Imbedded in the commentary below will be found some of the hidden extras that were included with our car. I must warn you that it is a long read but I hope you have the time and enjoy what you read. At the end you will find a specification list for our Superb Combi 2011 Elegance 1.8 TSI DSG 7-automatic and a link to some photos taken in the showroom prior to our driving out and also our first drive.

So let us start the colour purple...

Finally the grand day arrived and expectations were very high.

Yesterday afternoon at just before 4.30 we arrived at the Skoda dealer in Västerås and were met at the door by the salesman who had seen us arrive. I must commend him for being quite attentive especially since there were other prospective customers in the showroom at the time. (If anyone in Sweden is reading this I can strongly recommend our dealer and especially the salesman that helped us.) He let us take a walk around our new car as he quickly took care of another customer. Once he was through with that he suggested that we get all the paperwork done first before he gives us a detailed run through of the car.

With the paperwork cleared it was now time to have a look at our new car in detail and excuse me for saying but what a beauty. Having had our car treated at Mr Cap the day before the salesman commented on the finish which he thought was the best he had seen. He mentioned also that the guys at Mr Cap had not seen or worked on a Superb Combi before and were extremely impressed. Apparently, they couldn’t believe that it was a Skoda and from many of the posts on Briskoda that comment isn’t new, is it?

Luggage

The salesman decided to show us the workings of the electrical controlled rear door first followed by the ginormous luggage compartment including all the “hidden†storage on the sides (here we found the warning triangle and a bottle of motor oil) and under the extendable floor (here we found a set of textile mats). He showed us how to remove, attach and move the fastening elements and lashing eyes, how to fold the extendable floor even with the rubber mat (accessory number: 3T9 061 190B) in place that we had ordered extra and of course the automatic roll cover and removable LED light.

I have added the following comment the 14 September:

I am not sure if this is standard or not (waiting for a reply from the salesman) but when we had a look at the Superb back in May the showroom car and both of the demo vehicles had a vertical retractable net/mesh luggage divider (safety net) that raises and lowers from behind the backseat headrests (integrated into the base of the retractable roll cover). This is not to be found in our car. Maybe Skoda has decided like the umbrella to remove this also? Anyone know for a fact what has happened here?

Under the extendable floor and storage he showed us the full size spare wheel which we had ordered extra instead of the tyre repair kit which was standard and also how to use the lifting jack and also the adapter for unlocking the safety wheel bolts. As we had also ordered the detachable tow bar this was also found here. We tested attaching and removing the tow bar and found that very easy even if we did have to get on all fours.

Rear seats

After having looked at the luggage end of the car and before we jumped into the rear we had a look at how to fold the rear seats. The salesman suggested removing the rear head restraints as that way we would get completely flat flooring with the rear seats down. Once sitting in the rear we had a look at the lighting, cup holders and hidden storage in the rear arm rest. By the way the salesman didn’t know about this feature and we had to point it out for him. A guess from my side since the Audi that I drove earlier had this.

Umbrella

Whilst keeping to the rear seating area of the car I was also interested to check whether the umbrella was to be found in the rear left side door or not. Was the umbrella there? NO!

According to the salesman Skoda had decided to remove the umbrella from model year 2011. When he has been asked by customers what, if any, are the differences between model year 2011 and 2010 he has been replying “The only difference is the umbrella has been removedâ€.

We made a joking comment about the umbrella being the main reason for choosing the Superb over the others cars we had looked at (see “Hi from Sweden†under “Introduction†for that list) and he replied he would see if he could fix one. Let’s see if he does.

Drivers look

Our car has KESSY installed so it was fun testing unlocking and locking the doors without having to use the key. If the driver and the passenger have both an individual key on them then they are able to open each of their doors individually. I understand that there are a number of different settings that can be activated. The salesman mentioned also that our car was the first one out of their showroom with KESSY installed plus there was a small dilemma after we had placed our order since Skoda had restricted KESSY to only black and white cars initially.

My wife then jumped into the driving seat but we were both at the end of the walk through quite lost as to all the things we could do with the lighting, mirrors, automatic AC and the radio just to name a few items. We will have to look at all of this again even if the salesman ran through things quite slowly.

