Newbie wanting Superb Estate Advice

[toffeeboy]

Hi

 

I'm looking for some advice, wanting to buy a Superb estate and wanted to get recommendations of the best engine to go for and also what spec to look out for.

 

Any buying advice gladly accepted

 

TIA

[jafo]

High mileage - diesel. Low mileage - petrol.

 

Will you tow anything? 

 

Do you prefer manual or automatic - DSG?

 

If you go for diesel - do not buy a car that had fix done - dieselgate - unless you will undo the fix - paid option. 

 

What is your budget? 

[toffeeboy]

Hi

 

I would prefer a manual had a DSG Passat and thought it was horrible in town and parking with the jerky reverse. I do 8-10k per year only use the car about twice a week.

 

No towing, have dogs hence the estate version, I'm not put off by mileage provided its not 130K and up.

 

Budget is a bit flexible but I can probably only afford a 2010-2012 

[chimaera]

8-10k miles per year using it twice a week suggests a long run on those uses? If that's the case, then the 2.0 170 TDI is a good option. There's a 4x4 option on that too.

 

There's a dog-guard available for the boot from Skoda as well. I have the luggage securing system with the floor rails in mine and find it great. It's a good option if you can find it.

 

I wouldn't be put off by the DSG in it - I have a DSG in my Superb and find it great in town. Yes reverse is a little tricky on hills but otherwise the DSG is a far nicer option for traffic. Each to their own though. If you're not sure, take a test drive in both and see which you prefer. One thing to note about the DSG is it adapts to driver behaviour over time and can be a bit weird if you're taking over from someone else. There's a reset procedure that can be carried out using VCDS that resets the bite and shift points, and the fuzzy logic. Mine was noticeably smoother after doing this.

Elegance spec is worth going for if you like toys. Adaptive lighting is fantastic if you do a lot of night driving.

[toffeeboy]

Thanks, thats exactly the type of advice I'm looking for as I'd heard the 170 had issues so was looking at the 140 and maybe a chip, really would prefer a manual.

 

Can you pick up a decent 170 for around  £7-8K?

 

Is it perm 4x4 or just kicks in when required?

[chimaera]

You can probably get a 2011 for that sort of money - there are lots of them on Autotrader so you should be able to get a feel for pricing from there.

 

4x4 is the same haldex system all of VAG's transverse engined cars have been using for the last 20 years. It kicks in when a loss of traction at the front is detected. Needs to be serviced every 40000 miles/60000 km so check that's been done if you're looking at one.

 

170 and 140 common rail are mostly the same engine, just different injectors and turbo (and ECU map obviously). EGR valves are a potential weak spot and are expensive to replace: 6 hours labour isn't cheap unfortunately. DPF is not an issue provided it has been able to regenerate normally. A diagnostic scan by someone familiar with the car would be useful on anything you're serious about buying.

 

On the petrol side, some of the 1.8s have a bad reputation, mostly earlier ones IIRC. Not owning one I haven't paid much attention to them but do a search here and you'll find out what's up. There's a rare 2.0 TSI but I know very little about them. The 3.6 VR6 is the grandaddy of the bunch but not cheap to run.

[DEL80Y]

28 minutes ago, toffeeboy said:

 

 

Is it perm 4x4 or just kicks in when required?

Driving the 4x4 is a different experience
It's only as required (Haldex 4 system) and I would not be able to go back to car without it --Same with the adaptive lighting,Pan sunroof,heated seats and air cooling seats don't use the TV much but a nice touch  all unnecessary until you use them then you can't live without them.
I also hated the way the DSG was till I got it serviced and reset and working the way I wanted it.
I also used VCDS to enable Hill Hold on mine which stops the reversing issue ( and in my opinion should not of left the factory without being enabled)

Edited 1 November, 2017 by DEL80Y
info

[dudec]

I have a 140 4x4 elegance estate near 3 months now, great handling and looking forward to the snow lol

Didn't know about the servicing at 40k, so maybe do that next service, 44k on it now

Had the fix done before buying, but no isues so far, touch wood!

