Chennai-Mysore by Self Drive-Dating Skoda Octavia

“Indulge” is the one word to explain what I did for 72 hours starting June 5 2008 midnight till June 8th 2008 midnight. I took a Skoda Octavia on self drive from Hertz Chennai and drove all the way to Bangalore-Mysore and Back, totaling over 1300 kms in 3 days. This post is an experience account of this excursion.

Most of my friends and relatives know that I love driving. Beg/borrow/steal I try to get my hands behind wheels at every available opportunity. Many have handed over their keys to me hesitantly while few have said polite but firm NO when asked if I can drive their car a bit. Have driven several vehicles so far, such as WagonR, Mahindra Utility and Pickup, Accent, Esteem, Indica and Tavera, totaling to few thousand kms. [Details of me driving a tractor in this post, video of me driving Tavera here] But all these drives were for small stretches each time, not long drives extending hundreds of kms to quench me. I haven’t saved enough to buy a luxury car yet (maybe I can buy one on loan but I am not sure if I will enjoy owning a car as much I do driving it) but fortunately I am in a position to afford (once in a while) the luxury of renting a car for few days. Minimum age for self drive was 25 years sometime back but recently Hertz has brought it down to 23 years, obviously to target young executives. This made me eligible for self drive.

When a Mysore visit was being contemplated I decided to use this opportunity to indulge in what I always wanted to do-long drive in a sporty vehicle. I wanted to rent a TATA Safari but Hertz said they don’t have Safari on Self Drive. (For the uninitiated, Self Drive is a rental scheme where you can take a vehicle from car rental company without a driver. You drive and take care of the car for the duration you rent it) Dream brands like Mercedez were pretty expensive (may be next time) so I decided to settle for a Czech beauty named Skoda Octavia, which I felt sporty enough (A beast of 1.9 liter engine within with 170 kmph max speed). Got a booking confirmation from Hertz.

I wasn’t sure if any of my friends would join me in this drive (Reasons: 1. They do fear for their lives, 2. Departure was on Thursday night so anyone joining me were required to apply leave on Friday, 3. The mail I had sent was a bit formal-demanding high punctuality) but to my surprise many people showed interest. All 5 seats were full for Chennai Bangalore sector and I had to deny seats to two people who wanted to join. For Bangalore-Mysore sector there were 2 passengers (Chandrakanth & Nagaraj- If I had shouted Mysore-Mysore in Kalasipalya market I would have got some passengers and coffee money too: LOL). For Mysore local site seeing I had my family members and relatives for company and for return journey (It was a day journey-most of my passengers preferred to spend time with family during the day and start by night) I had only one passenger-Nagaraj.

Passengers for Chennai-Bangalore sector

Made adequate preparations for the journey- A first aid kit, a print out with name and contact details of hospitals in Vellore, Hosur, Bangalore, Madya and Mysore, pre boarding safety instructions to passengers etc. But the 3 days journey ended smoothly without even a minor incident. I was anticipating problems like road blocks etc-because of fuel price hike and fertilizer shortage related agitations. But was lucky not to face any.

Got my hands on the Skoda at around 2330 hours on 5th June. To my disappointment, the car was several years old model and had age old cassette player, except front left, remaining 3 tyres hardly had any threads on them. Natural with its age, it also had several minor dents and scratches. Took the delivery, reached home and when I wanted to take a reverse I was in for a surprise. All the cars I had driven so far had reverse gear on extreme right, below 5th gear, but in Skoda this was different-on the extreme left, adjacent to first gear. I could not move the vehicle backward-called the Hertz driver and he told that I need to push the lever down and then move to position. Not sure why Skoda has this crazy position for reverse gear-very tough to identify if the vehicle is in 1st gear or reverse, unless you experience the vehicle moving. Loaded my luggage and picked up my co passengers. Removed my shoes and shifted to chappal, as I feel more confident and comfortable when I can feel the pedals with my legs and it was nearly 0100 hours when we left Chennai city limits.

