This week our motoring correspondent Brian McDaid tests out the new Skoda Superb and also misses a milestone on his clock – by 111 miles!
New Skoda is simply ‘superb’
When we were at national school, and were off on our summer holidays and a big event in our town was the show day.
It was mostly for cattle and show jumping, but it was the cars that we went to see.
That was the day I seen my first Skoda at St Conal’s Hospital in the show field more summers ago than I care to remember. It was a coupe version with the engine in the rear. I thought they look so different and dated compared with the new cars on show that day.
The New Skoda Suberb in a beautiful dark silver which we tested this week.
I remember getting all the brochures for all of the cars in the show field but the Skoda appealed to me the most. There was something different about them and for some reason I imagined it would be the like of car that our overseas dancers and singers that came to the Letterkenny International Folk Festival would run about in their homeland.
I remember sitting behind the wheel and imagining myself driving it out of the hospital field and up home to Glencar.
Many decades on and I am sitting behind the wheel of another brand new Skoda, and to my surprise the same thing happened to me that happened all them years ago. I still couldn’t reach the pedals.
This is something that does not happen to me too often. The leg room in the Skoda Superb is superb, and even with the seat fully back there is still room for someone to sit in comfort in the back.
This is the flagship model of the range and its a name that the company have used since 1939 firstly in a luxury V8 which was even available in four-wheel drive.
An old Skoda 110 coupe identical to the one at the Show day in St. Conal’s Hospital in the 1970’s
Skoda is one of the oldest carmakers in the world, which they started their business by making bikes in 1895 in the former Czechslovakia.
FI jets and Grand Prix.
As we are getting the car ready for the road. One of the sales people, Louise Dillion gets chatting about her love of motorsport especially Formula 1, she is a life long fan of Michael Scumacher. We also have a chat about her previous job selling Mercedes to the American Air Force at their over sea air base in central Europe. Her costumers landed in F1 fighter jets and landed at the nearby airbase. They were able to purchase cars in Europe at a special price and they flew back out again and she had to look after the shipment of their cars back to the USA.
THE LATE DANNY MC GINTY
The Late Danny Mc Ginty sadly missed at DMG Motors in Clar.
We didn’t see many FI fighter jets on the way through the gap that day but we did spot the odd bailer and tractor in a section of the dealership.
They made me think of DMG, the late Danny Mc Ginty who was taken so early from this world.
He worked with my late father in the ESB and I always had a great yarn with him anytime I went about the place. I remember going up one day to look at a car with an uncle of mine, we ended up buying two cars from Danny for the Capuchin Order in Ards. Danny will be sadly missed.
Biddy O’Barnes
Biddy O Callaghan whom Biddy O’Barnes Pub is named after and her family run the pub for 185 years in Barnesmore Gap.
Biddy O Callaghan was born in 1816 and lived to the age of 93. The Inn she ran was at the foot of the Blue Stack Mountains, roughly half way between Ballybofey and Donegal Town.
It was an Inn when the coach was the main source of transport. Her son John ran the Inn when Biddy died in 1909, John’s daughter Rose ran the bar from 1937 for 40 years and her brother Joe, Wife Katie and son Terence ran the pub to 1990 until the Callaghan family ended their families involvement at Biddy O’Barnes after 185 years
I wonder what Biddy would have thought of us the day we landed and told her that yok on the street had the power of 150 horses, it was the mid range model in the power range, also available is the 120 and 190 brake horsepower from the diesel.
Biddy probably would be impressed when she found that this new Superb could travel around 60 miles, Letterkenny to Donegal Town and back on one gallon of diesel before it would need foddering.
Meanwhile back in the real world we are sailing through the gab in a car that has really come of age, you would be forgiven that at a glance you would mistake it for a BMW looking along the lines of the front wings.
And at long last Skoda or its parent company VW have finally got the Suberb’s backside sorted. The have done such a good job on it that the have managed to make the car look smaller than it really is. The mid range Skoda is just pulls away in every gear. And would have no bother heading out over Mc Grory’s bray in top gear, if the road works were sorted.
I am not that good on computers or stuff like that but I always set my self a small test when I get into a car with blue tooth for my mobile phone. I always want to see especially for some one like me how long and how simple would it be for me to pair up my phone with the car.
The Bluetooth system on this Skoda was class, it was no time to I was through to the operator and I had my wireless connection sorted.
In summing up it’s hard to find fault with this ultra efficient new model, Skoda benefited from the developments that its parent company can offer, but in my opinion the brand still holds on to its heritage.
Fuel Watch
The price for diesel at Jones Oil at 112.9 for diesel.
The best price for diesel this week that we found was Jones Oil at 112.9 for diesel. Unleaded is between 123.9 and 129.9 around Donegal.
Missing my landing by 111 miles!
The mileage on my van which I missed turning to 100,000 by 111 miles before I noticed it.
Over the last week or so I was keeping an eye on the mileage on my van. It was heading towards 100,000 miles. It was calibrated in Kilometres but I managed to change it to miles by mistake when I was changing the clock to summer time.
So it was well over 140,000 Kms when I made the change from metric to imperial measurements. Some like to hide their millage in life, but I look forward to it. I was talking to a bus driver and was telling him about the landmark I was heading for and he laughed and said one of the buses that he drives from Letterkenny to Dublin daily has 1,400,000 Kms up on its.
I think the point I am trying to get across is how much we get distracted when we on are the road. I missed the clock turning by 111 miles. I could not believe it. It goes to show you how many distractions we have when driving on the road. With a bit of luck I will catch it when it reaches the 200k mark.
*If there is anything you would like to ask Brian to cover, be it a driving gripe or someone with a rare driving story, please send an email to info@donegaldaily.com. Many thanks and stay safe behind the week.
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