Even those who would normally never look at an estate should cast a glance at the Skoda Superb Combi plug-in.
I’m not saying it will make you change your mind if you are driving a fancy large saloon or, more likely a multiple-shape crossover/SUV, but I venture to suggest that, should you take it for a spin, you will look anew at what a really good family estate can accomplish.
Of course, you don’t have to go to the trouble of doing any such thing as time consuming as test drive a car; you can read all about on the net.
But like all really good motors, and I mean really good, I believe you have to sit in and feel and drive this one, however briefly, to get the full flavour of the Skoda.
No, it is not perfect. It has a drawback or two.
In the case of the test car, it was as much about a few feckity interface moments on the part of the infotainment system as anything else really (I like the simple things in life not the fanciful). It’s the small stuff that can annoy you simply because you interact with it most days.
But it would be churlish in the extreme to dwell on such minor matters, in this case.
There are far greater questions posed for it.
You know how it goes. You’re at a social event or visiting someone or sipping an orange juice with a few others in the corner of the pub when the talk turns to cars. Many of them have known me since I was pushing bangers of cars around Clara.
Some of them know their cars better than I do. A lot better. They ask about the models I have driven and some can put me under severe pressure when they ask why I didn’t choose A over B. It can get sticky too sometimes when I don’t have the exact figure for the fastest car I’ve driven, the best car I’ve driven, the worst, the biggest, the smallest, the cheapest, the most expensive and so on.
You’d not be surprised, then, to find how often I have been asked to disclose what car I’d buy if I was retiring from writing about cars in the morning. A car for yourself, they’d say.
So, what would I buy right now for a brave new world away from writing about cars (don’t jump to conclusions; there is life in the old dog yet)?
It would have to be a mid-market priced mainstream motor, capable of meeting the demands of a growing and extended family for 10 years with minimum trouble, God willing. I’d run it into the ground as they say. After that, if I’m not run into the ground before it, I think it would be time to think about taking a back seat.
There would be a few candidates, ranging from the likes of the Toyota Corolla hybrid estate to the BMW 3-series Touring. I’ve often told people too that one of the chosen few would be the Skoda Superb Combi with a diesel engine.
But I’ve changed my mind.
I still like the idea of a diesel drive but I would opt for the plug-in hybrid version of the Skoda Combi.
The diesel model is probably more frugal on fuel. Yes, the official figures for the PHEV would wipe the floor with it but who believes the mad numbers for plug-ins? Those are 0-4/0-5litres/100km. They’d have you believing the car goes on thin air. The diesel, meanwhile, consumes 5.1/5.2 litres/100km. Much more realistic.
But I have changed my perspective to PHEV on the basis that it would do the business for me well into an uncertain future where I imagine, hybrids will still be part of the game on the secondhand market. Maybe the diesels will be too but I’ve made my choice as of now.
To get the car I’m telling you about – in Sportline trim with a few additional extras including metallic paint – would set me back €57,910. That’s a pack of money that I don’t have but since we’re only speculating on my exit it is the one I’d go for. All the more need, then, for the excellence I have highlighted in this 1.5TSi 204hp system (19.7kWh battery), 6spd automatic. Supporting such an outlay too, is the array of car, driver and passenger aids and comforts that I reckon would happily challenge the equipment list of far more ‘posh’ cars or SUVs.
It is important to remember that the range starts at just above the €50,000 mark so there is good value there, especially in the current climate where prices appear to have risen inexorably.
But, no disrespect to the entry-level ‘Selection’ version, I want a well-above-average level of trim if I’m going to be driving the car every day for the next 10 years. I’d probably settle for the Sportline spec (from €55,790) without some of the bells and whistles on my test car that pushed it to €57,910.
Right so. It’s the Superb Combi plug-in for a decade. The Corolla is a fine car but it doesn’t have as much space and the Beemer is too expensive.
The thing everyone talks about is the interior space of the Superb. It is enormous, but classy in that materials are of good quality throughout, seats are comfy, there’s a lot of spec and you get a 510-litre boot that transforms into 1,770 litres when the rear seats are folded. It is huge, yet there is no boom from such an amount of open space. Brightness throughout the cabin is accentuated by the presence of a panoramic sunroof.
There was loads of punch in the drive and I was impressed with the way the chassis set-up dealt with a variety of surfaces. It was nicely judged over big bumps in particular, something that’s hard to achieve on such a big, long car.
I enjoyed driving this and so, on occasion of their company, did my passengers who couldn’t believe the amount of room they had.
The quality inside is presaged on what, at first glance, is a straightforward design of the exterior. But the more you look at this car the better it becomes. The front is quite fetching. I’d opt for one in Carmine Red Metallic. I gave this a lot of thought because, hypothetically, I’d be looking at it for a long time and I’d like the idea of a red car seeing me into the next decade.
There aren’t that many large estates out there any more. The crossover/SUV revolution has seen to that. But it would still take a great one to topple the Superb in its price range.
