Utterly brilliant, the new Superb 1.8 TSI had us licking our lips until we saw the fuel consumption figures, Kushan Mitra writes about his experience with the car
The first thing you say when you see the new Skoda Superb is ‘Wow’. Clad in a colour that the Czech carmaker is calling ‘Magnetic Brown’, it really does stand out. The Superb was always a great value-for-money luxury car, but this current generation car takes it to another level. It is now an extremely attractive car which is great value for money.
let us keep some things in mind, Volkswagen Auto Group (VAG) owns Skoda. And Audi. And Volkswagen as well. The Superb thus has the same underpinnings as many of its siblings from the group, it even shares components with the Octavia. This of course means that engineering costs are kept lower and mechanically the car is easier to maintain. But it is what Skoda does when it is dealt the same cards that makes all the difference.
In the launrent&Klement top specification of the Superb it is incredibly luxurious. But here is the fun part, you could be sitting in the back seat or driving and feel just as comfortable. No other sedan in this price bracket even comes close to the Superb when it comes to the stunning amount of rear legroom and boot space. You can lay down, spread out at the back, and still not want for space. There are houses in parts of Mumbai smaller than the interiors of this car.
And while driving it, you have to remember that you are driving a massive river barge on a narrow creek, the brilliant seven-speed DSG dual-clutch gearbox takes the 178 horsepower from the 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine and transfers it to the road seamlessly. When we say seamlessly, we mean it. It is impossible to feel the gears change, in fact your ears have to constantly listen to the engine note to know what is going on. It is buttery-smooth.
And the new Superb also takes the infotainment system in this segment of cars to a higher level. The Superb comes with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both systems are ‘plug-and-play’ — hook up your phone through the wire and listen to music and make calls all at once. While the steering controls for this could be better and the touchscreen could be a bit less sensitive (scrolling is not easy) the sound system is, to use the pun, superb.
That said, it is unlikely that most Skoda Superb owners will use the touchscreen as they will be sitting in the cavernous rear seats. So just equip yourselves with a long USB cable and enjoy. That said, one thing owners would want to keep an eye out for is the fuel consumption. The Superb’s own trip computer said that the car’s long-term average was under seven kilometers per litre. While that is not as horrible as it sounds, given this is a mammoth car and we were driving a petrol-engined car with a degree of enthusiasm (even using the flappy paddle gearshift), it is not great.
But given the petrol and diesel variants have close to a Rs2.5 lakh price difference, the l&K 1.8 TSI we drove costs Rs28.25 lakh ex-showroom Delhi, and given that these cars will for the most part be driven around inside a city, this is not a deal breaker. The petrol engine is an exciting motor and it is impossible to find another car that can give you the same combination of space, luxury and performance under Rs40 lakh.