I had covered Chennai Bangalore on bike some 2 years ago and had taken some 7 hours to reach Bangalore. This time in a car, I had benchmarks to exceed. Night driving was new to me but was fun. Making way through slow moving trucks soon we hit the relatively empty highway. Had slept for few hours previous evening to prepare myself for an all night drive. Chennai Bangalore road is superb (Via Vellore and Hosur) and driving was real fun. Some stretches of the road had self reflecting navigation lights-which made driving easy. The headlamp was just adequate, though I wished they were slightly more powerful. Lack of full visibility forced me to stay within 150 kmph. Nearly 150 Rs was spent on 4 toll gates that exist between Chennai and Bangalore. With 2 minor breaks and one major break in Hosur, we reached Bangalore city (Basavanagudi) by 6 AM. 2 of my passengers (Sudhir and Krishna Shastry)) got down in Bangalore and soon we were on Bangalore-Mysore Express corridor. We stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi for a refreshment and were in Mysore (Saraswatipuram) by 9 AM.

Driving by green country side

My family and relatives were taken by kind of surprise when I told I came driving all the way. 550 kms in 8 hours. After refreshments plans for next 3 days were drafted. We had seen Mysore local tourist places-palace, KRS, Chamundi Hills etc, so this time focus was on tourist places on the outskirts of Mysore. We visited Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Srirangapatna, Shivanasamudra, Talakkad and Somanatheshwara Temple and the Infosys Campus. Information about these places already exists on internet, so not planning separate post on each of these. (To be honest, we did a lot of searching on internet about these places but the info was bare basic. For all practical information (what is the distance between two places, which road to take, is the road good etc) we had to stop and ask locals)

Taking a vehicle on self drive has its own pros and cons, which warrants a separate post. I enjoyed being undisputed owner of that car for 3 days. Could perfect my skills in every aspect of driving-city and highway, day and night, good and bad roads, parking, reversing and more. Two wheelers and autos were the most dreaded things during my drive, because of their tendency to make unpredictable movements. Had to ask Nagaraju to keep an eye on vehicles coming on left side for any possible abrupt movements. To all those maniac drivers of 2 and 3 wheelers- if you’re alive still it is not because you drive great-it is because we, the four and six wheeler drivers are being considerate enough to accommodate your rash and abrupt movements on the road.
3 days went off in a flash. Wish the journey lasted little longer…


About the car: Except that engine was powerful, didn’t find any appreciable difference in this car w.r.t interiors and suspension, compared to other cars I have driven, say WagonR and Indigo CS. (Note: The Skoda I drove is 4-5 years old model, cheapest variant in its class and was being used as a taxi. So one shouldn’t keep too many expectations.) But vehicle is quite sturdy and stable. Even at 160-170 kmph there were no hesitation from the engine or vibration in the body. For 1300 kms it consumed over 81 litres of diesel, resulting in a highway average of nearly 16 kmpl, which is quite decent.(AC was used for may be just 10% of the drive-rest of the time we rolled down the windows and enjoyed the cool breeze of nature). Ground clearance was a bit poor, wiper and indicator controls were unconventional, similar to Ford.


The rent was supposed to be Rs 4500 per day plus tax, but Hertz gave me a discount and charged me Rs 13014 (or Rs 4340 per day approx-not sure why I was given a discount-I think it is a corporate discount while JOJO feels it is because I returned the car in one piece!) Little more than 3067 Rs was spent on diesel, resulting in net expense of about Rs 12.4 per km, which is far cheaper than chauffeur driven rental option for 3 days/1300 kms for Skoda. All in all it proved to be a bit heavy on my pocket but as I said in the beginning, once in a while we need to indulge in what we enjoy doing, so I am not complaining.

I want to drive a Volvo bus next… Any rental company in this world giving me a B7R on self drive? Please let me know.

Related: A driver's instincts * A Complete Guide to self drive car rentals in India * Bangalore Wayanad escapade in a Scorpio

2011 Updates: Hertz has sold that Octavia. Skoda has also discontinued Octavia and Rapid is the replacement for it. I doubt if Rapid can be as good as Octavia. Aria 4x4 review * Aria photoshoot Set 1, Set 2 * Aria in Mullayanagiri * ottinene * Ford Endeavor Review *