Water pump went month after buying but was covered by the dealer

Edited 1 November, 2017 by dudec

[Bristolf2b]

I personally would avoid the DSG as the manual gearbox is excellent, and I never got on with DSG boxes. if you are looking for a 4x4, the 170Tdi's pre facelift (2013) were manual only, 140's available both DSG and Manual, after the facelift the 170 4x4 was DSG only.

the Elegance spec was perfect for me. 4wd, well as mentioned above, if you are like me once you've had it you won't want to have 2wd again 

 

So, entirely based on what I had, I'd go for a manual 170 Tdi 4x4.

 

[toffeeboy]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty much decided it's a manual for me.  !70 or 140 don't mind would prefer 4x4 but if it's not then I wont lose any sleep.  If anybody hears of a known and good car for sale at a keen price please give me a shout

 

Thanks

[Wile7]

3.6 awd with 6sp DSG

 

But then again, I’m biased......

[terrytowelling]

On 11/1/2017 at 22:27, dudec said:

I have a 140 4x4 elegance estate near 3 months now, great handling and looking forward to the snow lol

Didn't know about the servicing at 40k, so maybe do that next service, 44k on it now

Had the fix done before buying, but no isues so far, touch wood!

Water pump went month after buying but was covered by the dealer

I bought the same car 3 years ago for similar reasons, I haven't seen a flake of snow since ;-(

[dudec]

1 hour ago, terrytowelling said:

I bought the same car 3 years ago for similar reasons, I haven't seen a flake of snow since ;-(

It's coming this year ;))

[Jonny5ive]

I bought a 2015 diesel CR170 Elegance earlier this year. Test drove the DSG and hated it. 

 

Travelled up to near Manchester to get the one I wanted with a manual box. I owned it before 'the fix' and yes it's noticeably different post fix. It'll be remapped this time next year so no drama.

 

You could always go for the 140 and map it for the extra ooomph

 

Oh, and welcome to the forum

[bigjohn]

Give a couple of versions a test drive if you can find them.

 

No regrets with my 1.4 twindoor except would possibly have preferred the estate but I couldn't resist the price. My petrol twindoor was many £1000's cheaper. 

 

On test driving I found the 1.6 diesel lacked even compared to my previous 1.9pd 100 Superb I - not sure why as the two engines had the same theoretical power (circa 100 ps).

 

I never found a 170cr diesel at the time but found the 2.0 cr deisel140ps was very good indeed but a similar model 1.4tsi petrol 125ps was nearly £5k cheaper and drove way better than I expected - I nearly didn't even bother trying it though! I also had a slight twitch about having a DPF as my commute although long is rather slow with lots of stop start traffic near the end (probably would have been fine though) 

 

On any version - make sure you have a reasonable length test drive as the drivers seat is a bit like eating Marmite - you either love it or hate it.

 

Overall - fantastic car

Edited 4 November, 2017 by bigjohn

[toffeeboy]

Very interesting write up, never even considered a petrol engine as I thought it's a big old car for a 1.4 engine to haul around and the 1.8 is supposed to have issues. Most of the ones I've seen for sale are diesel which in itself is telling.

 

[bigjohn]

11 hours ago, toffeeboy said:

Very interesting write up, never even considered a petrol engine as I thought it's a big old car for a 1.4 engine to haul around

 

 

That's what I thought but a 14month old car for £10k triggered a test drive - I bought this in June 2015 which pre dated dieselgate so larger petrols were not popular

 

The realitiy is it drives suprisingly well (fantastic on motorway) and economy has been better than expected (On the same journey types and driving, my previous Superb I pd100 averaged 50mpg - the 1.4tsi is averaging about 46mpg)

 

 

Edited 5 November, 2017 by bigjohn

[JamesBrown]

I bought a 2.0DSG petrol 2 weeks ago. I was an anti Auto for years... however The DSG is fantastic and engine muscular, smooth and effortless. Would 100% recommend it. I call the car the chill out zone as I find it such a relaxing place to be. It has had a real calming effect on my driving, but nice to know it has a little bit of power in reserve.

