Handed my 280 L&K estate back last week and thought I'd just note down the good and the bad after 11 months and about 25,000 km

 

Engine: A-

Lovely, linear and smooth, albeit never seeming to have quite the shove the headline figures suggests it should. I came to it from an E61 535d which felt a lot more brawny when being extended (full to-the-red-line stuff, not talking about squirting from 2000-3500 rpm where diesels are normally king) and I wouldn't have thought that before I got in the Skoda.

 

Gearbox: B-

Effective enough and I suppose I got used to it. Weird choice of ratios and not as intelligent as it probably should be. Normal too dull-witted, Sport too eager to downshift, a pedal box etc. probably sorts it all out but wasn't an option as a company car. Always pined for a 7th cog, too busy at motorway speeds.

 

Economy: B+

Without the 2500 km round trip to South of France with four bikes on the roof just before I handed it over (about 23 mpg for that little lot!) I reckon I got about 28 mpg overall, so about what I expected. No doubt a lighter foot would eke out a good bit more, but life's too short and fuel is on the company

 

Size: A+

It's huge! And flexible! Yet with small overhangs and camera/sensors it's a doddle to park. Just a great car for doing *anything* with.

 

All the little Simply Clever stuff: A+

Makes it a joy to own. The little velcro battens in the boot are genius and all family cars should come with those iPad holders

 

Tech: A

Despite initial reservations I managed to get on with all the auto-gubbins. KESSY, online services, phone app, electronic handbrake, adaptive cruise, lane guidance, remote heater start etc. all good

 

Reliability: A+

Nothing broke or fell off, despite *ahem* spirited use by me, and abuse at the hands of my offspring.

 

Infotainment: A

New Columbus is great. Not as slick an interface as BMW, Audi etc. but it all works pretty well once you're used to it and with a lovely touchscreen, very responsive (for a car)

 

Ride: D

One word? Crashy, and this was with 18"s. Even our second car, an £10k Up, which I hardly drove when I had the Skoda, embarrasses the bigger car when it comes to dealing with road imperfections. The DCC helped a bit but in the soft setting was too wallowy on motorways, leading to an off-putting pitching motion on anything but dead flat roads, so it was inevitably left in Normal. This was probably the one thing that I found increasingly bothered me about the car the more I drove it. The small 3cm kerb into my driveway *always* made the whole bloody thing shudder, even at a crawl.

 

Refinement: B-

Actually pretty good. I was expecting more wind and tyre noise reading some of the comments on here and elsewhere, but it was refined enough. It's no S-Class, but perfectly acceptable. I docked a bit for the ride though, a big shudder as you go over a ridge in the road rather ruins the limousine effect if you're trying to chauffeur someone discretely to the airport.

 

Handling: C-

It was never going to be great, but it was really just adequate and no more. Shame, as the drivetrain deserves better. I drove a new Mondeo recently and it really showed the Superb up, light years ahead.

 

Dealer: A

Did everything they said they would, when they said they would. Can't complain.

 

Overall then? B+

With a decent ride there would be no doubt of an A or A+, it's really the only thing that lets the Superb down compared to more "premium" competition.

 

A great car then. I'll miss it

Thanks for taking the time to put that together .  Interesting about the ride and not the experience of most although it is not perfect.  What did you move to out of interest?

Great review mate! Honest and to the point...

A very interesting summary of the car. I have a 190d L&K on 19 inch wheels. My experience is that the ride is very acceptable, though it can be noisy over broken surfaces. I use the normal setting of the DCC most of the time, but switch to sport when driving winding roads. I never use the soft setting. I am very happy with the ride, which is very much better than most small cars I have ridden in.

I wonder if the OP unwittingly still had transport blocks in left by PDI.

1 minute ago, xman said:

I wonder if the OP unwittingly still had transport blocks in left by PDI.

Agreed.  The standard Superb suspension is far too soft for my liking.  Even the lowered Sportline suspension can't be described as harsh or crashy.  I know it's subjective but it sounds like transport blocks or a component fault. 

3 hours ago, xman said:

I wonder if the OP unwittingly still had transport blocks in left by PDI.

Yup, whenever the 'crashy' suspension complaint comes up in any Briskoda thread the majority end with the discovery of transport block(s) still in place.

4 hours ago, Caspian said:

A very interesting summary of the car. I have a 190d L&K on 19 inch wheels. My experience is that the ride is very acceptable, though it can be noisy over broken surfaces. I use the normal setting of the DCC most of the time, but switch to sport when driving winding roads. I never use the soft setting. I am very happy with the ride, which is very much better than most small cars I have ridden in.

Same car as mine.

 

I keep changing my preference but have got the current setup as "Individual"- Sport for DCC and Normal for everything else. 

 

Comfort is too floaty on town roads but i tend to use it on long motorway drives.

 

I quite like the firmness of the Sport setting with 19" wheels.   The ride is firm without being bone-jarring, which I had experience of in a Titanium X Sport Mondeo a few years ago.  Was on 18" wheels and the suspension was as solid as a rock.  Too harsh for me.

Edited 10 October, 20187 yr by Mickey43