What is it?
The Skoda Superb is already one heck of an impressive piece of high value, high practicality kit; the Estate brings new levels of capaciousness to the Skoda brand. It's that simple, really.
Why's it here?
Skoda had to unveil it somewhere, right? That's not to be disparaging about a car that has a very high chance of impressing us a lot when we drive it next month, but there's not much to report other than the following numbers: 663 and 1,865. They're the capacities of the boot in litres, seats up and down respectively. Impressive, yes?
It's the same length and width as the saloon, but it has an electric tailgate for ease of use, and the rear seats are moveable for extra luggage space. The engine and transmission line-ups are as per the saloon, and it should cost a couple of grand more like-for-like when it goes on sale next Spring.
Show stopper or floor filler?
As filler goes, it's like top quality bathroom tiling grout, this one: never going to excite anyone, but really relevant in real life and thus worth thinking about. But despite the heady blend of value, quality and practicality we expect it will have, Skoda is actually predicting modest sales for the Estate - around a third of total Superb volume.
Mark Nichol - 16 Sep 2009