 

Only downside is you have to wait...only 113 on the road according to ‘how many left’

[Donbrig]

I have a Diesel Elegance Estate, CR140, 12 reg, manual gearbox - bought start of 2013 with 5K on the clock (now up to 55K miles). 

This is a ex-demonstrator and the dealer had added quite a few of the the additional extras that were available at the time.

Of these, the two that I would pay for in a future car are

a. - Heated Windscreen - living 300m up in Aberdeenshire, frosty mornings are pretty common so this is a real time saver.

b. - Adaptive Front Lighting - thought this was a gimmick to start with but you learn to love it and soon miss it when driving other cars without the technology.

 

The car drives wonderfully plus is very comfortable.  The huge boot has also proven invaluable though the boot lip can be a pain at times.

The CR140 engine has proven to be pretty economical for me at 50mpg on average (60mpg on dual carriageways) and has enough oomph for the kind of driving round here.

I had the engine emission update done Sept 2016 and have not noticed any change in performance since then (if anything, looking at my records there has been a slight improvement in MPG).  

 

Up until the end of 2016 I would have enthusiastically recommended buying one. 

However, all that has changed in the last year and my enthusiasm for the car has gone rapidly downhill due to the poor reliability in the last year coupled with the indifferent attitude that seems to pervade Skoda dealerships these days in terms of customer service.

The first and biggest problem was the dreaded clutch/gearbox failure which seems to be an ever increasing problem - you'll see my entry in the tale of woe on this thread Clutch Eats Gearbox and Bank Balance!.   

In retrospect I should have pushed Skoda for a full reimbursement for the repair as its just not right that the whole assembly should fail like that at just 46K miles - the shock of a potential £4.5K bill at the time and fact I had to get back on the road quickly saw me take the easy option out of a partial reimbursement.  And now, just 9K miles later the supposedly brand new gearbox and clutch assembly has started in the last week to act up (subtle rattling/clunking noise heard when you change through lower gears) - need to get that seen to sometime next week.

Other problems this year include..

Battery - the original 70Ah battery was/is too weak for a car with all the gadgets like the Elegance and it finally gave up the ghost in February.  Replaced with a 75Ah Platinum Prestige Plus battery and the difference when starting the engine is massive - plus no fear now of having a flat battery through running the radio on for 30mins with the engine off.

Brakes - the rear caliper failed whilst driving on the motorway, failing to retract.  By the time I was able to get to a safe location to get the car examined the brake disk/pads were so damaged as to require complete replacement.

Rear Wiper now randomly (but thankfully sporadically) decides to go on and off for no reason - dealer unable to find source of problem.

Irritating squeak now coming from front passenger footwell (right side) - sound worse when cold and goes away once you get over c.35 mph.  

 

Personally, my faith in the brand's reliability and customer care has been badly shaken and after 13 years with Skoda I will likely take my money to another brand in the near future. 

Shame really as in many ways the Superb is the perfect car for my needs.

Based on my personal experience this year though Skoda are getting complacent in terms of looking after their existing customers.

[toffeeboy]

I'm sorry to hear of your woes Donbrig, I appreciate exactly how you feel as i bought a new Triumph motorcycle last year and have been in a constant battle since March about the build quality.  Such a shame and really does taint your enjoyment,

 

The gearbox sounds horrific, you should push Skoda hard for an FOC replacement second time around.  Subtle problems and squeaks I can cope with, major mechanicals are a different matter altogether.

 

Where will you spend your money this time, it's so difficult to choose these days....

[williamshatnerspants]

We have a 2010 CR170 Elegance wagon and a dog ;o)

 

I wouldn't have been happy with the lower powered TDI version, especially if you go 4x4. Its a big car that needs torque to get it off the line, and there is a bit of lag even in the 170. The 170 can spin its wheels in the wet so the 4x4 makes sense here too. 

 

Ours came with the retractable net for the boot to keep the dog in place. Don't let them on any leather seats as they will instantly scratch them, but I'm sure you knew that!

 

Good luck.

Matt