Watched the live launch tonight, looks good in the flesh (particularly the hatch I think), while the interior definitely appears to be a step up.

 

Be interested to see whether they’ve tweaked a bit more refinement into the torture beam versions.

My fear is the cost will increase to a level that it is a completely different car.  With the slight increase in size it may leave the Superb out on a limb

8 minutes ago, Kental said:

My fear is the cost will increase to a level that it is a completely different car.  With the slight increase in size it may leave the Superb out on a limb

 

Possibly, but the Superb is a low volume model anyway, and one of its key selling points is that it’s on a stretched Passat platform with all-round independent suspension (which is what sold it for me).

Dedicated forum for the Mk IV now...

 

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/396-skoda-octavia-mk-iv-2020/

The Octavia I get on Wednesday is the first non IRS car I have had for 10 years. The one I test drove was fine. Hopefully things have improved since the 2006 Civic I had.

1 hour ago, Kental said:

The Octavia I get on Wednesday is the first non IRS car I have had for 10 years. The one I test drove was fine. Hopefully things have improved since the 2006 Civic I had.

I have been  happy with the ride from my 17 inch wheeled, beam equipped Octavia for the last 5+ years but it is a very subjective topic and not everyone has been happy with theirs.

I'd had owned a couple of Korean irs equipped SUV which had good ground clearance but consequent stiff suspension to reduce body roll. Their ride on Aussie corrugated dirt roads was absolutely appalling. A subsequent Mk2 Octavia with irs and 15 inch wheels was a revelation on road and especially on those dirt roads.

When I transitioned to the mk3 I was really worried about how compromised it might be.On tarmac I thought it was as nearly as good as the mk2 but it did struggle with corrugated dirt roads

None-the-less the mk3 fully loaded with passengers and luggage unintentionally managed about a 100km of hilly Tasmanian dirt roads surprisingly well earlier this year.  Obviously a Scout would have been much more suitable but I was still impressed even though the front wheels were doing a lot of scrabbling. Luckily the roads were dry and navigable which is rare for that part of Tasmania and only badly corrugated in short sections. Had a ball keeping speed up to smooth out the ride. My pommie passengers had no complaints about the ride but they own a Porsche Cayman and Focus RS (AWD) so know about stiff suspension even with irs.