New Skoda Suberb

Stevie Dakota

Looks like there is a lot to like, but could you drive SUCH an ugly duckling?

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/221628/skoda_superb_20_tdi.html

biggus

Maybe if it hadn't got a Skoda Badge... still a problem in Ireland methinks... more so now as its the taximans brand.
Looks a lot like a modern renault 25.
Also Good too see from reading the article that they've gone for a soft ride rather then sharp handling. If i want tight handling I'd buy a Coupe.

pyramuid man

Looks alot like a passat tbh.

mike65

Hideous side aspect, front no better. The inside is quite nice, though the wood is a bit shiney and the autoshift has a leather sleeve so it looks like a manual! :eek:

from the review

Room in the rear is very generous, with more leg space than you’d ever need and thoughtful touches such as umbrellas that slot into the doors, a trick inspired by Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom

Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike.

cashmni1

+1 Mike,
Awful from the side and not much better from the front.
Looks like a lesser Skoda stretched out. Its got the Fabia grille, :eek:, and the side profile with the small windows with soft edges.......backwards they went I say.

Double boot thing is a good idea tho IMO

tw0nk

Not trying to rock the boat here but.... I really like the look of it! I admit the side view isn't great , sorta like a saab 95 side view, but I think the front is lovely, the new lights remind me of the new 5 series and the back is definitely like the new laguna..... just my 2 cents...

Anan1

pyramuid man wrote: »

Looks alot like a passat tbh.

That got fvcked by a SAAB.

Stevie Dakota

It really bugs me that VW ensure that Skoda generally always fall short in some important area, when they could be so much more appealing. That's what you get though when you own different brands, you have to keep some down to protect the others. TBH the whole VAG group does not produce one real world car that would really get me excited, bland, bland, bland.

tw0nk

I think your right there Stevie, passat... yawn, the only one I really like is the golf gti but so overpriced, I get the impression that by the time I can afford it, I am too old for it

yellow012

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

It really bugs me that VW ensure that Skoda generally always fall short in some important area, when they could be so much more appealing. That's what you get though when you own different brands, you have to keep some down to protect the others. TBH the whole VAG group does not produce one real world car that would really get me excited, bland, bland, bland.

To be honest I don't believe that Skoda's fall short in any important area, compare a Golf and say a Octavia and tell us where the Octavia falls short, and bear in mind that say there is probably a €2.5k difference in price between comparable models.
IMHO the average Skoda owner is not a badge snob, is more interested in value for money, reliability, practicatity and paying a €2.5k premium for soft damped grab handles etc would be just stupid.
And as regards exciting real world cars jeez your hard to please, just off the top of my head I can think of these.
Octavia vRS
Octavia vRD
MK1 Fabia vRS
Polo Gti
Golf Gti
Golf GT 170bhp
Golf R32
Audi S3
Audi RS4/S4
Audi S5
Audi RS6/S6, Allroad Quattro

peasant

Not very pretty, but I really like that hatch with the two openings.

Now that is clever (and useful)

Could very well see this car becoming the new peasant-mobile a few years down the line when depreciation and badge snobbery have made it practically worthless second hand.

colm_mcm

mike65 wrote: »

Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike.

That appeared in the Nissan Pulsar first?



I like the hatchback and boot door idea. Haven't seen that before

mike65

It appeared in the first Superb. Then RR nicked it.

Mike.

colm_mcm

mike65 wrote: »

It appeared in the first Superb. Then RR nicked it.

Mike.

Nissan had this feature on the Pulsar since around 1990 IIRC

ninty9er

colm_mcm wrote: »

I like the hatchback and boot door idea. Haven't seen that before

Hyundai have been doing that since the Santa Fe was first introduced.

unkel

Probably as good a proposition as the Mark1, especially second hand, but the looks are very disappointing. I couldn't live with that

peasant

ninty9er wrote: »

Hyundai have been doing that since the Santa Fe was first introduced.

A double tailgate on a SUV/estate is nothing new ...on a saloon/hatchback it is

colm_mcm

the Santa Fe and Tucson just have a seperate opening glass on the back, this setup on the Skoda looks pretty complex, and at odds with their usual lack of imagination. Can't actually think when it'd be useful - maybe if you're not very tall it'd make closing the boot easier.

