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Motoring Discussion > Skoda Superb - second, dynamic impressions	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: WillDeBeest	Replies: 14

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New Thu 27 Oct 11 11:59

Skoda Superb - second, dynamic impressions - WillDeBeest

After a false start because the demo car was mysteriously unavailable, the family and I spent a couple of hours earlier this week with a Skoda Superb estate. Mrs Beest wasn’t on top form, so I did all the driving but this, as we’ll see, was no great hardship.

We had time and fuel for a decent trundle, but no particular place to go, so we chose an anticlockwise circular route encompassing motorway, A-roads of varying surface quality, market towns, villages and the peculiar horror (to me) that is central Reading. It’s all in this Google map link, minus the little detour to take it home and park it on the drive.

tinyurl.com/superb-test-route

To begin at the beginning, this Superb was an Elegance estate in the odd but distinctive dried-blood colour Skoda calls Rosso Brunello. Inside was black leather. The car was a 61 with a little over 2,000 miles on it, with the 2.0 170 CR diesel engine and – new to me – the DSG automatic transmission.

Inside
Getting comfortable was simple enough. The Elegance has electric seat adjusters, which are easy to use and offer virtually stepless control. It’s also possible to use them safely on the move, which can make all the difference on a long journey when a slight change for its own sake can stave off driver fatigue. In my static impressions report the other week ( www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=8072 )I expressed some concern about the side bolsters on the seat bases, but I needn’t have worried – I wasn’t conscious of them at all in nearly two hours with the car. In fact my overall impression of the seat was very favourable – and if I hadn’t come in from 15 years with Swedish seats I’d probably have found nothing at all to criticize; as it is, it’s a little over-firm in places and doesn’t quite have the width to support my shoulders as well as the Volvo seat does, but it’s still better than almost anything else I’ve tried recently. The front passenger seat has the same adjusters – including one for the lumbar bulge, which Mrs Beest found before I did, and which goes up and down as well as in and out. That’s good for me, since my lumbar region is higher than most and the support in the Volvo is in the wrong place.

The driving environment, as with many well-equipped modern cars, is a little daunting at first, with a lot of multi-function switches controlling features that would require the handbook – not present in this car – to explain. I have to say I really, really hate Skoda’s choice of graphics for the speedo and tachometer. There’s too much white on the dials, and with the needles in white as well it is not as easy as it should be to tell how fast you’re going. VW instruments don’t have this nonsense, so why should Skoda’s? It’s a jarring gimmick in such a well thought-out car.

But the other main controls are where you’d expect them and have a nicely weighted action, with one curious exception. The accelerator pedal, as is VAG’s way these days, is a floor-hinged board, the first of this type I’ve tried. My foot naturally rested quite low down on it, which meant it required rather a lot of effort to move and reduced the degree of finesse I could apply. There’s actually room for my entire foot on the pedal, so no doubt I’d get used to resting it higher up, but it’s an odd sensation at first.

On the move
Now to the major control I didn’t get on with. I set off with the DSG in D mode, intending to let it do its own thing, but as we headed out towards the M4 and it changed up to fifth with the speedo showing 32 I began to think this wasn’t a good idea. Even trundling from the J12 roundabout onto the eastbound sliproad, it grabbed the opportunity to change up, so that asking it to get up to motorway speed resulted in an undignified drop of two ratios and a flustered – if distant - howl from under the bonnet. Even at cruising speed it felt the need to drop a gear for a mild overtaking burst, although the engine didn’t feel short of urge and was comfortably within its torque band. This, to me, is not what one wants from a big diesel.

On the twisty, bumpy A-roads I used the lever to choose my own gears, which made for smoother progress, and later, in town, I found and tried the S mode, which made better use of third but tended to hang on to second too long. In whichever mode, getting the selector into N and out again at traffic lights was a faff requiring a foot on the brake pedal; no wonder automatic drivers simply don’t bother. I’d be interested to know whether, as we’ve discussed here before, the DSG would ‘learn’ my driving style and choose more sensible gears, but I’d be more interested in a manual, especially since both versions come with a proper handbrake.

The silly gearbox is really the only aspect of the Superb I could fault. It made the car seem slow and unresponsive, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a fair impression. At speed, it is smooth, quiet and composed – quiet enough not to have to fiddle with the volume control during quiet passages of the Haydn symphony we took along to listen to. (The ‘Columbus’ audio unit is better than adequate too, if not quite up to Volvo standards.) On badly broken country roads it also makes very little fuss – this despite 45 profile tyres on 18-inch wheels. In town it’s very impressive: for such a big car, it’s very easy to place in traffic, helped by big mirrors and a large glass area with no gimmicky tinting at the back. I had no problem reverse-parking it, either, and I’d be confident enough about parallel parking if I could find a space to take the length.

Next steps
With its huge back seat and beautifully-shaped load area, the Superb really does seem to be a thoroughly well-sorted family travelling machine. As a piece of packaging, it makes my benchmark, the V70, look rather amateurish. Mrs Beest and I agreed that if we can’t fit ourselves and our stuff in one, we don’t need a different car, we need less stuff. The dealer will get me a manual demo as soon as they can; I’m also keen to try the 1.8 TSI petrol engine and even the 1.6 CR Greenline II engine in case that’s as drivable as the Volvo equivalents. Beest Major is already considering colours; it’s safe to say he liked it, and so did I.