5 weeks in, I feel I'm starting to get used to the car's behaviou (1.5 TSI mild hybrid)r. Compared with my old Superb (1016 2.9 TSI) though, some features are quite different compared with any other car've driven.

• It can be quite disconcerting, when driving along a dual carriageway at 70 mph with predictive adaptive cruise control on, to see engine revs drop to zero!

• With no throttle, sometimes revs drop to zero and the car appears to coast, at other times there's what appears to be quite a lot of engine braking.

• The brakes seem to require more foot pressure than I'm used to (previous Superb and a Seat Leon), and I neve feel that my foot is pressing against something solid. It's as though there's a disconnect between the pedal abd the brake calipers. The brakes work well onough, though.

Is this normal?

Hi 100andthirty, while I haven’t yet taken delivery of the Skoda, I have some experience of the characteristics you have described and they read as perfectly normal to me.

In our Mercedes SLC, as is common across almost all Merc cars, it has an eco mode by which the gearbox disengages and the car coasts. Since your car is hybrid, it can clearly do this with zero revs. I have found that it takes time to adapt to the experience but, when you do, it’s possible to extract some pretty impressive fuel economy and eventually provide passengers with a smooth, seamless driving experience too.

Our son has a Renault Clio hybrid. I don’t drive his car but, as a passenger, I am aware of the fairly aggressive energy recovery that occurs when he lifts his foot from the throttle. It does feel like he has gently applied the brakes but it is in fact retardation caused by the energy recovery system. He could choose a mode which is less noticeable and which provides a smoother experience but he tells me he likes the idea of hyper-miling his fuel economy. I just worry that he will get rear-ended!

Finally, I read or watched a video about the braking experience on the 1.5 hybrid and your experience seems typical of the version you have. It’s a different experience from the non-hybrid versions apparently.

No doubt others who actually own these cars will respond but I wanted to provide a reply, albeit a generalised one, to the three points you raised.

Best wishes.

Edited 8 October, 20258 Oct by Arianne

Thanks for your reply. Enjoy your car when it arrives!

Just to be clear and not mislead, the mild hybrid only has a very tiny battery, but, nonetheless, it still needs to be recharged!

Hi 100andthirty, I’ve had my 1.5 eTSI Superb Sportline for about 2 weeks now (having previously owned an mk3 Octavia VRS Tdi for around 10 years) and have experienced exactly the same behaviours which at first felt quite alien from the previous car but I am getting used to it now.

I found that putting the instantaneous fuel consumption display in the digital dash helped me understand what the car was doing and when - it displays when its in coast mode or 2 cylinder mode underneath the instant fuel consumption figure. (I would have thought this would be a useful thing to display at all times, perhaps under the current gear display on the rev counter? but seems like Škoda decided to hide it away,)

With regards to the engine braking, I have found the car seems to do this when there is a reduction in speed limit coming up or if it detects another reason to slow down I.E a roundabout or junction coming up. If I have anticipated slowing down before the car has and let off throttle for something like upcoming traffic in the distance, then it coasts.

I found exactly the same vague brake feel too but the brakes certainly seem good enough and assume that the lack of positive feel is just a part of MHEV regeneration.

All of the above (although feeling strange at first!) does however make for some impressive fuel economy for such a large car, I’ve now done about 700 miles in the car (mixture of town and dual carriage way) and its averaged 47mpg over that distance.

Edited 9 October, 20259 Oct by steve-l

Thank you Steve-1. You've confirmed that my car is behaving normally. I'll try displaying instantaneous fuel consumption as you suggest.