the stock V6 Superb was too low for me, especially combined with the long wheelbase. I couldn't imagine lowering it further. My Octavia 4x4 bottomed out on a crest in my driveway if I had 3+ people in the car. It was pretty much the biggest reason I had to discount the Superb when looking for a new car.

I had the same experience with my Octavia. The surprise for me was that the Superb touches down a lot less on the same obstacles with the same load, even though it has a longer wheelbase. No lowering for me though - my car is mainly used to transport mountain bikes, so it gets the odd bit of unsurfaced road depending on where I'm biking, so if anything changing from 45 to 50 profile tyres to increase clearance might be my next move.

After 24000 smiles (miles) in 2015  i gave my car a festive holiday of 8 days in the longterm Gatwick carpark.

 

Car has worked very well during 2015, only let down is when a human being has to service or inspect it.

 

 

After 24000 smiles (miles) in 2015  i gave my car a festive holiday of 8 days in the longterm Gatwick carpark.

 

Car has worked very well during 2015, only let down is when a human being has to service or inspect it.

 

Thats a fair old mileage in a year James - good on you! i agree with you on the latter point....I'm getting near that point now (leasing requirement for annual service). Would rather do it myself...