Styling
If we're to start on a minor downer, just to make it seem as if this is going to be a properly balanced critical review, then the new Skoda Superb Estate a) doesn't look massively different to the car it has replaced, and b) is weirdly reminiscent of the now-defunct
Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer from a rear three-quarter view. However, it remains a brilliant-looking thing in general - familiarity not breeding any contempt here - and there are enough signifiers of its newness, such as the octagonal radiator grille and the Matrix LED headlights with 'Crystallinium' internal structures, to keep the Superb wagon looking fresh. Speaking of which, anyone fancy an iced tea? As in, Ice Tea Yellow metallic, the fetching shade you can see in the pictures here.
Interior
This is a, um, superb (!) effort in here... with one or two caveats. Generally, material quality is of a most lovely standard throughout the Skoda's cabin. There are nice textiles and stitching swaddling the dash and door cards, that unusual grille-like arrangement in the centre of the dashboard (designed to hide the outer air vents) is appealing in its own way (just try not to say 'Hello Clarice' to yourself in your head in a creepy voice when looking at it), and the overarching layout of the various controls is most agreeable. Gorgeous, plush seats too, which are especially lust-inducing in the Suite Cognac interior package, and even better when fitted with the ventilated function on higher-spec models, to go with the standard heating and massaging elements.
The issues come with two of the new Superb's main talking points. The first are those three Smart Dials down on the dash. They're an excellent idea, a clever blend of the technological swishness of digital displays - fundamentally, each one is a 32mm round screen - with the ergonomic correctness of not putting all your climate control functions into the main touchscreen infotainment, in the Skoda's case this being a 13-inch unit that's mainly brilliant. And they work well, the central 'master' dial cycling through various functions of the car such as climate, nav, drive settings and so on; you can choose four out of six available things to go here. However, the plastic used on the dials is not Skoda's finest work, the whole units wobble about quite noticeably if you get hold of them and rock them a bit, and then the middle dial stopped working for us when we jabbed it a bit too hard during testing. It took turning the car off and on again to get it to reset and respond once more. Hmm.
The other grating detail is the way that 10.25-inch Virtual Cockpit instrument cluster, standard on all models (there are no analogue dials here any longer), has been integrated into the dashboard. Or, rather,
hasn't been integrated. It's a rectangular unit beneath a curved cowl, which means the upper corners of the screen protrude to either side of the binnacle above it. Could you not just have made the upper surface of the dashboard flat here, Skoda, so that the Virtual Cockpit blended in a little better, eh?
Practicality
Come on; this is a Skoda Superb Estate, you don't get much more practical than such a thing this side of a
Volkswagen Multivan Long. The Czechian wagon is filled with 28 'Simply Clever' touches, one of our favourites being the tablet-holder that folds out of the rear armrest and its cupholder cover, while the space for humans onboard is simply vast - the acres of legroom in the back, for instance, borders on the comical. But it's not as gigantic as the boot, which has been enlarged 30 litres to 690 litres with all the seats in use, which means you almost need one of those crane arms from a funfair to pick your luggage out of the deepest recesses of the cargo bay. Fold the second row down and you have 1,920 litres of endless void to play with. Honestly, the definition of practicality in the OED ought to simply read 'see: Skoda Superb Estate'.
Performance
We tried three of the drivetrains offered in the new Superb Estate range at the launch, in the form of a 1.5-litre TSI mild-hybrid (MHEV) petrol with 150hp and 250Nm, the iV plug-in hybrid (PHEV) full petrol-electric, now sporting 204hp/350Nm but a battery pack chunky enough to take the Skoda wagon more than 62 miles on its electric power alone, and then the 150hp/360Nm 2.0-litre TDI turbodiesel.
Every Superb save for the PHEV gets a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission - the iV alone runs a six-speed unit - and most of them, PHEV included, put their power through the front wheels only. There's a 193hp 2.0 TDI and a 265hp 2.0 TSI which come with Skoda's 4x4 all-drive traction, but in the main you're going to end up with a front-driven machine.
Ultimately, our favourite is the 2.0 TDI, perhaps an unfashionable thing to say in this EV-centric day and age, but there we are. We only drove the PHEV for six miles, in and around a city's congested rush-hour streets, so we can't tell you much about that beyond the fact the switch between pure-electric and hybrid-running power feels seamless, while the low-speed ride is not notably worse than any other model, despite the iV's significant 1,848kg kerb weight.
