A love letter to my Skoda Laura 2.0 TDI

Since my teenage years, friends and family have called me “Mr. Petrolhead.” Not because I merely spoke about cars, or collected auto magazines, or amassed countless Hot Wheels models, but because I was everyone’s go-to guy for anything on wheels. Ironically, despite the moniker, I only discovered true automobile devotion when I bought my diesel Skoda Laura 2.0 TDI DSG in 2013. There is a certain poetry in the hum of a good diesel engine, steady, unhurried, and tirelessly confident. Under the hood of my Skoda sits a powerful 2.0-litre turbocharged diesel, the very same workhorse that motors cars across the Volkswagen Group’s stable. Out on the open road, it is equal parts thrilling and practical, as economical as a shopper’s sale and just as satisfying. Diesels as good as this remain a spanner in the wheels of the electric-car revolution, particularly when the EV’s Achilles heel… range anxiety, still looms large for most. My Skoda Laura 2.0 TDI DSG came from the final year of production in a stunning Brunello Red, and remains my daily driver even today. But this feature is about the journeys undertaken during COVID-19, where my Skoda returned a mileage as high as 28 km/l