Skoda Superb test drive since 2008 -

Sedan of the Renaissance

The past, 2007 for Skoda became the year of Fabia Czechs updated their bestseller and designed the backlog for the future, determining the vector of the further development of the brand. Now, the turn of the flagship came into the light of a new Superb, which, I must admit, exceeded all expectations.
Firstly, the new Superb turned out to be longer and wider than its predecessor (plus 35 mm and 50 mm, respectively), while slightly losing to it in the height and size of the wheelbase. Of course, these metamorphoses were easily predicted. However, the fact that the car in its now current interpretation would probably be so presentable, probably no one expected. Nevertheless, its main difference from its predecessor was orientation.
Old Superb was an ideal corporate car. The modest, but quite solid exterior design, in German is a strict and fairly functional interior, good dynamic qualities and, of course, an attractive price tag. The totality of these qualities determined the place of the sedan under the European sun from the sky, he did not grab, but he also held the conquered positions quite confidently. His follower is completely different. Firstly, in his appearance, there is much less an amorphous corporate party, only that is almost flat (at the level of the middle rack) the roof, frankly indicating that the new Superb was also designed for the rear passenger. Otherwise, the exterior of the new items fully complies with modern concepts about the appearance of a normal European business sedan: classic forms that inspire the dimensions, large, obviously Volkswagen headlights, a massive bumper, a powerful hood and a sane amount of chromium. The picture does not even spoil the mischievous Skodov logo on the upper bar of the radiator grill, everything is quite decent.
But the feed of the novelty is designed, as they say, for an amateur. More precisely, not the feed itself, but the trunk lid. It seems that the designers working on it at some point were inspired by the works of their Russian colleagues who painted Priora, it is not an exact copy of it, but a certain similarity is clearly traced. I in no case strive to belittle the dignity of my respected compatriots, just this element in the guise of Skoda is openly argued. In some other case, such a trunk would look quite appropriate, but not on this car and not in combination with inverted lanterns a la Ford Mondeo here you need something more original.
However, a matter of taste. In addition, this is literally the only claim against people who worked on the style of the novelty, both external and internal. In addition, the deficiency of external originality Czechs more than compensated by the originality of the functional.
The trunk itself does not represent anything special for 565 liters with even walls and sane, three or four large road suitcases will fit here, but for users of most similar machines this is not news for a long time. The news can be just the design of the closing compartment of the body panel (or the fifth door, which in this case is quite justified). The Czechs called their innovative concept Twindoor.
In general, if you open the trunk in the traditional way, its full use is quite problematic to form an opening, to put it mildly, is small, it is almost impossible to reach the far wall.
However, if before this the driver presses the key located a little to the right, along with the lid upstairs will rise and the rear window like Octavia. In this case, as you know, no difficulties with loading will arise by folding the second row, even a refrigerator can be placed in Superb.
Although it is unlikely that the owner of the new Superb will use his car in this way, despite the sufficient supply of space, the design of the interior does not have such feats. From the inside, this Skoda is now not even Volkswagen, but the real Audi, at least if you pay attention to the style and quality of the finish, everything is very accurate, logical and correct, starting with the architecture of the front panel and decorative design and ending with the most insignificant details.
The same applause deserve capacity and ergonomics. In the cabin, five people will easily accommodate. Three, of course, on the back sofa. There are plenty of legs, regardless of the dimensions of those sitting in front, so the only problem is the height of the ceiling. People with growth above 190 cm here will be uncomfortable to elapse in the roof. In the front riders, there will be no difficulties at all. Ergonomics is the same hard five as before.
Although in this part, the Czechs in general did not offer anything new. Almost the only fundamental difference between the new items from both its predecessor and more budget brothers is the presence of a monitor installed to the central console. Of course, almost all on -board electronics from acoustics to the navigation system are tied to it, however, whether the latter will appear in Russian specifications is still incomprehensible.
It is unlikely that we will also have a green 1.9-liter turbodiesel that consumes a little more than 5 liters per 100 km of run.
On the other hand, such units for domestic buyers still do not represent much interest, so we turn to the gasoline half of the power line. Those who love hotter, Czechs will offer a top 3.6-liter, developing 260 V6 FSI horses, supplemented by a branded 6-speed DSG box and an updated all-wheel drive system (with a fourth-generation Haldex). Only 6.5 seconds to hundreds, 250 km/h at the maximum in general, the driver will not feel the lack of dynamics. That's just the order of numbers on the price tag may seem unacceptable to someone. Such customers are addressed by turbocharged units with a working volume of 1.4 and 1.8 liters. The first, by the way, is very good, even despite the working volume that is not too suitable for one and a half -ton car. Below he, of course, is stupid, but, on the other hand, 125 hp. And 200 Nm of thrust available in the range from 1,500 to 4000 revolutions allow it to accelerate to 201 km/h, exchanging the second hundred 10.5 seconds after the start. However, in my opinion, the average 160-horsepower TFSI is optimal for the new Superb. He gives the words the maximum torque (250 nm) already at 1800 rpm, so at the start of the floor, the car shoots quite decently. If the base dynamics does not seem enough to the driver, he always has the opportunity to switch the DSG to sports mode or click the programs on his own. However, I repeat, the traction capabilities of this motor are enough without this, while it also differs in quite moderate appetite. It should be approximately the same about the behavior of the car as a whole. Excellent stability, decent controllability and amazing smoothness of the course of what a business class car should have by definition, and the new Superb has these qualities.
Konurants
WINNER
Since its appearance, the modern generation of Toyota Camry has never surrendered its positions. On the contrary, the model sets a record behind the record. For example, last year more than 26,000 copies were sold in Russia, despite the fact that the closest competitor to Nissan Teana completed the reporting period with a much more modest result. The reasons for this demand lie not only in the popularity of the brand in general, but also in the extremely successful ratio of price, quality and dynamic characteristics for the basic car with a 2.4-liter engine and manual transmission dealers today ask for 790,000 rubles.
Euro -Asian
Nissan Teana is another fresh offer in the lower business class segment. The previous version of the sedan appeared in us in 2006, that is, almost at the same time with the Toyota bestseller, and was the latter relatively good competition. The Japanese presented the new generation of the model only a month ago. In addition to a more modern appearance, a chic salon and a very decent set of equipment, the machine received two gasoline V6 with a working volume of 2.5 and 3.5 liters aggregated with a branded variator. The cost of the car remained within the rational limits from 838 500 rubles.
Korean limousine
Hyundai Grandeur, in fact, became a kind of penalty for the Korean manufacturer in the representative class, nevertheless, in our country, customers still perceive it as a sedan of a more democratic segment.
In general, the car is clearly designed for an American user: it is huge outside, spacious inside, the decoration used relatively good quality materials, but there are a lot of wood around. Under the hood of the Korean, one of two gasoline V6 gasoline with 192 and 235 hp can be installed. Both, of course, are aggregated with automatic transmission.
Vladimir Zhidkov
 

Source: MKOMBILA magazine [June/2008]