Skoda Superb test drive since 2008 -

Casket with a secret

In recent years, a rare automaker did not declare a certain revolutionary nature of the next new model. However, no one expected special revolutions from Skoda. It is all the more amazing that the Czechs built in many ways really revolutionary and not only for themselves the car!
 
Superb translated from English means magnificent, luxurious, noble, majestic, wonderful and so on. It would seem, what does all these epithets have to do with the Skoda brand? With the same success, one can call the magnificent view of the window for the typical development of the sleeping area, the luxurious room in the three -star hotel, the noble taste of the cola, the magnificent sound of the gang of harmonica and the cutlet prepared in the snack fast food to the cutlets. To the honor of the representatives of the Skoda company themselves, they themselves perfectly understand this and publicly admit that, despite the already quite many years of belonging to the solid VW concern, the brand has not yet finally got rid of the reputation of the manufacturer of ordinary cars in the previous years.
I did not get rid of, but striving. The first big step in this direction was taken in 2001, when a car with a historical name for Skoda the Superb has appeared in the range. And now 7 years later, as expected, the company showed the second generation of its flagship to the world. And this time, the car seems to have everything to prove that he is really Superb a real, worthy of his authentic ancestor. The very first Superb, which saw the light not at all 7, but 70 years ago, in the far already 1938, was indeed a car, as they say, premium class.
Back in the mid-1920s, Skoda decided to secure a place in the club of the elect and took up the production of luxurious limousines, first under the Hispano Suiza license, and then its own design, but the then followed the world economic crisis forced the company to switch to the release of simple low-profiles. Superb was a worthy attempt to return to the luxury segment of the market, but the car prevented the war as a result, was in demand only by senior government officials and staff generals. Well, in the post-war socialist times, it was even more not to magnificence at the first cursory glance (only if you don’t look in front!) It is obvious to the new Superb that this is at least a business class.
A long base, classic cut, like a good English suit, the roof is emphasized behind the back (no newfangled flirting with a silhouette of a compartment), nobility in details from Superb and blows solidity, respectability and respect for traditions. This is no longer Passat with a Skodov emblem that performs the function of a cheaper price tag. And not even a limousine for the poor.
There is practically nothing to complain inside: the interior, as they say, is super! Or rather, Superb will say. Everything for the good of a person, mainly a passenger. It is no coincidence that, at the end of the main part of the route, journalists were given the opportunity to ride to the hotel already as passengers with a personal driver at a strict suit. And Superb is the rare case when it is worth telling more about the car in terms of not so much a driver as a passenger in the back seat. Why explain a little later.
The name of the simplest configuration Comfort already reflects the indisputable advantage of this model: it is extremely comfortable, and its decoration would not have shamed a much more expensive car. The names of the configuration with a rank above the Ambition and the top version of Elegance also speak for themselves: they are equipped even richer, but this wealth is purely functional. There is no place for luxury for luxury, but there is an emphasized respect for the status of a passenger. There are no obvious excesses, only the owner of the owner, but there is everything necessary for the person who is accustomed to the high level of human comfort and even a little more.
For example, a special container, not noticeable to the eye in the inner panel of the left rear door for placing and drying (thanks to the drainage system) of a wet umbrella and the umbrella itself in addition. As they say, nothing, but nice. Real care, not an empty window dressing! If you resort to the comparison already used again, then Superb is, of course, not presidential apartments, but a worthy standard room in a five -star hotel. The list of options, in addition to basic equipment, is truly endless and includes everything that modern limousine can be equipped! Therefore, it is possible to make presidential apartments out of the car only to have enough money.
And, of course, a noticeable lengthening and expansion of the internal space of the car with a slight increase in its external dimensions deserves special mention. Due to the transverse location of the engine and moving the transmission mechanism, the legs of the driver and the front passenger became much more spacious, and the foot space is increased by 19 mm behind. When you sit in the back seat, even with an increase of two meters from your knees to the back of the front chair, the distance is almost as large as in the London Cabe!
The main (and patented) attraction of this car, which made it a kind of casket with a secret and made thousands of people in surprise and delightedly at the March Motor Show in Geneva, a classic lid of the trunk for the sedan, elegant movement of the hand turned into the back door of the hatchback! You need to place in the already spacious trunk some trifle like a couple of suitcases you open the lid. And if you need to transport something like a massive chair of a couple of seconds of holding a special key next to the lock button, and now the lid went up with the rear window. All ingenious is simple! True, a logical question arises: why such a door and a cargo container of a limousine? Here Octavia with such a door would go. And it will probably be so.
Not forgotten, of course, and the driver. It is very convenient for him not only to sit, but also to drive a car. When the engine is launched, the speedometer and tachometer arrows take off and describe the circle, reporting on the complete readiness and serviceability of devices that differ in beautiful and well -read and white marking day and night. The lighting of the cabin with white scattered light, which radiates the Catvision diode system, creates a soft and exquisite atmosphere in the cabin
As for the movement itself, in this regard, the character of the Czech flagship determines primarily comfort, and not driverships. Like the limousine, Superb moves smoothly, relaxed, with a sense of self -esteem and weight. Moreover, this pleasant sense of thoroughness does not disappear even in the version with the most powerful motor that endows the car truly sports dynamics (acceleration to 100 km/h for 6.5 s). And at the same time, his imposition does not mean at all that he is bad from a driver's point of view.
On the contrary, it is difficult to find flaws in handling. The steering wheel is moderately loaded, provides a clear feeling of the road and a fairly direct relationship with the front wheels. There is no rocking. Superb feels equally confident on a high -speed highway with fast turns, and on a winding mountain road (the test took place on the border of Austria and Germany between Munich and Salzburg, where both are enough) does not behave like a fuss. Perhaps, in its handling, it is very reminiscent of VW Passat. However, this is not surprising Superb from the adapted modules of the chassis of modern Octavia (that is, Golf) and Passat supplemented by special elements. Hence the familiar work of the suspension, and verified handling.
Summing up, it remains only to state that the new Superb turned out to be the magnificent. This is not just a car on a new platform, but a high -quality step for the Skoda brand, even a jump forward. But who needs such a beautiful luxury car, if it is, whatever one may say, still Skoda? Even though the 1.4-liter version will cost the buyer at a relatively affordable price (although in general the prices for Czech cars remain exorbitantly high), it is difficult, almost impossible to imagine a person who needs a car of this class, but who will suit the Skoda emblem on him. And who waits for a limousine with the back door like a hatchback to move the old chair to the country. And the option with the V6 engine in this regard is the more doubtful because the more sulfent the car is, the higher the requirements for its origin. In those circles where they meet on clothes (on the same suit from an English tailor, on the glasses from Armani and the Rolex watch), even on the limousine, but Skoda is the same as coming to the dinner in Chinese sneakers and a shirt from a neighboring hypermarket. Sad examples of attempts to break through into the luxury segment of a kindred VW Phaeton or Opel Signum visual confirmation of this. And how many more years and generations Superb will be needed to break this banal snobbery stereotype.
But in the company of Skoda and in the VW group, round idiots are unlikely to work, right? What is the secret of the new Superb, in addition to its double rear miracle, prove? The answer, apparently, sounds like this: in corporate sales. The former Superb has gained popularity in many countries in the role of a taxi, as well as an official car serving state and international organizations, as well as large companies. The new one has everything you need to increase this success and become one of the leaders among cars replenishing corporate parks. And there, you see, individuals will not pull up from among the snobs and make the company to numerous customers of mass models Fabia and Octavia

 
 
 
 

 

A source: Motor magazine [July 2008]