E92

Could someone tell me how in the Audi A4 the 2.0 TDI 170 manages 16% VRT, and yet in this the exact same engine is in 24% VRT? That seriously limits it's appeal already IMO. The whole point of a Skoda is that it's cheaper, not dearer than more expensive products in the VAG range.

Cionád

E92 wrote: »

Could someone tell me how in the Audi A4 the 2.0 TDI 170 manages 16% VRT, and yet in this the exact same engine is in 24% VRT? That seriously limits it's appeal already IMO.

Perhaps the additional weight?

It would limit it's appeal on these shores as a result I suppose. I do like it though

E92

Skoda have managed the unique trick of using three different generations of VAG 4 cylinder diesel engine. Why God only knows, but they have.

The base engine, which will get into 16% VRT for Ireland, is heavily based on the engine that first saw the light of day in the B4 Audi 80 back in 1993. That would be the stone age 1.9 TDI then, and it will be a "Greenline" model, equivalent to VW's Bluemotion, Audi's e model, or Seat's Ecomotive model. The middle engine is the more recent 2.0 TDI PD engine boasting 140 bhp. That gets into 20% VRT if my memory serves me well. Meanwhile, as noted above, the top diesel engine is the 2.0 TDI 170, and that is the brand new common rail engine. Why couldn't they have just sold one engine in 3 different states of tune like Audi did with the B8 A4(2.0 TDI in 120, 143 and 170 bhp guises), especially as the Superb is a newer car than the B8 A4?

Stevie Dakota

yellow012 wrote: »

To be honest I don't believe that Skoda's fall short in any important area, compare a Golf and say a Octavia and tell us where the Octavia falls short, and bear in mind that say there is probably a €2.5k difference in price between comparable models.
IMHO the average Skoda owner is not a badge snob, is more interested in value for money, reliability, practicatity and paying a €2.5k premium for soft damped grab handles etc would be just stupid.
And as regards exciting real world cars jeez your hard to please, just off the top of my head I can think of these.
Octavia vRS
Octavia vRD
MK1 Fabia vRS
Polo Gti
Golf Gti
Golf GT 170bhp
Golf R32
Audi S3
Audi RS4/S4
Audi S5
Audi RS6/S6, Allroad Quattro

I guess we have different ideas about real world cars, RS6? Come on. What I mean by exciting is not some feisty engine bolted into a Fabia, I'm talking about cars that have some passion and individuality to their design, some of the Audis come close, but all those cars, while quick, leave me cold. As long as VAG share so may bits across the range I would always feel I had paid over the odds for my Audi compared to a VW, and ditto all the way down to the Fabia.

bazz26

E92 wrote: »

Skoda have managed the unique trick of using three different generations of VAG 4 cylinder diesel engine. Why God only knows, but they have.

The base engine, which will get into 16% VRT for Ireland, is heavily based on the engine that first saw the light of day in the B4 Audi 80 back in 1993. That would be the stone age 1.9 TDI then, and it will be a "Greenline" model, equivalent to VW's Bluemotion, Audi's e model, or Seat's Ecomotive model. The middle engine is the more recent 2.0 TDI PD engine boasting 140 bhp. That gets into 20% VRT if my memory serves me well. Meanwhile, as noted above, the top diesel engine is the 2.0 TDI 170, and that is the brand new common rail engine. Why couldn't they have just sold one engine in 3 different states of tune like Audi did with the B8 A4(2.0 TDI in 120, 143 and 170 bhp guises), especially as the Superb is a newer car than the B8 A4?

I would imagine that the older PD units are cheaper to produce than the newer common rail unit. Offering these units in all but the top of the range model keeps costs down. Also we wouldn't want to possibly take some customers from their more posh VW and Audi siblings. VAG engine line ups always amused me, they go from the absolute stoneage to the latest technology, the obvious common theme being that the newer, more advanced the technology the higher a premium you have to pay for it.

ninty9er

All the same for the money I'd probably stretch to this