Motors North

Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI 140 Elegance six-speed

SKODA really knows how to swim against the tide, and win.

Everything the former Eastern Bloc car maker has built in recent years under the banner of the Volkswagen Group has been a success – affordable and reliable.

That’s not surprising. Skoda is more than 100 years old and was building cars that were technically equal to Rolls-Royce within years of becoming established. It was only the arrival of Communism and the technological and social dumbing-down that followed which reduced Skoda to the rear-engined basic transport many of us fondly remember.

But for the past decade or more Skodas have been nothing less than alternative Volkswagens using the same technology with a different style - less pretentious than its German sister, yet fundamentally no worse than an Audi when it comes to design and power plants.

Which brings me to Skoda’s biggest car – the aptly-named Superb.

Never has a more surprisingly satisfying large car been christened so accurately. At 1.5 tonnes it’s 25kg. heavier than a similarly-sized Audi A4. It’s big, beautifully built, generously equipped and packed with clever, practical features.

There are 17 models in the 4.83 metre long Superb family – a giant among four doors that rivals the new Mondeo and Insignia for length but betters both on interior space and utility.

You can buy it in a variety of trims with a choice of standard front-wheel-drive or 4x4 traction. Engines include Volkswagen’s latest high-tech 125bhp 1.4 TSI turbocharged petrol delivering 41mpg at just £15,660 in S guise; a 160bhp 1.8 litre TSI petrol offering 37mpg for £16,735 in S guise and two TDI turbodiesel units of 1.9 and two-litres that can give you everything from 105bhp and 55.4mpg in a 1.9 GreenLine eco-model for £16,880 to a 170bhp two-litre with four-wheel-drive and 44.1mpg for £23,865.

And if you are feeling really flush, among the four 4x4 models you can buy with 1.8 petrol and 2.0 TDI power, is a crazy 260bhp 3.6 litre V6 VAG petrol unit that costs £26,640.

But I chose the most popular model for my test – a modestly tuned front-drive 140bhp two-litre TDI in comfortable Elegance trim that comes complete with heated leather seats for £21,540.

This six-speed manual version proved to be a cracking large four-door – with a little surprise tucked round the back.

Like all Superbs my test car has a combination rear end – a boot that doubles as a hatchback. Called "twindoor", it’s clever, practical, easy to use and an elegant solution to the problem of having to choose one or the other.

Press a central release switch on the boot lip and a large boot opens up a cavernous 565 litres of cargo area. Close the lid, click on a second release just off centre to the right and a massive tailgate swings open dramatically widening the Superb’s cargo capacity and, with the rear seats folded flat, deliverers a huge space of 1670 litres.

The Superb’s obvious four door rivals are Ford’s 140bhp Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Ghia at a slightly more expensive list of £21,695 with average consumption of 47.9mpg or Vauxhall’s new 160bhp Insignia 2.0 CDTi Exclusiv with 48.7mpg but a higher £23,295 list price.

Neither has the charm or utility of the Superb – or indeed the build quality.

Skoda has clearly got the large saloon/hatch niche licked.

No large car in this sector can be described as beautiful – the Mondeo looks glitzy and overweight and the Insignia reminds me a little too much from the front of our First Minister, Alex Salmond.

The Superb shares the same chunky looks of its rivals, but I like its more elegant exterior lines, its clean-cut panels and its lack of unnecessary adornment. Inside the story is the same – top quality VAG plastics, crisp switchgear and clear instruments. Perfect!

The Elegance package is great – generous, luxurious even. It comes with Volkswagen’s excellent touch screen radio and sat-nav system, a powerful climate control system, heated and electrically adjustable leather seats, cruise control, rear parking sensors, corner and adaptive bi-xenon lights, rain sensor, four powered windows, interior “theatre” lighting, 18-inch alloys, electronic stability control, front and site airbags, a split and fold rear seat and power steering that makes this large car feel light and easy to park.

It also has front, side and curtain airbags, two rear ISOFIX anchoring points, advanced ABS braking and electronic stability programme

But of the two options fitted to my car only one, the £400 metallic paint, is worth considering. The £395 Park Assist package was irritating and failed more often than it worked.

Park Assist is Volkswagen’s brainchild that links scanners to the steering and is supposed to find you a parallel parking slot, measure it and when you select reverse, drive you automatically into a neat kerbside parking bay. The Superb’s system had me on the kerb, ignored perfectly good parking slots and cried wolf so often when I tried to use it in a variety of locations that I gave up.

Frankly, if you can’t park a car yourself you should really think about giving up driving. Park Assist is obviously not the answer!

Punching through gales and monsoon rain on the A890 on my way to Achnasheen I was mightily impressed by the Superb’s excellent main and dipped beams. The car’s lighting is among the best in class – powerful with lots of main beam range and a sharp dip that floods the verge. The big car was easily knocked around by strong gusts of wind, but traction was never a problem with the front-drive feeling secure at all times.

In Elegance trim the car rides firmly and has a tendency to roll on harder corners. It’s a curious feeling made all the more odd because at this level Skoda has fallen into the trap of fitting its large alloys with pointless 40 section low-profile tyres. It robs the car of ride refinement.

If you bought a Superb in SE trim it would come with quieter-riding 17-inch alloys with 45 section tyres. Better still, on the entry-level S model you get 16-inch alloys and 55 section sidewalls that cushion the ride and dramatically cut road noise.

Sadly though just about every car manufacturer is reducing refinement on its more expensive models by insisting the customer demands sexy-looking low-profile covers. Frankly I think it’s more a case of buyers being hoodwinked into the decision and ultimately not being given much choice simply because bigger wheels and lower-profile tyres make better profits for the car makers.

But that takes nothing away from the Superb’s outstanding virtues.

This is a large and genuinely comfortable car that may not have the "right badge" – but it has all of the necessary pedigree. If you need space and like the idea of that clever "twindoor" combination tailgate/boot on a car with a three-year/60,000 mile warranty the Superb will be a brilliant buy.

Rating: 8.5/10

FINAL THOUGHT: It’s all in the name – Superb! Skoda’s flagship hatch/saloon is a clever, affordable and well-engineered large car that makes ideal transport for a large family, a businessman with a lot to carry or a taxi firm looking for economy, style and reliability. There may be a question about whether we need a 4.83 metres long Skoda that’s as big as a Vauxhall Insignia and only fractionally shorter than the new Ford Mondeo, but the truth is that if you need a really big car the Skoda makes superb sense.

Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI 140 Elegance six-speed

Price: £21,540
Capacity: 1968cc
Power: 140bhp
0-62mph: 10.2 seconds
Maximum speed: 127mph
Economy: Combined 47.9mpg; Urban 37.7mpg
CO2 emissions: 155g/km
ESP: Standard
Insurance: Group 10

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Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI 140 Elegance six-speed