Its time to move on. Since buying my Superb new in 2012 I have done 128k miles and have travelled the length and breadth of the UK from the North of Scotland, to Cornwall, Wales, East Anglia etc. Mainly though, my Superb Greenline has been used for my commute to work around the M25, 152 miles, three days a week.

 

What were the good bits about my Superb?   Reliability and low costs just jump out of my motoring spreadsheet on my laptop.  Apart from one occasion when it did something strange, necessitating a diesel filter change, it has never gone wrong. It did have a radio under warranty a couple of months   after delivery but that is it. All other repairs have been service parts. Incredibly the original factory discs and pads lasted just over 120k miles and tyres typically have lasted 40-50k, although I did have to change a couple due to damage from debris.  Fuel economy has been spectacular, averaging 64mpg over that time. When new it would regularly average 67 but lately it dropped to 62-63, so it averages out at 64, which is the best I have ever experienced in any car.  All of this tots up to an incredible 22.8  pence per mile for all costs for running my Superb, including fuel, service, insurance, tax, depreciation, car cleaning etc. That is 12 pence a mile less than my previous Mondeo, which was also generally a good car.

 

Other good things?  The space inside is great, the boot massive, and it’s a very civilised car to drive around in.  One of my bosses once genuinely mistook it for a posher car, when she commented that my Mercedes was so much nicer to ride in than her husbands.  

 

The not so good?  Like some other drivers, I had trouble immediately from new with the narrow seats pressing on my right side sciatic nerve. Removing the drivers seats plastic side valance and bending the metal tube that mounted the valance outwards an inch (down near seat adjuster wheel) with crowbar fixed that problem, as it did with other owners.  I could never get used to the ride. I love sports cars (one of my other cars is a Caterham), but why the Greenline had to have such harsh suspension baffled me. Even checking for suspension transport blocks failed to reveal why it rode so firmly.  I was also never entirely sure about the benefits of the twin boot, preferring to use it as a hatchback. The car also had a propensity to get through left side headlight bulbs and I typically fitted 2-3 a year, but strangely never had to fit one on the right side of the car.

 

Whoever owns my old Greenline next will have a great car as there is very little wrong with it.

 

Where next?  I have nearly been tempted to go a couple of price points higher. What puts me off the higher end German cars is the weekly litany of problems that they seem to develop that I hear of in the office from colleagues and from an old friend who owns an independent German car Garage who tells me that he has had a bellyful as well.  Reliability seems to be becoming an issue for the top brands.  I intend therefore to have another Superb. However, I am taking a break from work for a while to have some surgery, so when I return in the summer I will be looking for a nearly new 1.6 SE manual hatch. It’s a shame that Skoda have recently stopped importing these, so I will be looking out for one of the very last ones they supplied.

 

 

 

 

Edited 16 February, 20197 yr by Pesmog

Excellent write up, really enjoyed reading it.

 

I also have a 2012 GreenLine from new that has just passed 180,000 miles. It does stellar mpg rarely dropping out of the 60s, still on original rear discs/pads and very light on tyre wear. It's been the most reliable car I've ever owned. It needed an early water-pump change done under warranty - and they threw in a cambelt change as well. The Columbus misbehaved for a year but then miraculously got better again on its own. Had to do all four shocks at around 170k miles. Just needs servicing every 20k apart from that.     

 

There are other cars I like too, but none that I'd rather own than my Superb. Given my high miles commute, that is. 

 

Hope your surgery goes OK and thanks for sharing.

Edited 16 February, 20197 yr by Jules Tohpipi

Likewise thanks for the report.

 

Similar experience thus far with my 2014 FL 1.4tsi - faultless thus far (5 years and about 70k miles) except for 1 headlight bulb (again nearside).

 

The ride and handling on mine has been great (just the S model , not Greenline lowered model)  and likewise tyre life has been good, infact I think I have the same Spectrum wheels/tyre size as the Greenline. The only slight tyre negative was on one journey when car full of large adults (most over 6ft 4") and stuffed with luggage/wine the rear sagged a bit and it rather scrubbed a bit of the inside of the rear tyres (independent suspension gave a little too much negative camber!) 

 

The economy whilst not up to the Greenline standards has been pretty good for a petrol big bus. Average nearly 46mpg but can do over 50mpg on a long run. I thought about the 1.6 diesel but was worried about a DPF as even though I'm doing about 15k miles a year most is on my slooooowww commute (lift share) which is 32 miles each way but usually at low speeds (except for one small bit of dual - it's difficult to get any speed up due to stop/start traffic). The other reason is I got a hell of a discount for a 14 month old petrol (about £10k) as dealers couldn't sell them then! - At the same time a diesel version was quite a few £k's more!