Lighting

One comment he made about choosing positioning for the light-switch was to use “auto†during the day and then switch to “low beam†during the evening. His reasoning was during the day the daylight driving lights were activated in “auto†with the xenon lights coming on only when needed. Moving the switch to “low beam†in the evening activated also the instrument lighting plus main beam. Apart from the headlight flasher the main beam cannot be activated in “autoâ€.

Windscreen heater

Apart from the umbrella that I mentioned earlier it appears that Skoda has also removed the windscreen heater as standard from around May this year. It appeared in the Swedish sales brochure dated January 2010 as standard (this was the brochure we saw in the showroom when we placed our order the 28 May) but as an option in the brochure dated May 2010 that you will find on Skoda’s home page today (Swedish). For me this wasn’t an issue so we didn’t make a point of arguing about it when mentioned during the walk through. I have read that it can affect GPS reception for example (not the Columbus but separate unit on the dash).

Electrical seating

Having electrical seating we had some fun playing around with this also. We did though have a more serious question about activating memory settings when entering with KESSY. The simple answer appears to be that when using the key to remotely unlock the car the drivers seat will adjust according to the key used (naturally if pre assigned) but if the door is opened using KESSY then you will have to manually activate your individual setting by pressing one of the memory buttons.

Under the bonnet

Basically we just had a good quick look as I hope we will not need to look under here that often. The salesman made a point of mentioning that we should always use the correct mix of windscreen washer fluid. He had heard of a number of incidences this last winter (it was pretty serious here in Sweden) where the reservoir tank had frozen and cracked due to a bad mix. According to him replacing the tank is quite costly.

I mentioned earlier that Skoda had supplied a “free†bottle of engine oil. The salesman mentioned that we would probably never need to use this personally but showed us what to do if needed. We had a look also at the battery and how to change light bulbs (except the xenon). I don’t want to exaggerate but all in all a pretty thorough job of walking us through.

Having completed the walk through it was now a little after 6 o’clock and time for us to drive out of the showroom. I thought my wife would like to drive the car out but she left that privilege to me (she drove our last car out of the showroom so I guess she thought that it was my turn). What a comfortable drive. The automatic gear shift was very smooth or maybe I was being very careful. Our first journey was to get the car fully tanked (there was only about 10 litres in the tank when we drove out of the showroom) and then head for home.

Today my wife has taken the car out for a long drive about 130 km so when she gets back I will have to hear what she thought.

So what is the car we are now driving?

You can checkout some photos from the showroom and my wife’s first drive here: http://s739.photobuc...mview=slideshow

The specifications are as follows:

Model: Superb Combi 2011 Elegance 1.8 TSI DSG 7-Automatic (3T)

Colour: Amethyst Purple Metallic with Emory black Alcantara seats and black/black interior

Electrically controlled rear door

Bolero Stereo

4-spoke multifunctional steering wheel with radio and telephone functions

Bluetooth handsfree

Parking assistance

Sunset

Tow bar and adapter

KESSY

Webasto heater with remote

Textile floor mats

Rubber floor mats

Rubber boot mat

17†“TRIFID†alloy wheels

Full size steel reserve wheel

Service and repair contract

Mr Cap MasterTreatment and GlasShield

Edited 14 September, 201015 yr by ssc

Your car looks very nice.

I like that colour, I nearly ordered it, I chose aqua blue in the end mainly because I've seen a Superb in aqua blue and liked it but hadn't seen one in amethyst other than in pictures.

Enjoy.

Mark

I saw an Amethyst Superb Estate yesterday going up the M11 and I was plesantly surprised how nice it looked

Thanks for your comments guys.

Yes the Amethyst is a really good colour especially when you see it "live" (even if colour is personal).

Will add new photos over the coming weeks.

Hi SSc from Västerås. I have a similiar car but 2010 model. OK different motor etc, but basically the same. Same fantastic colour as well.

After 3 months I have found two disappointments.

One disappointment is a problem of status or how the car is perceived. One reason for the negative perception of the Superb is the magazine and TV show TeknikensVärld that is always giving very biased negative rapports regarding this car.

Another issue in this regard is the importer; Skoda Sweden, that refuses to promote Superb Skoda as a luxery car (at least on the level of Volvo). It seems the agent wants to be know as the seller of cheap cars that are good.

