Skoda Superb road test reports and car reviews

Skoda Superb 1.8 TSi SE 2009

Call a car a Superb and it has a lot to live up to. But the marketing people at Skoda clearly know their business. This new Skoda is superb by name and superb by nature - so good that you would question why anyone would pay more when, at the highly competitive price, starting at just £15490 for the entry level 1.4 TSi and rising to £26,675 for the 4WD 3.6 litre V6 fit for a King, you can enjoy this quality level of motoring experience. It truly is a superlative car. It was my pleasure to appraise the 1.8 TSi in SE equipment level. Lacking entirely any of the vulgar stylistic appendages that bedevil even the most expensive cars today, the Superb has an understated presence suggesting taste and discernment and sits well alongside Mercedes, Audi’s and the like. In essence we’re looking at a large luxurious car that is terrifically habitable and attractive inside, amply provided with legroom, splendidly appointed in every respect and amply endowed with the performance and sophistication one expects from the very best cars today. The door test is always a good place to start with any new vehicle. Open the driver’s door, look inside, and close the door. Try it with this car and reassurance is immediate and gratifying. The fit is perfect, hinges are smooth - and comforting aromas of quality materials assail the nostrils. Best of all though, are the sound cues provided by the reassuring clicks and clunks: built ’all of a piece’, as they say: it’s beautifully assembled. This Skoda shouts ’quality’ from the very core of its being. It’s also the most luxurious car Skoda has ever built, brimming with aesthetic appeal and having a ’feel-good’ factor to rival cars costing twice or even three times as much. With limousine levels of interior space, only a handful of long wheelbase cars have more rear room than the Superb - and this is, in part, due to the new transverse engine layout. Your correspondent recommends that fat corporations ditch their pretentious so-called ’executive’ BMWs and Jaguars and educate their executives to see the value this car represents. Years ago - before Jaguar and BMW were born - Skoda's were the choice of Kings and have a significantly better pedigree than almost any other marque. Argue to the contrary at your peril and you display a dreadful ignorance that should condemn you to several years' penal servitude in a Trabant. There’s a ’world first’ too with the new Superb. Unsure if your need is for a saloon or a hatchback? Then look no further than this model. Ingenious design enables it to ’morph’ from saloon to hatch and back thanks to the ’Twindoor’ boot facility so that you get two cars in one. The advantages, we are told, is that with the Twindoor fully open you have easy access to the boot. More capacious than many estates, bigger than a bijoux town house and nearly as big as my swimming pool, it is, quite simply, huge. Skoda also tell us that should access to the luggage area be needed on a very cold or very hot day then by opening the ’saloon car boot’ only, your pampered passengers won’t faint from the sudden temperature change: particularly useful in Siberia or the Sahara. You could be forgiven for thinking that at such attractive prices, Superbs would be compromised in some areas. I can tell you categorically that they are not. A host of fitments to soothe you keep you safe and make your driving pleasurable are there in abundance. Top spec. models get everything from Columbus colour touchscreen SatNav. To electrically adjusted and heated front seats, while even the entry level S spec cars have eight speaker sound systems. Just like Bentley, those thinking people at Skoda have even included an umbrella hidden in the water resistant storage space in the left hand rear door. But, of course, it doesn’t just stop there with Skoda (These people are engineers). Your umbrella not only opens at the touch of a button - it collapses at the touch of a button too. If that’s not enough, they’ve even coated it with a special anti-mould solution. That’s class! A choice from six engines (three petrol and three diesels), manual or DSG transmission and even four wheel drive, means that the new Superb has and does what all those other ’executive’ marques have and do: and in many instances it has more and does things better. Testing the turbocharged 160 bhp 1.8 TSi SE six speed manual version, which costs just £18930 was a sheer delight. The engine is smooth, torquey and so refined that you would swear you were driving a six cylinder car. Of course, it’s no use having smooth power if the car doesn’t have the quiet and comfortable ride to go with it. Settle to motorway speeds, set the climate control to ’cool’ (which you most certainly are when driving one of these). And you could travel the length and breadth of the land and arrive completely relaxed and unruffled: very little tyre or wind noise at speed means you swoosh sweetly along first class. I’ve travelled in much noisier Mercedes than this. ’But it’s a large car that is guaranteed to pitch and roll once off the straight and narrow’ I hear you say. Nonsense! I can tell you that with the new engine layout and suspension change it’s a paragon of good manners: nimble and balletic enough for your chauffeur to escape down country lanes when a kidnap attempt is made on you. (Buyers must be aware that riding in one of these will make them a target of considerable envy). Suspension has been tuned to give an almost perfect balance between agility and ride comfort. Should you encounter a Russian tank around the corner, rest assured that if a collision occurs, the array of passive and active safety features will mean the tank will come off worst because this Skoda has achieved a five star EuroNCAP rating for passenger protection - and the tank hasn’t. The complex network of safety programmes stops short of ejector seats. An urgent motorway trip of eighty miles followed by sixty miles of twists, turns and ups and downs and then into the inner city, convinced me that this is the best value for money car in its class - or indeed in the class above and the class above that. On the motorway I set the cruise control and relaxed: on the A and B roads I revelled in the liveliness and good handling and in the infernal nightmare that is the traffic jam, I tuned into Classic FM and listened to the Prague Philharmonic. Skoda has, with the new Superb, given us a thoroughly modern car that is clean lined and simply drawn which satisfies through a mix of design, function and user friendliness - without appearing flashy. At less than £19,000 it’s outstanding value.