 

I also did struggle with the seat to start with and like you I persuaded the metal bars outwards a bit (courtesy of Briskoda comments)  - since then it's been comfortable, even on very long drives thorugh Europe. Saying that I was in a newish Volvo S90 a week ago and wow did that have great seats.

 

The best bit for me has been refinement. Unless you floor the throttle my engine is near silent and this combined with low wind and road noise (further helped by Cross-climates) makes the interior of this car a very quiet place to be in. When in traffic the only noise is the interior fan and usually then the engine from the van behind!

 

You mentioned the twindoor - likewise I generally use as a hatch (even easier to do on the FL model) but I do find the twindoor handy at times but I do have a restricted height multi-storey carpark nearby and I travel on North Sea Ferries or the Chunnel a few times a year - If you open as a hatch in those environments the boot lid can hit roof! The boot is brilliant and even though on the twindoor you can't flip the seat bases up you can remove the seat base (needed to do this in the past when taking son to and from University)

 

 

Edited 16 February, 20197 yr by bigjohn

I'm in a similar situation, though I'll be running my old Superb a little longer than you. Currently on 160,000 miles so I reckon there's another couple of years left in it yet 

 

However, after 5 Skoda's I'm keen to try something different. I'm also not overly keen on the German executives.

 

Great value for money...

 

 

...but another £5K get's you a whole lot more car. This one is the fully loaded Inscription with the D5 diesel.

 

I appreciate if the 1.6 Superb is at the top of your list then it's likely you're looking for economy rather than performance, but prices are even lower if you go for the Momentum spec with the D4 engine...

 

 

Prices are falling too.

 

I'll probably still end up in another Superb though!

32 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

 

 

Prices are falling too.

 

I'll probably still end up in another Superb though!

 

Yup - was really really impressed with the S90, Amazing car - will make a good used buy. Many post April 2017 have the higher new car tax though as the list prices are over £40k. PS the D4 still pulls amazingly well and the auto is a well controlled torque converter/lock up box.

 

Not sure what to buy next. Love the above and Superbs but as I'll probably retire in a small number of years I really need to downsize so that Mrs bigjohn likes driving it  (she loves being a passenger in the Superb but finds it a bit big to drive!). Problem number 2 is I'm tall and large and find the B pillar in most smaller 5 door cars too far forward (including the Octavia). Strangely I find the 3dr Citigo comfortable but that's possibly too small for our long European drives.  One consideration is a VW Golf 3 dr (model changing soon so there may be some great deals).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 16 February, 20197 yr by bigjohn

10 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

Many post April 2017 have the higher new car tax though as the list prices are over £40k. PS the D4 still pulls amazingly well and the auto is a well controlled torque converter/lock up box.

 

Didn't realise that, thanks for the heads-up!

4 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

 

Didn't realise that, thanks for the heads-up!

 

If you get one (S90) earlier than 1/4/17 then the D4 has £30 car tax!

 

 

Edited 16 February, 20197 yr by bigjohn

Nice review of your ownership.  Another Superb would be wise decision and the SIII is even far better than the older model.  Good luck with your surgery.

I'm three years in on a 2012 Superb and would agree with most of what you say. Mine is the CR170 and has the 18" wheels so tyre noise and firm low-speed ride are an issue. Part of that is probably due the tyres being on it having a very poor noise rating. I think I'll be going for Cross-Climates next time, possibly with a bit more sidewall too if I can afford it.

 

With the driver's seat I've found that tilting up the base at the front so that it supports my thighs better has made a huge different to comfort on long journeys. I don't know if this is an option for cars without electric seats though.

 

I think some of the reliability issues on newer cars is down to the amount of technology fitted. Individually each component/system is probably really robust and reliable, but in a car with tens of thousands of bits it's relatively easy to be hit with the one part in every million that's likely to fail.

 

In a few years time I'm half thinking of the plug-in hybrid Superb 3 as a used buy but there's very little information about them in the wild yet so time will tell whether it's a good idea or not. Failing that, the 280 TSI would be fun!

Chimaera, I recently changed mine for 16" wheels and Goodyear 4 season tyre. Noise is minimal and the ride is some much less harsh. Okay they don't look the best, but it was certainly worth the change and I won't be going back.

