I bought my first Skoda, a Mk1 Superb Elegance 2.8 auto in December 2011 after much research to find a suitable replacement for my wonderful but aging Mazda Xedos 9 Miller. The Mazda was a fantastic car with a 2.3 litre V6 and a big supercharger that gave it very good performance in a car that never got a second glance. Usual high quality build and probably the best car ever made by Mazda.

In the end I went for the Superb Mk 1 because it has a big boot, reasonable performance, and masses of legroom for my tall family. My older son, now 15, is pushing six foot and the younger one is not far behind. As an Essex boy I wanted to be able to make the 600 mile round trip in comfort with both of them able to sit in any seat and not complain.

I am also self employed as an IT specialist and spend quite a lot of time driving to sites all over the South West and further afield. So I wanted to have certain creature comforts as well as something I could rely on.

So far I am not dissapointed.

True the performance is nothing like the Mazda but then I knew it would not be and few cars at sensible money could match the Xedos anyway. In other ways it has been great so overall I am happy with the Superb. Fuel consumption is OK and it is confortable and quiet. The HID headlights are better than I expected as I spent a lot of time looking at the forum before I parted with any money.

I can see why people complain about the HID's now my wife has them on her Suzuki Grand Vitara. Mine looked OK until I drove her car in the dark and then the difference was striking. Oh well at least I have something I can try to improve if it ever stops raining.

So far it has covered about 20,000 miles and has been rock solid. I am actually looking forward to driving it for another year and just hope that we get a bit more of a summer this time as it feels like I spend almost all the time driving in the rain. Yes I still get stupid comments from those who have never bothered to look at or sit in a modern Skoda but I expected that.

The best moment came when I gave a lift to three IT people who had clearly not looked at a Skoda properly. They were gobsmacked at the space and the quality and have not made a single comment since then. So I am a very happy owner of a Skoda and glad to be a member of this forum.

One more of us - one less of them

p.s. I also have an old Mazda which I have had for 12 years, mainly for the dog, cracking little motor, just goes on and on.

Oh, and Welcome

Thanks for the reply. The Xedos 9 in its later Miller version really was a great car. I am told that Mazda dealers here in the UK refused to follow the Toyota example with Lexus so the Xedos Brand name became a confusing model name instead. Did they not realise that selling a 30K car with a Mazda badge was always going to be tough when so may buyers are badge snobs.

Mazda built a new factory just for the two Xedos models and then made sure that it matched the Mercedes E class and BMW 5 series in every possible way. That is why they got snapped up by knowledgable owners as they lost loads of value and became a terrific bargain and very desirable. It took me about a year to find mine and I got it up to 170,000 before the gearbox (auto) finally started to tell me it was near the end.

I had to make some big adjustments to my driving style, especially when overtaking things, after I got the Superb. Living in Devon often means trying to get past caravan drivers on single carrigeway roads with short straights and many bends. In the Xedos I could do this with ease and safety almost all the time. It was a bit of a shock to try the same in the Superb but I have learned to be a bit more patient and get my timing absolutly right.

You can probably tell that I care not a jot about the badge but just look for good cars that meet my needs at the time. Right now the Superb is ideal and I struggle to think of what else I could have bought that would give me the same set of features. I did begin by looking at the Mk II Superb but decided that the Mk 1 would be better because of its proper length and space. Having driven it for the last year I am now even more convinced that I made the right choice.

So I intend to keep it for another year or two and then replace it with something else. By then at least one of the brood will have stopped using the Dad taxi and I may no longer require so much space. As ever I will be doing my research long before then as I whittle down a short list to an even shorter one.