cyberkank

Are there anything we can do that can improve noise insulation in the superb? (upgrade glass / window / door / floor insulation) It is a great car, but can be improved upon if we can get the cabin to have a bit less noise. (I think most are road noise due to crappy Australian roads).

To my knowledge it is the same. Dont see any difference. Skoda is not very big in Australia. Although with the introduction of the Kodiaq and the upcoming Karoq SUV helped with the brand here a bit. We love our SUVs here. One thing I forgot to mention is that I only use 98RON fuel as I believe it makes the car drive a bit smoother especially with hotter weather here.

I've got the 280 Sportline in Australia for nearly 9 months now. Very happy with the car, it is a great all rounder and super practical for weekend getaways. I do about 20-25k km a year with mixture of city / urban / country driving. Real life fuel consumption here is about 8.5L / 100km (approx. 33MPG) over the long term of around 18,000km so far. The power on tap is very useful and will put a smile on your face when it delivers via the 4x4. Cornering is not the best for the car, which is as expected since the car is very long and the suspension is relatively soft.

Hmm.. So it seems like other owners have similar experience. The dealer topped it back up and offered to do a more thorough check to see if there is an issue since the car is only 6 months old. Unfortunately I have to use the car but have booked in for the fisrt service / check (15,000 km) next week.

My skoda superb 280 is approaching its first service at 15,000km which i have booked it in end of December. Today while driving i had a low coolant light came on, so i popped the bonnet and check the coolant level. To my surprised there was nearly nothing left in the reservoir container, well bellow the minimum marker. Which is weird as i havent noticed any leakage in my garage or usual parking spot. Also i noticed there are some oil residue around the oil cap area. Is that normal? I have checked the level and it is within the markers. The oil is fairly black as the car is definitely due for a service. The car still drives fine, just the coolant error being active which i will need to get the dealer to top up tomorrow. Just seeing if any other superb owners have similar experience.

Yes, the surge will definitely be greater given a lot of the power / torque is generated higher up in the RPM.

Definitely, the throttle / gear mapping plays a huge part in its capable speed. I would imagine a lot of skoda drivers would be driving on "normal" with gear in "D" rather than the maximum performance of "Sport" with gear in "S". Where as the Evo would be manual and you can quite quickly change to the right gear to accelerate away. I think perception also definitely comes into play. The EVO is much more raw (more noise, more vibration feedback, lower to the ground etc), so the overall sense of speed is greater.

Just curiousity. Looking at some of the quarter mile time. It suggests the Skoda 280 is around mid 13s and a stock Mitsubishi Evo is around mid 13s. Is the Evo really that much faster? Although I would imagine to get the mid 13s the Skoda will need to use the Launch control where as the Evo doesn't have that function. It maybe closer than you think. No doubt the Mitsubishi Evo is definitely going to be faster around corners.

Highway driving I can get around 6.9L/100km on the 280PS. But that's pretty much 5 hours of 110km/h with a few stop overs around regional towns. Daily work commute I get around 8L/100km on normal setting and around 8.5-9L/100km on sport setting (Gearbox in D not S). This is all with 98RON fuel.

Here's my initial impression of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. The tyres are much more slim looking, there's less lip to guard the rims. The overall "velvet wall" look is quite nice as it accentuate the large rim a lot more than the Pirelli P7. Although, more care must be taken now as gutter rash can occur quite easily due to the lack of lip. Surprisingly, out of the 4 Michelin PS4S tyres I got, 2 were made in USA and 2 were made in France, not sure if there'll be any quality difference. The steering is a bit lighter and feel more responsive. The car feel a bit more nimble due to the more direct feel of steering. However, you do feel more of the road surface flaws via the steering wheel. The ride is also a little bit harder than the Pirelli and this translate to slightly more vibration and hardness in the cabin than previously. I guess this is due to the tyres being more "sport" orientated rather than "comfort". The braking of the new tyres are incredible, it is MASSIVE difference. it feels like you've upgraded to Brembo brakes, it bites hard. This is crucial for me as I do a fair bit of highway driving daily and good braking can be the difference between having an accident or avoiding one. The PS4S is not the quietest of tyres, it is quieter than the Pirelli at high speed. The Pirelli seems to have a "droning" effect at high speed that the PS4S does not have. The noise is similar if you are driving around town. I have not managed to test the grip as I want to let the tyres settle down a bit more before going nut on it. Havent had any opportunities to test in soaking wet condition yet as it is quite dry here at the moment. So far if you're looking for more "sporty" feel, the PS4S will not dissapoint. However, comfort is not really the tyre's forte, and sadly it does not solve the road noise issue. (I guess that is actually is due to the Superb being less noise insulated than the more expensive counterparts). Will report more findings with more usage.

Just giving some updates on an old thread. Finally decided to take the plunge and change the tyres since there was a Black Friday tyre sales a few days ago. Ended up getting the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S (apparently the Super Sport has been discontinued and this is the replacement). For less hassle with insurance / road regulation etc, I decided to stick with the 235/40/R19. Will be getting it fitted soon, will report back when I have a good drive of the new tyres. The Pirelli P7 actually had hardly any wear on them even after 13,000km or so. Bit of a waste to throw them out imo, might just keep it in the shed for future usage.