Skoda Superb 1.9 TDi 130bhp (upped slightly to 170) 2003

I see the people who rated this car low don’t even own one ... yet in contrast those who drive them everyday rate them very highly. My Superb is well ..... err Superb. Gives me good mpg in comfort and isn’t exactly a slouch. OK so I admit it doesn’t set any land speed records BUT 0-60 is around 7.2 seconds. Mid-range pulling power is in excess of most cars well above this price range. In 3rd gear 30mph-70mph takes around 3.5 seconds. That’s impressive and moreover it’s acceleration right at the speed most people want it. The ride is set-up for comfort when original. I personally opted to lower and stiffen the suspension slightly and it handles well for a large saloon. It’s no rally car but then again it never claims to be. Comfort is well catered for too. Enough room in the boot for 3 corpses and a cabin so spacious it almost has an echo. Good levels of equipment and attention to detail is nice. Luggage hooks in the boot (curry hooks to you and me), umbrellas in the door, courtesy puddle lights in wing mirrors, the red night vision light in the cabin etc etc etc.. Solid construction too. Economy is a boring subject but to be fair one that affects us all. Motorways give me around 55mpg in real world driving, whilst town journeys anywhere from 37-47mpg dependant on how heavy you are with the right foot that day. Fact is, the Superb is a great all-rounder. Fantastic balance of power, comfort and economy. I have to admit it fails to achieve top marks in any of those categories but it scores well in ALL of them. Not many cars do that, regardless of price range. As for looks, personally I quite like them. Lowered, a set of alloys and it looks incredibly like an Audi ... and that’s no bad thing. I have to admit, the bad reviews do seem to have an odour of badge-snobbery about them ... dare say even badge-envy?

Skoda Superb Elegance TDI 140 2006

Had one for nearly two years, love it to bits! Does 47 - 50 mpg on a decent run. Can cruise at whatever speed suits you - or are brave enough to attempt. Don’t worry about the ’misinformed’ Skoda Haters they are actually doing ’us Skoda owners’ a big favour. They actually assist in keeping the price down! If the Skoda brand had the same cachet as VW, or worse, Audi, we can all guess that the Skoda prices would rocket upwards - so thank you Skoda Haters long may you prevail. I’m just on the point of trading my Elegance TDI140 in for the new equivalent only this time I’m going for the TDI 170 engine for a bit more grunt - does the same mpg but CO2 emissions are lower so my RFL goes down about £25. Made the mistake of taking a test drive in this version - fabulous is a term that comes to mind, feature count for £22.8k is unbelievable, it would likely cost another £5k plus for same spec. in an Audi. I should be in one by end of October 08 if all goes to plan. Don’t hesitate; these are fantastic cars at a real value-for-money price but you can buy this car on merit alone. If you will excuse the pun - it is Superb!

