Took a test drive today.

My friendly dealer let me take a brand new (less than 50km on the clock) superb 2 for a test-drive today. For comparison I was able to drive there in an A4 with the same 2.0 CR.

The car was a white estate, 103kw DSG and 4wd. We don't run the same specification levels as the UK, but it's roughly equivalent to elegance spec. Cream/beige leather which I think looked good on the seats, but I not on the dash and doors.

All up I was very impressed. It rode a bit nicer than the A4 (17's vs 18's), road noise was acceptably low with muted tyre noise and no wagon/estate rumble (I picked a rough patch of seal for the test-drive). Most importantly I was able to get a good fit. At the start I had the knee/console problem, but extending the steering wheel and moving the seat rearward sorted that. There was still about half a meter of legroom behind. The tyres were Pirelli's of some model name that didn't flow off the tongue and I can't now recall. Suspect they were running high pressure, but I didn't check and it wasn't an issue. Engine noise is a little louder than the A4 but certainly not a problem.

The two downsides. I definitely can't live with a DSG gearbox and the front of the car seemed quite low on storage space. Why doesn't the superb get the same big bottle holders in the doors that almost every other VAG car has? The centre console was quite small inside, I suspect mainly due to the ducting for the rear centre air-vents having to snake through underneath.

Still haven't heard from Skoda NZ if manual gearbox is a possibility. The "Outdoors" styling package is on it's way here but no word on the extra ride height and underbody protection of the rough road package.