I have never been a fan of really large rims and ultra low profile tyres. Ride and noise tends to be harsh and under extreme cornering they never seem to telegraph enough warning to the driver that they are at their limit.  Thankfully my Greenline came with 16's.

27 minutes ago, Pesmog said:

I have never been a fan of really large rims and ultra low profile tyres. Ride and noise tends to be harsh and under extreme cornering they never seem to telegraph enough warning to the driver that they are at their limit.  Thankfully my Greenline came with 16's.

 

Part of my decision of buying my S model was the fact it ran on 205/55 R16 tyres which I had also found to be good, long lasting and cheap on my previous Superb I.  Doing 15k miles a year the cost of tyres can be a major factor. I've experienced terrible tyre wear in the past (fronts cream crackered at 12k miles!) with very low profile tyres costing over a £1000 a set. Possibly OK running a car doing low miles/year but for me that would be a significant cost.

 

As previously mentioned my favourite combination has been Crossclimates and 16" rims which has made a quiet and comfortable car even quieter.

 

Edited 17 February, 20197 yr by bigjohn

Just swapped from 16s to 17s and gone for Cross climates. Not noticed any issues with increased harshness and car seems much smoother and quieter.  Really liking the way the new wheels look too.

22 minutes ago, Gdcobra said:

Just swapped from 16s to 17s and gone for Cross climates. Not noticed any issues with increased harshness and car seems much smoother and quieter.  Really liking the way the new wheels look too.

Seems like they are the tyres I need, my 18s seem to crash a bit and make a bit of a din, currently on Bridgestone.

7 minutes ago, Jonnys19882 said:

Seems like they are the tyres I need, my 18s seem to crash a bit and make a bit of a din, currently on Bridgestone.

I was tempted to go up from the standard profile (when I got the wheels they had the larger prole tyres and they filled the races really well)  but decided to remain with standard.

2 hours ago, Gdcobra said:

Just swapped from 16s to 17s

 

My Superb Estate came with the 17's. At the time, I really thought I would need to change them as the roads around my home county are not good. It was the sole concern I had when buying the car as although I had done an extended test drive, that happened in an area with pretty good roads.

 

They have actually been great and I've never considered changing them. 17's seem to be the sweet spot between appearance and ride quality on the Superb 2. The tyre cost seems very cheap to me (mind you, having come from a BMW with 18" run flats - all tyres seem cheap!).

 

The factory tyre size that I have is 225/45 R17.  @silver1011 has used 225/50 R17 on his Superb and has said he was very happy with the look as well as the extra sidewall height (pretty sure i am right about that - he'll correct me soon enough if I have got it wrong).

 

The way I would sum up my experience after having used 16' Superb for a few days is simple: 16 gives slightly softer ride, slightly better economy, slightly worse looks, a bit cheaper to buy. 17 gives slightly better cornering, better looks, slightly worse fuel economy, slightly harder ride.  I drove an L&K on 18's and that was unpleasant - given the road conditions where I live. They looked damn nice though!

Edited 17 February, 20197 yr by TheRobinK
Typo

9 hours ago, TheRobinK said:

I drove an L&K on 18's and that was unpleasant

 

I hate that I was so shallow that the L&k 18" wheels looked so great that it was a major factor in buying the car.

What a stupid decision!

Countless tyres and two complete new wheels led me to decide enough was enough. After five years the winter steel 16" wheels stayed on and got some all weather tyres.

I keep thinking I should sell thee originals but what if I get rich and can afford to have them back on?

The grip is definitely poor on 16 compared to 18 so I allow extra room.

The cost is fantastic so they are staying on...

My experience on 17's, but with a higher profile...

 

I wanted a happy-medium on aesthetics and comfort / pothole protection.

 

18's look great, 16's offer the best ride and protection.

 

I went with 17's but with a higher profile and haven't looked back.

 

15 hours ago, TheRobinK said:

 

 

 

The factory tyre size that I have is 225/45 R17.  @silver1011 has used 225/50 R17 on his Superb and has said he was very happy with the look as well as the extra sidewall height (pretty sure i am right about that - he'll correct me soon enough if I have got it wrong).

 

 

That's correct, the wheels came with 225/50s fitted and did look good, that also give a sidewall depth very similar to the 205/50s I had on the 16s. Obviously this would mean being more careful with speed as car would be going faster than before for a given speedo reading