My car is luxerious but you won't find any similiar cars in any showrooms. Instead you'll find the cheapest version. Naturally, anyone who goes to Volvo, Saab, Audi, VW finds just the opposite. They promote the most luxerious car with all extras.

The other disappointment is that on the Columbus Navigator speed cameras are not seen! This is important in Sweden.

Regarding the lighting. You received the wrong advice. The Auto position works perfectly in the day and the night. It may however, be cheaper in the daytime to just use your daytime lights (varselljus), since in the auto position all the lights go on if the day is overcast or if you go through a tunnel

One of the best cars I ever owned

Thank you for your comment carter48.

Yes, I had been wondering whether Teknikens Värld have been biased (why I don’t know) concerning the Superb. Everywhere else you can look on the Internet you will often find mainly positive things about the Superb. I must admit that I too was rather negative to the brand previously but have had a complete turn around since we earlier this year started seriously comparing cars (you may have read my post "Hi from Sweden"). Anyway, cars seem to be a personal thing and some things you like and some things you don’t. I remember when I moved to Sweden over 25 years ago there was thing about liking either VOLVO or SAAB and one hated the other. I guess we should all learn to come to our own decision based on facts as far as possible.

Concerning your second comment I have only been into a couple of Skoda showrooms here in the Mälardalen region of Sweden and both of them have had the top of the range on show. I guess if they hadn’t I would have missed out on what I would like to call a bargain. Have owned/driven many different Saab’s and Audi’s over the years and for the money you can’t get close to what you get in a Superb. It will be interesting to see whether the showrooms have changed their minds about profiling the luxury models at Skoda. I will have a look. By the way when we picked up our car on Friday I did in fact make a comment to the salesman about Skoda’s, and in particular the dealership that we were in, poor marketing of the brand. He of course came to the defence of both. Apart from the televised advert last winter I don’t thing that I have seen much more either.

I truly agree with you an unfortunate miss if the inbuilt navigator doesn’t have speed cameras especially with all the cameras here in Sweden. I don’t have the Columbus so I am sorry but I can not check. The CRV that I drove three years ago did have this information in their inbuilt navigator but there was no way of updating the information. This time I decided to go with a Garmin Nüvi 3790T.

After driving the car for a day now I have also come to the conclusion that the salesman was not completely correct when he described the use of the "auto" positioning on the light switch. I agree fully with your comment. What I found last night though when I switched to "low beam" this also activated the "catvision". I guess this is what he meant when he referred to the instrument lighting, he actually meant the internal lighting. I will have a better check later this evening.

This is now only the second day of owning the Superb for us so I will definitely get back with some updated comments and feelings over the coming weeks.

Again, thanks for your input.

Hi SSc from Västerås. I have a similiar car but 2010 model. OK different motor etc, but basically the same. Same fantastic colour as well.

After 3 months I have found two disappointments.

One disappointment is a problem of status or how the car is perceived. One reason for the negative perception of the Superb is the magazine and TV show TeknikensVärld that is always giving very biased negative rapports regarding this car.

Another issue in this regard is the importer; Skoda Sweden, that refuses to promote Superb Skoda as a luxery car (at least on the level of Volvo). It seems the agent wants to be know as the seller of cheap cars that are good.

My car is luxerious but you won't find any similiar cars in any showrooms. Instead you'll find the cheapest version. Naturally, anyone who goes to Volvo, Saab, Audi, VW finds just the opposite. They promote the most luxerious car with all extras.

The other disappointment is that on the Columbus Navigator speed cameras are not seen! This is important in Sweden.

Regarding the lighting. You received the wrong advice. The Auto position works perfectly in the day and the night. It may however, be cheaper in the daytime to just use your daytime lights (varselljus), since in the auto position all the lights go on if the day is overcast or if you go through a tunnel

One of the best cars I ever owned

Regarding the Auto lights, i have a 2009 1.9PD TDi Superb S, when i use the Auto lights the front and rear lights come on during the day i thought just the front lights would only come on then if it gets dark or go through a tunnel then the rear lights would also come on but front and rear seem to be constantly on.

Oh and by the way great write up about your new car!