The 1.5 TSI MHEV is sweet, especially up to 4,000rpm where it introduces perhaps fewer vibrations into the Superb's cabin through wheel and seat bases than the TDI, but it sounds strained if it's revved beyond that point and it also feels about 50Nm down on where it ideally needs to be. Admittedly, Skoda claims it'll do circa 50-to-the-gallon when the TDI only manages 55, but we think you'll more likely get near the diesel's claimed economy in the real world than you would with the TSI MHEV, certainly if our test drives are anything to go by. If there's a silver lining to this small cloud, then we can say that if you end up with the 1.5, you won't be disappointed with it; it's a fine enough thing and no mistake.
Yet it's the 2.0 TDI which wins the day. That extra 110Nm makes a big difference to the subjective muscularity of the Superb Estate, so while the on-paper acceleration figures are no different between them, it's the turbodiesel which feels the best powertrain you can choose - there's more low-down surge and insistency to it. Further, the TDI's super-quiet at idle and up to about 2,000rpm, it becomes discreetly vocal (in a nice way) from 2,000-4,000rpm, and if - for some bizarre reason - you feel the need to spin a low-output, decent-capacity diesel's crank faster than that, then even at the redline the 2.0-litre lump retains a decorum that the 1.5 TSI can't match. The final cherry on the cake here is that we saw 46mpg out of the 2.0 TDI on a mixed and demanding test route conducted at a faster pace, so 50-60mpg (and more) out of it on a long, steady motorway run looks like it would be no difficulty for the Skoda at all. Marvellous.
Ride & Handling
The Superb has always majored on comfort over speed, even when it was a
Sportline with that bonkers 280hp engine. So when we say the Mk4 Superb has better, sharper handling than the car it replaces, everything is relative. The steering through that wonderful two-spoke wheel is good - accurate, light, responsive and even generating a tiny bit of feel, while the body control in the car's sportier settings (more on this anon) feels more tied-down and resolute than it did before. There's plenty of grip to play with and good feedback through the chassis, although with the front tyres loaded up, if you hit a mid-bend bump then you can surprise the rear axle - it skips a little as the car struggles to work out what to do next.
No matter. Because where the Superb Estate will blow you away is with its ride quality and rolling refinement, both of which are second to none. Admittedly, every test car we tried was fitted with Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC), with its almost-superfluous 15 different settings of damping firmess ("Shall we have comfort level seven or eight today, Mildred? What do you feel like?"), so we don't know yet what a car on standard springs and shocks would drive like.
We'd bet it won't be a rolling horrorshow, though. And even if, by some remarkable set of circumstances, it was, then all you've got to do at ordering time is tick the box on the form marked 'DCC'. With this equipped, the Superb Estate is just magnificent to travel in. It has that lovely, languid lollop to the body in the wake of large compressions, which serves to flatten out the worst road surfaces without the shell of the Skoda ever abruptly pogoing up and down atop its suspension. It negates washboard and ridged surfaces like a dream, without once giving the impression the passenger compartment is mounted atop a waterbed on springs. It isolates its occupants almost entirely from any of engine, suspension, tyre or wind noise (the latter because this Superb wagon has a slippery 0.25Cd figure in its armoury) on the move, so even at 70mph and more, you can conduct a conversation in such hushed, reverential tones that you might as well be in the Bodleian with a very strict librarian watching over your every move.
In short, as big, luxurious, premium estate cars go, the Mk4 Skoda Superb comprehensively lives up to its name. And what more could you ask from it than that?
Value
Superb Estate prices start at around £36,000 for an SE Technology, which comes with a substantial level of standard equipment for the cash - which includes, but is not limited to, the full digital interfaces within, adaptive cruise control, heated and massaging front seats, 17-inch alloys, wireless smartphone charging (and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, too), parking sensors all round with a reversing camera, and much more besides. Granted, if you start speccing up SE L or Laurin & Klement-grade machines with either the 193hp TDI or 265hp TSI 4x4 powertrains, you're probably going to start knocking on the door of 50 grand with a few choice options if you're not careful, but for the sheer amount of space, the quality of its interior and the unstinting competence of its refinement, we think a Skoda Superb Estate at any price it comes in for is well worth the money.
Verdict
When we say there are no major changes for the Skoda Superb Estate Mk4, it is most emphatically not a bad thing. What has happened here is that the very best big estate has just got that bit better still, in almost every department. Aside from a few minor gripes about some interior detailing, and the slightly derivative looks of the car at the rear, the Superb Estate does everything you could conceivably ask of it to an incredibly high standard indeed. We absolutely love this thing - and you will too, if you take a punt on it.
