Skoda's new Superb, aside from being enormous, is a decent drive at a great price, with some impressive gadgets – making it the best family car out there, writes MICHAEL McALEER, Motoring editor
MODESTY – AND A certain admiration for the plucky underdog – has prevented me staking my claim on Skoda’s Irish success. As the VW-owned brand is lauded for its top 10 market position and 5 per cent share, in the interest of openness and balance it’s time to reveal a personal involvement with the brand’s first foray onto the Irish market.
In the late 1980s, as Lada was building its reputation as the favoured family car for those trading up from a Massey Ferguson or Honda 50 scooter, Skoda sought to snap up some of the Irish action as well. For my part, a friend and I headed up the brand’s direct marketing campaign in a key demographic.
Our job was to stick Skoda leaflets on car windscreens, tractors, and even the odd bridle, at the Ballinasloe Horse Fair. In hindsight, it was a poorly negotiated contract: payment for a rain-sodden day lifting – sometimes accidentally removing – wipers on decrepit bangers consisted of curry chips on the way home, courtesy of the Skoda dealer’s son.
In our defence, we were edging towards our early teens and car mad. The high point of life was obtaining a driving licence and any opportunity to associate with cars was jumped at.
Even travelling to the fair in a Skoda Rapid, laughably sold as a sports coupé, didn’t put us off. Inquisitive horse traders were told it was an Eastern-Bloc version of the Porsche 911 – both rear-engined sports cars, you see. There were even a few references to its 60 horsepower. “As many horses under the bonnet as on show in the main field, and in better shape. Imagine them all galloping down the road to Sunday mass, you in tow.”
To this day, Skoda bosses have never fully recognised the critical brand-building role we played. It would be churlish to hold current management to account for this. Suffice to say, a small statue in Prague will be acceptable.
Memories of those early efforts to entice shrewd Irish buyers to Skoda returned as we showed friends around the Superb. For, within days of living with this car, I became a Superb evangelist. If there is a motoring zeitgeist for Ireland in 2010, it’s this car – and this brand.
One of these days the folks at Volks are going to spot what the cunning Czechs are up to. Cars like the Superb could quite easily carry a VW badge without a second glance from the most loyal German buyer. The same is true with the new Yeti, while the Fabia is such a good deal with scrappage it makes you question the logic of spending on the Polo. Some day soon the Czechs will get caught out, but for now they can laugh all the way to the bank.
It’s not that this is the greatest driver’s car on the road – it’s not. Nor is it the best handling. But put all its elements together and you get one of the best family buys out there.
Engines start with a 122bhp 1.4-litre petrol and rise to a 3.6-litre 260bhp petrol with four-wheel-drive. Neither will sensibly sell here. Instead your choices should be between the 1.8-litre petrol – ideally with DSG automatic – or the 2-litre diesel. With little difference in price, the diesel wins out for lower emissions that will save €330 in motor tax a year.
There’s 168bhp on tap but it’s very capable of pushing on this large car. Acceleration is claimed at 8.9 seconds but feels much sharper during vital mid-range overtaking moves, when the 70-100km/h time is what matters. We had no problems with the output.
When it comes to handling, there is a degree of bodyroll in corners, while the steering could be more positive. Like all cars in this class, it comes with traction control as standard and that should keep you out of trouble, but the car is prone to understeer if you head too fast into a corner. Perhaps its best driving feature is that, for all the rear overhang from that enormous boot, it’s not tail happy. In fact the car feels a lot smaller from behind the wheel than it is.
And it is huge. It’s hard to get people to fully appreciate just how much legroom there is in the back until you get them inside. So our routine was simple. First, you walk your friends around the car to persuade them of modern Skoda’s nice styling touches. Then you show them the boot, that starts at 633 litres and expands up to 1,865. Forget about golf clubs: this could be a par four hole.
From the boot, it’s just a five-minute stroll to the back seats. Those over 6ft should get in first, for these people have spent lifetimes chewing on their kneecaps in the rear of cars. The Superb has the sort of legroom you find in a London taxi. The extra roof height on the estate only adds to the concert hall feel.
Then there are the gadgets. The Superb comes with a decent array of standard features at the entry price of €25,285. These include cruise control, dualzone climate air-con and the likes. But up your payment to €33,395 and suddenly standard fare includes the likes of heated seats, adaptive front lights, sat-nav and a decent six-CD stereo. Leather is also standard and though it’s not the soft, supple hide you get in an S-Class, it’s comfortable.
Then there’s the parking assistant: the grand finale of the Superb sales pitch. A rather rudimentary adaptation of the self-parking system in the Lexus LS and Toyota Prius, it’s a great little toy to show friends. It works like this: switch on as you drive along a busy street where you want to park. Keep speed below 30km/h and use indicators to show which side of the road you want to park on.
The car then uses sensors to scan that side of the road. When you drive past a parking spot it estimates is big enough for the car, a little symbol appears on the dash, telling you to engage reverse. You still have to control the speed and braking but the car takes over the steering. No matter how many times you do it, it’s still pretty amazing to watch the wheel twist and turn as it parallel parks the car. It’s the sort of toy you expect in a €140,000 car.
After about five minutes you start to notice its limitations, like a frequent failure to notice gaping spaces and an inability to reverse into right-angle parking spots – but if you pick the right spot, your friends and, more importantly, cynical colleagues, will be properly impressed.
When you weigh up the drive, space and impressive specification, the Superb becomes one of the best buys on the market. There are those who will still prefer the more stylish looks of the Citroen C5, or established names like the Ford Mondeo, with arguably the best of the diesel engines in this segment.
Yet the Superb deserves to get its tyres kicked. If you’re in the market for a family car, either in estate or saloon, it has to be on your shortlist – if for no other reason than to justify our efforts on that wet weekend in Ballinasloe.
Factfile
Engine:1,968cc common-rail four-cylinder diesel engine with six-speed manual transmission putting out 168bhp @ 4,200rpm and 349Nm @ 1,750
0-100km/h:8.9 seconds
L/100km (mpg):urban – 7.7 (36.7), extra-urban – 4.9 (57.6), combined – 5.9 (47.9)
CO2 emissions:155g/km
Tax:Band C – €302
Specifications:standard on Comfort – 16" steel wheels, ESP stability control with ABS, engine immobiliser, front foglights; Ambition adds chrome strips on windows and grille, 16" alloys, four-spoke multi- function steering wheel, Bluetooth, Bolero touch-screen radio with six-CD changer/SD Card Port, rear parking sensors, heated front seats; Elegance adds 17" alloys, full leather interior, tyre pressure monitoring, bi-xenon headlamps, sat-nav, parking assistance, heated front and rear seats
Bootspace:633-1,865 litres
Price:€33,395 (prices start at €25,285)