Edited 12 September, 201015 yr by 08octavia

Regarding the Auto lights, i have a 2009 1.9PD TDi Superb S, when i use the Auto lights the front and rear lights come on during the day i thought just the front lights would only come on then if it gets dark or go through a tunnel then the rear lights would also come on but front and rear seem to be constantly on.

Oh and by the way great write up about your new car!

It is possible that the light set up is different in different countries. When it is "dark" the auto interprets that to mean night and both front and rear lights go on. On a sunny day however, only the day lights (those in the front bumper-next to the cornering lights) shine. The back lights should not shine

@ Carter

It's a funny thing, the Volvo S60/80 imo are nicer car's to look at and the seats are way above the Superb ones for size and comfort, but !, overall the Superb is a much better engineered car and better value, Saab don't seem to make anything that really appeals, and I wouldn't rate them above Volvo anyway.

How have things gone since we picked up our car Friday evening?

First impressions

My wife has taken the car every day on both long and short runs and she is very impressed. She asked me whether this was a much more powerful car compared to the SAAB 93 that she drove earlier. In kW not that much difference but in acceleration and “trying not to exceed the speed limit†a lot quicker/more responsive and this has to do I am sure with the DSG automatic gearbox and TSI engine compared to the SAAB´s manual gearbox and light turbo engine. Anyway she enjoys driving the car so much I haven’t had the chance to go for any long drives yet.

I can say though that I am impressed even with the short trips that I have made. I have a feeling that the Superb is much quieter than both the SAAB 93 and AUDI A4 TDi that we drove earlier. No problems when it comes to comfort even if the driver’s seat is shorter than the SAAB´s. Seating is traditionally “Germany†I feel here although with the AUDI it was possible to extend the seat to support your legs better. Something to get used to I guess.

“Missing†Umbrella

Concerning the question about the “missing†umbrella that Skoda has removed on model 2011, the salesman did indeed give us a completely new umbrella free of charge when I was at the showroom earlier today.

The reason for visiting the showroom was an activated warning light (“Failure of the light bulbsâ€) with the text “rear light brake light not functioning†that came on Sunday morning when my wife was out driving. According to the service engineer the bulb had not been fixed in place securely enough at the factory. Apart for my time this “service visit†did not cost a penny.

Safety net

Apparently according to the salesman this is not standard and he apologized of course if he had back in May given us the impression that it was. He said now that we could buy this separately if we were interested and he would be willing to fix a “special†price. The only problem is that there is nowhere to attach the net so his offer was I feel a strange after sales option. Anyone else met with this?

All in all first impressions after a few days owning the Superb Combi are very good. Just can’t wait to get that long drive done though.

Unless it's my eyes the car in the picture looks like capachino rather than purple.

Hi SSC!

Congratulations on your new car! Mine was built 2 days ago, so im getting closer...

Which dealer did you buy it from?

I must first start by saying that I am impressed by all the interest shown in this post. Thank you and I hope that you have found some information of interest that may even be of help.

Supurbia: I agree with you the colour purple is a very interesting colour and as I have mentioned earlier one that really has to be seen “live†to get a real feel of it. Both prior to ordering this colour for our car and also since, I have seen this colour (when trying to convince ourselves that we made the right choice) change and appear all kinds of “shades†depending on sunlight, indoor lighting, rain, haze, yes you name it all types of lighting conditions and the colour purple just seems to always appear differently. Maybe it has to do with the “amethyst†in the purple (according to Wikipedia: Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz and occurs in primary hues from a light pinkish violet to a deep purple or as one Internet site on gems puts it “the amethyst is extravagance in violetâ€) or maybe it is the metallic finish or a combination of both.

Just a comment. I find it interesting that you should say cappuccino as the car is registered with the Swedish Transport Agency (STA) as “light brownâ€. So I guess even Skoda or the STA think cappuccino is closer to reality but then the STA had our SAAB 93 also listed as something completely different – light grey instead of silver metallic, but I guess these two are closer .)

Check the following photos of a Superb V6 on a partially cloudy day outside the showroom where we bought our car http://s739.photobuc...mview=slideshow. Sometimes purple (amethyst), sometimes yes, maybe even cappuccino and even here and there maybe even a little platin.

Vidio: Yes, we are really enjoying our new car. Good to hear that it is now only a few more weeks for you to wait. It took us a little over 4 weeks from build date to delivery. Hopefully your wait won’t be as long. When did you place your order?