I did try to look for it but I couldn't find any adaptive lane guidance in the setting for the Audi. They do have "Traffic Jam Assist" though. once that kick in, it behaves like the skoda.

Interesting enough, I had a chance to drive the new Audi A4 for the weekend and it also have traffic jam assist along with lane assist. However, thinking that it was the same as Skoda was a big mistake. It seems like the Audi system behaves very differently, the TJA is very inconsistent and only appears when there are multiple cars around you (like in a traffic jam situation) also the lane assit is hopeless in comparison to the skoda. It doesn't really keep you in the lane (like the skoda lane guidance). Instead it only passively respond when you go near the line. I also find the system go active and de-active relatively quickly and inconsistently. The Skoda Superb system is far superior imo.

The Kia Stinger is quite an amazing car for the money. 0-100km in 4.8s and 1/4 mile in 12.8s. loads of tech and looks fabulous. Definitely an alternative to the 280 Skoda. The down side is that the boot is rather small in comparison.

Just did a 1000km trip in the outback Australia. The average fuel consumption was surprisingly good at 6.9L / 100km. This was mainly going at 100-110km/h highway.

Yes, I have the same issue. The P7 Centurato is very underwelming, very loud on anything that is not perfectly smooth. I have done nearly 10k on them and couldn't wait to swap them out for either Michelin Pilot Super Sport / Pirelli P Zero / Good Year F1 Assym 2.

Drove my car (280PS sportline) to the outback of Australia (Flinders Ranges) on the weekend. The car handled the task exceptionally well, put on comfort setting when the road gets bumby and it irons out all the bumps even on the 19" wheel. The 4WD really helped during the gravel road, although I had to put it in "Eco" mode to be a bit safer as the normal mode tends to be a bit too adventurous especially when your whole family is on board. Plenty of power on tap which enables you to overtake long road-train easily. The semi-autonomous driving (ACC + TJA) is perfect for the 1000km journey, The drive was 6-7 hours and I still felt fresh after it. The most surprising part is even with a full load (5 people + a whole boot of luggage) the car managed the trip with an average fuel consumption of 6.9L / 100km (well over 40MPG). Very happy indeed.

Just found out that my windscreen wiper goes down 95% of the way and not 100% when the auto-wiper is "engaged" or "standby" mode. Then when it does not detect rain, it will go down 100% in the resting position. Bit bizarre, didn't realise it until raining recently here in Australia. The 95% down is about 2-3cm above the normal resting position. Can someone confirm that is normal behaviour?

Interesting Billy, no wonder when I tried Launch control on the 280PS (with throttle response installed) it wasn't working as well as I thought. The car won't hold RPM even though the dash display "Launch Control Activated". Will give this a try next time when suitable.

What is the real difference between JB1 and JB4? I am currently using the JB1 on the 280ps and you're right, It is a nice upgrade. It makes the car a lot more gutsy than stock, not sure if JB4 is much better.

Good point, I make sure I'll ask the tyre fitter too.

Looks like the consensus responses suggest there'll be minimum impact to the car's ride/handling. I am not too fuss regarding the speedo's accuracy, but will have to contact insurance to make sure that they are happy to cover the car with the new tyre size.

Getting a bit sick of the P7 Cintaruto tyres. Very noisy on coarse road, thinking of swapping it out for a Michelin Super Sport. The tyre size (235/40/R19) that came with the Superb's 19" rims is pretty expensive here in Australia (Around $400AUD each). However, the 245/40/R19 size tyres are nearly half the price ($230-$250 AUD each) since they're much more common here due to them being used by other manufacturers' large cars. Just seeing if anyone have tried using the 245/40/R19 tyres instead of the OEM size (235/40/R19) with good results. Just seeing if it will affect handling / ride quality. Also see if there'll be rubbing on wheel arches? Unfortunately, in Australia you can't try out the tyres before you buy. So I will need to purely rely on other people's experiences.

Andrew, I highly recommends you look into burgertuning JB1. Got it installed and it is pretty awesome. You can use it straight out of the box and it'll pull really strong. The car becomes a beast unleashed, the push in the back sensation is pretty dramatic. I believe the 0-100km/h time will be around the 5s mark. It definitely felt a lot quicker than the stock 206. Else you can switch it to a more linear increase (map6 mode) and it felt the car feels a lot more responsive, like it has shed a lot of the weight. Great combo with the racechip throttle response. I know a lot of Golf R / Golf GTI users uses it without any issues.

I agree the racechip throttle response is the best upgrade (mod) you can get for your superb 280. The car feels a lot more peppy with it, seems like it has shed hundreds of kilos of weight. Currently using sport 1 and sport 2 mode for everyday driving. Installation was a breeze, takes about 5 minutes. It is a no brainer. The fact people say "Push your pedal harder" to get the same effect is definitely not really applicable in practical sense. Sure you can mash the pedal like a nut job to get faster acceleration, but it is definitely not very practical and certainly wont get rid of the throttle response lag.