eurotraveller

Haha, good point. We're considering a re-jig of the cars we have, but are so far clear on only two things: one car should/must be PHEV and another (or the same) must have a tow bar. Combining the two features would suit us well, too, but how well does not work??

What seats do I have? Leather (it's an L&K), also vented. I've sat in the Sportline seats and - from memory - they share the same principal problem for tall people: too short / no extensions. I recently drove a rental Vauxhall/Opel/PSA Insignia and that had seat extensions, and better seats overall. (Not that I'd ever consider buying an Insignia - infotainment system is just awful).

Eye of the beholder, obviously. The one gripe I really don't understand is about the seat buttons on the door card: that's so much better than having to fish blindly for them on the side of the seat somewhere! Generally - after three+ years of S3 ownership - I feel the car's interior design has aged quite quickly, while the exterior still looks sharp to me. But it's the latter we'll probably find has been tweaked most in the autumn. For me, the car's biggest drawback of all is the quality of the seats: just not good enough. I buy another Skoda, but only if seats are much improved.

Being ever the cynic, especially when it comes to stuff like this, I bet that's true. The quoted figure surely has mostly to do with politics / brand positioning within VW Group. The really odd bit is the departure from a round number: like every unit that rolls off the line would produce a precise reading of 272ps (or the kW equivalent).

Really? Which "others"? Be that as it may, cruising at 160 km/h (in Germany) is still occasionally realistic; at any speed significantly over that it would virtually never be the case.

Top limit is 160 km/h. Just tried it again last week :)

Ah, but that's where you're wrong: there's never enough power. As for the question L&K vs. Sportline: the choice didn't exist when I bought, but I'd still go L&K. Why? The higher goodie-count and I'm not a fan of calling something "sport" when it's so obviously about as far removed from that as can be. (Don't get me started on the like of Range Rover Sport...)

Sounds like you’ll fail miserably to resist. Same here once the car is out of warranty (around about Brexit day – if it happens – and when new cars potentially become massively more expensive). One thing on any mapping power upgrade: it’s my understanding that anything over a 20% performance boost is also quite an insurance threshold.

No heated windshield? I’d change the order if I were you. Although I suppose it depends where in Sweden you live: I’ve lived in western Canada where the winter air is so dry you never need any defogging no matter how cold. I find the ‘downgrade’ (agree it won’t be in real-world conditions) from 280 to 272ps fascinating. This playing around with the output figures of the EA888 engine within the VW Group is clearly just that – politics / marketing of one in-house brand against the other. Having driven the 7-speed in the Porsche Macan – married to the same engine in 240ps guise – I have to say it’s considerably better, though that may be down to better throttle-response settings. Incidentally, I gather facelifted Macan gets various versions of the EA888 only, no more 6 cyl or diesel.

Sorry, gotta ask: why on earth would you want to lower your Superb, or any car for that matter? It's the most bizarre of modifications with nothing but drawbacks.

Just returned from a continental journey - via Hoek-Harwich Extensive autobahn travel with what felt like more than usual opporunity for driving at 120+ mph. Car said about 24 mpg during those stints. Best guess: 25-30% at high speed; remainder at 80-140 km/h.

Bit off topic this, but: i like Harwich - Hoek. Spend a bit more on a nice cabin going overnight and it’s a very pleasant micro-cruise. While nice enough environments, the big downsides are the restaurant / cafeteria. I bet Stena deems its customers on its Scandinavian routes to be worthy of far more acceptable standards of food.

Wonder what could be ‘achieved’ by a couple of laps of the ‘Ring. Mind you, the brakes would probably be cooked long before the finish line.

Agree. I go north and stay in Holland as long as I can. Set ACC at around 140 km/h and chill. Here’s a thought on mpg, though: never mind all this my-mpg-is-higher-than-yours willy waving, who can get the lowest and how? Now there’s a competition. Rules exclude e.g. endless London traffic jams or pulling 10-ton trailers; you have to be more creative than that.

Autobahn reality of course is that there's rarely opportunity for high-speed cruising over meaningful distances. Mostly it's a matter of fairly short bursts, so my sub-20 mpg figure was rather in jest.