We ordered our car through Möller Bil in Västerås. I did check with Bilkompaniet in Enköping but didn’t get the same type of good salesmanship or offer that we received with Möller Bil. My only previous encounter with Möller Bil was a couple of problems that I needed sorted out on my AUDI A4 (Bilkompaniet were by the way much cheaper – cheaper labour) so as a company as a whole I cannot say too much. As for the guys in the Skoda showroom though – gold star this far.

Hope you will enjoy your car as much as we do. What did you order?

Edited 16 September, 201015 yr by ssc

I had an Omega like that, it was officially called Magic Grey, but had a mid to deep metallic blue appearance, at night it would turn purple, sometimes it would look sky blue, a right chamelion of a colour, very nice though.

As indeed your new car is.

SSC:

yeah, Im really hoping to get it WITHIN 4 weeks! Getting in tó the state when I cant do much more than just surfing around the internet reading comments about Superb, hehe

I placed my order on the 17:th of June, so my wait is so far not much longer than expected. I really like the colour you chose, I was actually going tot order it. I had a deal with my girlfriend that I decide what car and extras we will have, and she could decide the colour, hehe. We firstly agreed on the Amethyst colour, but the day we went to place the order the dealer had a white Superb on show, and all of a sudden my gf decided that we MUST have a white car. Now the deal is she has to clean it!

I ordered:

Superb combi 170 TDI, DSG elegance with the following extras:

Glamour Leather

Webasto Heater

Trifid Alloys

Electric boot

KESSY

Big business package with Park Assist, Sunset, Columbus, etc

MDI

Safety storage net??? (Lastförskjutningsnät)

Isofix

Sun curtains

Sound System

I really wanted the Sun roof but the dealer told "2 months extra delivery time", so i declined just because of that. I might regret it though...

Edited 16 September, 201015 yr by Vidio

Vidio: I understand your feelings. Spent our 15 weeks also surfing the Internet but after a while I found myself reading the same information over and over again. If there was a sales and marketing position open at Skoda I thing I would apply for it but I probably wouldn’t be the only one at Briskoda that maybe would do the same.

Safety net

I like the specs on your car and it seems like you in a way confirm one of my questions concerning the safety net. As you have ordered one then I guess it is not standard rather an option? Never mind I have only ever once used the safety net on a SAAB 9-3 Sports Wagon I had some years back. It was very handy though.

Colour

Concerning choosing the colour for our car it wasn’t easy to say the least. In the showroom there was the Amethyst Purple and in the forecourt one Black Magic and also one Candy White. My wife first thought that we should go with the Steel Grey similar to the SAAB that we were driving (the salesman thought we should go for the Candy White like yours). My wife really wanted to get the Amethyst outside in daylight before she made her mind up but unfortunately at the time that wasn’t possible. After we agreed that a change would be nice we also agreed to choose a colour that was not too common but after placing our order with the Amethyst Purple my wife had many second thoughts about the colour. PURPLE, no no no she thought and seeing a Mocca Brown and a Cappuccino she was really quite undecided. Even though the order was in the salesman said that we could within the following 7 to 10 days make a change as long as the factory hadn’t entered our car into production. We let the Amethyst Purple stay.

So how does she feel today after a week of owning the colour purple? She just loves it (as does the rest of the family) and so far it is not a colour that we have seen on the road so definitely not a common colour, at least not yet. The colour as well as the car has attracted a lot of attention from many of her colleagues at work. All of them have liked what they saw but none have guessed that it was a Skoda.

Sunroof

We considered the sunroof too but because of the wait also decided to give it a skip. I could feel at the time that the salesman wanted us to both take this option as well as not. I guess he wanted the extra commission but didn’t want to loose the sale if he told us exactly how long we would have to wait. I will mention one thing though that we found with a Honda CRV Executive with panoramic glass roof (none opening) that I drove three years back. During the winter it was imperative to have the blind closed if you didn’t want to feel your head turning into an icicle. I guess this is a problem for us in Scandinavia more than anywhere else in the world? I wonder how this is in a Superb Combi with the panoramic glass roof. Anyone in Scandinavia had that problem?

Which dealer did you place your order through?

Looks well in that colour mate, very nice