Skoda Superb 2.5d 2002

Simply superb. Best car I’ve ever had or driven. (includes Mercs, Audi, BMW, Saab, VW, etc). Quiet, economical, powerful, huge rear legroom (more than my friends S class Merc). Ultra reliable - far more reliable than my friend’s S Class. Great dealers too - Skoda always does well on the the old JD Power doesn’t it? Admittedly not the prettiest car ever, but the space, power, reliability, great equipment level, etc. more than compensate. (Umbrella in air-conditioned pocket, climate control, ESP, cruise control, CD stack, hooks in the boot to hold shopping bags, extra power points, etc.) Best thing is without doubt the engine - sold my car to a friend who delights is pushing those bloody BMW’s out of the way. He’s taken it up to 125k with no problems, and it still pulls like a train. Got to get another one. Think Skoda’s are a joke? Get a Superb - you’ll be the one who’s laughing.

Skoda Superb 2008

Sad tot see Skoda haters out there refusing to see and acknowledge that the Superb is a great car. But again I am talking about the old series. I’ve driven first hand the new Superb (2008) in the Czech Republic and believe me people... ITS THE LAST NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF ANTI-SKODA DRIVERS. The new Skoda Superb (new generation) is a car where you simply try hard enough to criticise and see a fault but you find none... expect a revolution in the luxury middle range car section...... the new Superb: - New great look - sooooooo quiet - strong and great automatic smart gear - so STEADY and hearing whispers when driving 210km/h -so much space try and get your hands on one for a test drive.... amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

Skoda Superb 1.9 TDI Classic 2006

I really wanted the Volkswagen Passat but found that it was slightly out of my price range. That’s when a friend informed me that nowadays Skoda’s are Volkswagen in everything but the badge and that the Superb is essentially identical to the Passat. I phoned the local Skoda dealer and arranged for a test drive in the 1.9 TDI Classic and was immediately amazed to see how closely the Superb resembled the Passat. Knowing that VW were behind the engine gave me a great deal of comfort, reliability is more important than looks in my opinion. The interior and boot are cavernous and I feel more like a chauffeur than a father when taking my wife and the children out - they love the space and comfort. This is not a city car, it performs at its best when on the motorway where it is also very economical. I don’t like to use the world budget because this normally means sacrificing quality - many years ago Tesco’s own coffee was exactly than same as Maxwell House inside the jar but with different branding and at half the price - although the Superb is not half the price of the Passat, the principal is the same.

Skoda Superb 2008

In the village of where I live there is a Skoda garage. I was looking for a luxury saloon that was affordable. So at the dealership I saw the Superb tagged at £16,995. I thought there must be some luxury for that price, so I took a test drive. The interior is plasticy and tatty, the automatic gearbox guesses when to change gear, and it is slow! O-6O in about 12 secs and 6O is about its top speed. And guess what, for the same money you can get a year old BMW 3 Series. Superb-No. BMW-Yes.

Skoda Superb 1.8T Comfort 2007

I can’t believe this is a Skoda! It looks and feels like a top of the range luxury saloon and gives a very smooth drive, with a healthy dollop of power when needed. Do NOT be put off by the badge and miss out on a very classy car for not a lot of money!

Skoda Superb 2008

Recently I went past a Skoda dealership and I saw this car on the forecourt. I thought "God thats a bad looking Vehicle." So obviously i had to road test it to see if it was any good and i have to say, this Skoda is definitely not Superb. Worst of all is its performance. There is none!!! This car is just a waste of parts, they belong at the scrapyard. Take away the "s" and the "yard" and you got the overall rating of this car. GOing back to the performance i was out dragged from the lights by a gee whizz and the vehicles which the oaps use. ALSO i had trouble getting up a 3% gradient i was unimpressed. and i was over taken on the motorway by a cyclist who was wearing lycra in his 60’s.

Responses to this review

I prostrate myself at the feet of the worlds finest living comedian...oh, wait..pay 25K for a Beemer by any chance? - Max from England

Maybe when you grow up and get a driving license you will be able to make a more informed judgement! David Simpson from Cambridgeshire