Why the Skoda Superb is a 5-star car

The new Superb also majors on luggage space. The hatchback model offers an enormous load area of 645 litres when all five seats are in use, and 1195 litres when the rear seats are folded flat. Meanwhile, the Superb Estate offers 695 litres with the rear seats raised, and 1145 litres when they’re folded down. 

Autocar continues: “As befits a Skoda, the boot has plenty of pop-out hooks and bins, and there are two levers to fold the rear seats down.” In other words, ease of use has been placed front and centre in the new Skoda Superb.

2 Excellent ride and handling

It’s tough to have a truly broad appeal when it comes to the way a car drives, because everyone wants something slightly different. And the risk a car runs in trying to appeal to everyone is that it comes across as being neither one thing nor the other. 

Not the Skoda Superb, which manages to have real driver appeal at the same time as being truly comfortable. As Autocar states: “The new Superb is neither overtly sporty nor exquisitely comfortable, but it lives in the crowd-pleasing middle ground,” before adding: “It has gained a dash of driver appeal.”

The car’s suspension manages to isolate occupants from deteriorating road surfaces while keeping the body under complete control. During performance testing, Autocar noted: “A few laps of the Millbrook Hill Route showed the Superb to remain composed even at higher speed, staying unaffected by the severe compressions.”

Your connection with any car is fundamentally through the steering wheel, and here the new Superb comes up trumps, because it has a steering system that’s “intuitively geared and gradually builds weight as you load up the suspension in a corner, giving you plenty of confidence in the car’s road-holding.” High praise indeed.

And the Superb is equally adept in built-up areas, with Autocar commenting on how easy it is to manoeuvre, saying: “The steering’s strong self-centring effect and the impeccably round wheel help, too.”

3 Attractive running costs

The Skoda Superb engine range truly has something for everyone. It starts with a 150PS 1.5-litre TSI petrol engine that emits just 117g/km of CO2, and which manages a WLTP combined average of 56.5mpg in the hatchback version. The next petrol engine in the hatchback range is the 204PS 2.0 TSI, which achieves a CO2 output of 151g/km and can do 40.4mpg. The top petrol engine in the range is the 265PS 2.0 TSI, which is linked to Skoda’s four-wheel-drive system as standard, and which emits 175g/km and still manages an amazing 35.3mpg – all while having the sort of performance that allows the Superb hatchback to accelerate from 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds and hit a top speed of 155mph.

Skoda also knows that there is still a place for diesel in the world today, so offers the Superb with a 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine in two states of tune, with 150PS or 193PS. The former emits as little as 127g/km and can do an official 56.5mpg in the hatch, or 153g/km and 47.1mpg in the four-wheel-drive estate version.

Autocar was deeply impressed with the Superb’s economy, stating: “Our entry-level 2.0 diesel’s real-world fuel economy was excellent. Over the course of our test, including the performance testing, it averaged 52.7mpg, and in regular use 60mpg was easily achievable.”

And finally, the 1.5 TSI iV plug-in hybrid model offers a fully electric range of 83 miles, and emissions of 7g/km, which places the car in the super-low 6% band of Benefit-in-Kind taxation – perfect for business drivers. 

4 Clever, intuitive infotainment

There’s a large 13in touchscreen front and centre in every Superb, through which you are easily able to control a vast array of the car’s systems, including audio functions, mobile phone mirroring, and satellite-navigation, which includes traffic reports. Autocar’s testers are fans, saying: “The home screen has customisable tiles that let you keep the navigation and the media on screen at all times. At the top of the screen is a bar of configurable shortcuts that gives you direct access to functions like the start-stop system and the auto hold. It works quickly and logically.”

Indeed, the system perfectly complements the 10.25in virtual cockpit that comes as standard on every Superb, and which has three different layouts depending on your preference. And if you have a SportLine-spec Superb, it also seamlessly integrates with the head-up display.

Skoda has also been truly innovative by developing three clever Smart Dials on the dashboard. The pair of outside dials allow you to control various aspects of the cabin ventilation system, including temperature and airflow direction, plus the heated seats. The centre dial, meanwhile, allows you to control functions such as the car’s driving modes, audio volume, and even zoom in on the satellite-navigation system’s map.

Autocar was full of praise, saying: “It’s a brilliantly simple, yet tactile and intuitive system."

5 Luxury equipment

As we said earlier, the new Skoda Superb is the sort of car that would make anyone, including dignitaries, feel special. It does this not only through being luxuriously spacious, but also by having a high-end ambience, which is partially achieved by the comprehensive standard equipment it features.

For example, the SE Technology entry point to the range comes with heated and massaging front seats, wireless smartphone charging, LED lights front and rear, parking sensors at both ends, a rearview camera, adaptive cruise control and self-dimming interior and driver’s side mirrors. As Autocar says: “You needn’t spend more to get a fully featured family car.”

But if you do, the next trim level up, SE L, adds matrix LED headlights, electric memory seats, keyless entry, leather seats and an electrically operated tailgate with kick-to-open function, while SportLine trim adds niceties such as Progressive dynamic steering and Dynamic chassis control plus, as well as sports seats with massaging function and a self-parking system.