Review - Skoda Superb

Since as long as I can recall using the web and reading international motoring mags, I’ve invariably come across satirical mentions of Skoda everywhere. Auto gurus, it is often observed, always ended writing the car off as dreadful, if it wore a Skoda badge. It was some sort of a prejudice; an automotive prejudice. But for a kid in his early teens, it made for an entertaining read, and I started loving what they had to say.


I later learned Skodas were essentially believed to be uninspiring piece of mechanical lunacy. They were expensive, crappy to drive and looked as boring as ice… in North Pole. There were reckless Skoda jokes all over the place. It seemed like people derived sadistic pleasure by mocking Skoda. It made me develop odium towards the brand. Sounds like irrational hatred, I know.

Anyway, times have changed. We are now in modern era. I am older and wiser. And Skodas now are VWs.

The previous generation Skoda Superb was one car that I loathed. And, er, loved. I loved it for being a lot of car for the money. It had an equipment list that would rival a teenage girl’s shopping list. I hated it for being dull. Dull to look at, dull to drive. What really happened was Volkswagen designed a stretched-chassis Passat especially for the Chinese market and coined a rather weird name as well – Passat Lingyu – to make it feel at home in the communist nation. But then the smart bosses in Germany tossed the Chinese chassis to their Czech relatives. The resulting car was Skoda Superb. It offered huge amount of space surrounded by a boring mould of sheet metal.

In its current avatar though, I think the Skoda Superb manages to look strange, if not dull. It appears as if the Skoda Superb was designed by three different chaps, one for each section of the car – front, rear and middle – being at point-blank range of a Kalashnikov and forced to work without communicating with each other.

Result? The Superb manages to look aggressive from the front, well done man. The chap responsible for the middle section apparently got shot by mistake even before he could get started and the guy responsible for rear was probably a homosexual to come up with something so effeminate. Or perhaps that guy was actually a girl. Skoda Superb is only an average looker, at best. How on earth did this work of unimaginative layout bag the crown of being the ‘Most Beautiful Car’ at Motorshow Katowice (Poland’s automotive show) is completely beyond me.

Also, I don’t quite understand what’s all that fuss about the boot? The Skoda Superb is a notchback/liftback/whatever. Skoda was so obsessively proud of the dual boot mechanism that it got it patented! Anyway, I am not sure if people would use it all that often.

Superb then, is not really a car that caught my focal attention like Monica Bellucci would, and neither has its driving-history been too loved by my right foot. So, the new one doesn’t work for me, you’d guess. But you’d be wrong. You’d be very wrong.

I don’t care if the Superb doesn’t drive me nuts. I simply don’t care because Superb, truly, never was a ‘performance’ machine. It wasn’t ever meant to be. Skoda biased the Superb primarily towards comfort and executive feel. And at being comfy and luxurious, it is pretty damn good. The seats are fabulous and the suspension evens out every crater on our roads. But with the Skoda Superb, it is primarily all about space. Even basketball-er Yao Ming can bloody well pamper himself with a sound sleep at the back. It really is that good.

Now, we already know that Volkswagen Passat is quite decent when it comes to space but the Skoda Superb has a 55mm advantage over Passat in terms of wheelbase. The new Superb is down in comparison to the outgoing model at wheelbase but, alarmingly, still manages to be more spacious inside, and we are talking numbers here, not just the feel.

I always try not to elaborate on the individual design elements – interior and exterior – like a kink on the bonnet or the swell of the wheel arches etc etc, but since I have already cried so much about how the Superb looks from outside, I must also share my views of the cabin with you.

I felt sorry after stepping in. Why? I’ll tell you the reason in a bit. The cabin quality, without a shadow of doubt, is pretty upmarket and makes the interior look opulent. It makes you feel like you’re sitting in a car doubly more expensive. The design and look of the dash is no-frills and traditionalist and the touch-screen audio-cum-information display thing (Skoda calls it Central Infotainment System) is quite a thing to have. You also get electrically adjustable front seats.

Now, why the ‘chalet’ made me feel sorry is because it lacks character.The Superb is plush alright, but a little experimentation inside the cabin would really be appreciated. Forget being appreciated, experimentation is desperately called for, I think. All Skodas and VWs have started to look more or less similar when it comes to cabin design. It would be nice to see some element of distinctiveness.

You might have noticed, at the start of this review, Skodas of the yore being mentioned as uneventful to drive. The new Skoda Superb continues to be so. In a surefooted way though. The Superb does nothing dramatic, ever. It never goes out of its organized behaviour to put either fear of death or that 440-watt smile on your face. It is, plainly put, much like the Big Ben – boring, after a few minutes of admiration. You’d prefer your Tag Heuer chronograph instead, every time.

The rack and pinion steering is electro-mechanically assisted which should result in a great response, and it does. It is light enough to keep the valet happy as you walk into the vestibule of the posh hotel to celebrate that mega-deal with your personal secretary and weighs up tastefully for your driver when you’re running against time to shuttle between meetings.

The 1.8 litre unit that is bolted transversely under the bonnet makes 160 bhp and 250 Nm of torque. But this is not important. The engine endorses a TSI badge. This is what is important. A mechanically operated supercharger takes charge at lower revs with the turbocharger kicking in as you bury the right foot deeper.

This gives a very linear power and torque curve. Skoda says those 160 horses are most usable between 4500 to 6000 revs and the 250 torques come between 1500-5400 revs. That makes for a good read on paper. Thankfully, it gets translated into actual performance too. However, I somehow felt the onslaught of the urgency of 160 bhp was most evident between 5200 and 6500 rpm and you do tend to notice a slight turbo lag below 1600rpm. Our petrol Superb drank well, with the overall fuel efficiency being 9kpl.

Skoda has equipped this car with a lot of things to play around with. And while at it, they also thought of going dancing skirt-up and designed a 7-speed DSG, just for kicks. And don’t mistake it as being a regular DSG with one more ratio slapped in. The 6-speed DSG employs oil-submerged clutches while the new 7-speed shifter plays along with twin dry ones. The new gearbox uses a pair of dry, bonded friction linings that don’t require cooling. This makes the new 7-speed DSG only 4kg heavier than its 6-speed sibling but, more importantly, it is smaller and consumes 75% lesser oil by volume.

Now comes the crucial part: price. Yes, Skoda did manage to max this out. Superb takes the battle straight at the doors of Honda Accord, breaks it open and beats the one that’s been the undisputed champion till now. If only the Superb looked as good as the Accord…

I am being reminded of what Skoda used to be in the yester-years as I am coming to an end of this review. There were times when Skoda did ridiculous cars like the Octavia of 1960s, the 110R and the Estelle. That’s when the world was mocking Skoda. But thank goodness for Velvet Revolution, for it has allowed you and me to witness and experience the truly superb Skoda Superb. Er, sorry for the cliché!