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.

For me, breaking into 30s mpg quite unusual. In my case, mostly B and A roads; maybe 30% dual carriageway / motorway. On the smaller roads I generally select ‘Sport’ for the much better downshifting, with occasional paddle intervention. Autobahn travel coming up shortly: might be tough to crack into 20s mpg

Fuel type has been discussed many times, but: I couldn’t tell the difference between 95 and 97 RON (cannot get 98 anywhere near where I live), so have stuck with 95 ever since over a year ago. I also tried 98 (as well as 100) on the continent: again, felt no benefit. We also have a Porsche in the family. Porsche Centre dealer says: “we use 95 in all our cars; no problem”. Good enough for me, too.

I have no engineering knowledge, but yes, that loss to the wheels looked / looks high to me, too. It was the RaceChip Ultimate. And yes, I was aware that they could make remote adjustments. In fact, I phoned them then and there to give them the (more than dissappointing) readings. They said: "How much to do you want?" I replied that I wanted something closer the the claim. They said to switch everything off, wait a few minuties and try again. I did, but unfortunately there was no more time for another dyno run. However, the car felt no different on the road home. So I got bored with the whole thing, took it off and put it away.

Power corrected to DIN 70020 : 273.4 BHP / 203.9 kW Engine power: 281.3 BHP / 209.8 kW Wheel power: 181.3 BHP / 135.2 kW Max power at: 5990 rpm / 132.2 mph Torque: 275.1 lbf.ft Max. torque at: 3235 rpm / 71.3 mph Max. attained RPM: 6255 / 136.7 mph No, crucially, I didn’t get a before and after, just the after.* At the time, I just ‘binned’ the box and forgot about it. As said, now that the 3-year mark approaches, I’ll taker a closer look at all this again. Before anyone asks why: that evo article pretty much gives the answer – the joy of a “Q car”. It would just be fun to have a bit more “Q”. *PS: Given the 350ps claim, I just assumed the reading would be comfortably into the 300s anyway, even if I was never naïve enough to expect the claim to be entirely true.

Your reasoning on brand politics vs. parts standardisation makes perfect sense. However, I wasn’t telling my whole story. Last year I trialled one of those add-on chips and had the performance tested on a dyno. Result: engine power of 281.3 BHP (not PS) / 209.8 kW. In other words, sweet FA extra. So, would the stock engine really produce ~300bhp (presume you meant PS, though)? Highly unlikely, surely. And that’s the thing too: there will have been 1000s of independent tests done to check whether actual output matches the manufacturer claims. For instance, if I had bought an Audi S3, had run it in and then had it tested and it underperformed the claim I’d demand they take the car back. Conversely, if it became known – as it would – that a stock Superb 280 actually produces around 300ps, VW would be in big trouble both internally and with insurers.

So, looking not very far ahead when the car is out of warranty (next March), what to do? 1) I trade for something else. or 2) I keep longer term (and avoid the savage depreciation & continue to enjoy the Superb’s other strengths like SPACE). If the latter, some fresh spice in the form of modification will be called for. I wouldn’t be looking for the above 500+hp, but something that would still be in keeping with my high-mileage travel / good engine life. What sort of performance from the EA888 would fit the bill? – I mean actual performance, not the claims of add-on chip makers. I presume somewhere in the mid-300s hp range? What other (reasonably practical) modifications would people suggest to go with such engine performance? How much added power would also require brake modifications etc? To my knowledge, the currently most powerful stock variant of the EA888 puts out a claimed 310ps. I guess even that 10% (if true) would be nice; if only to know you’re getting what others are getting from the same engine – that bit really bugs me now (call it xxxxx envy if you like ). There’s a VW tuning specialist not far from me, so I’ll drop in there for a chat in due course.

Off topic, but yes indeed! No matter what the brand, I’m sure the sales seminars they attend these days focus almost entirely on selling loans: that’s where the money is. ‘Car’ companies have become finance businesses side-lining in some car manufacturing. They don’t actually want to sell cars anymore; in fact, I’ve encountered dealers positively allergic to the prospect. On topic: yes, I chose the TSR option. As said above, it works pretty well and – from memory – is a fairly low-cost option on L&K, so definitely worth it.

@bigjohn Re dashcam: well, maybe so, but how likely are you to be stopped and searched for stuff like that (so long as not fixed to the dash)? I'd say you're more likely to win the lottery. And that's the thing will all this stuff. There's a long tradition of vendors in the UK selling product you supposedly must have when travelling to/on the continent; things that, some cases, continentals never knew or worried about when travelling in each other's countries (remember the amber paint for headlights supposedly needed in France ?). Yes, warning triangles and hi-viz vests just make plain good sense anyway, but I have never - in 10s or even 100s of 1000s of miles - bothered with anything else, and that includes 'GB' stickers before EU-style number plates.

Better (front) seats! - the key thing that might prompt me to switch brand.

@GaSelle Exactly my point about £40k vs. £70k / Skoda vs. 'premium' more or less fully equipped in each case. (Plus the huge difference in servicing costs). One pedantic point: Skoda UK is not an "import organization" ... yet. It looks like it will become one after March next year. It's a funny one I've seen in other product markets where regional distributors within the EU describe themselves as "importer", or even "official importer", to put it into the minds of prospective buyers that they are the exclusive source for a given product. Citizens of the EU are of course free to buy from any distributor / dealer in the EU.