Sitting in the driver’s seat, I get a
feeling of déjà vu — with the long white bonnet sprawling before me, a steering
wheel that feels good to hold and the all too familiar infotainment system. The
only thing not so nostalgic is the three-spoke steering wheel rather than the
four-spoked one we’ve come to expect in Skodas. The reason for this déjà vu is
that the new Skoda Superb I’m sitting in is a facelift and not an all-new
generation model.
The new-generation Superb is yet to be
revealed and might be a while away, in the meantime we will have to make do
with the refreshed one. Mechanically, the car remains same as its predecessor;
there is no change to the dimensions and wheelbase or the engine and gearbox.
The
Superb is a very stable car to drive and offers a phenomenal ride. The
remodeled face is closer to the recently launched Octavia
The biggest changes to the car are the
aesthetics. The front-end sports a wide grille reminiscent of the Octavia and
Skoda’s new design language. The bonnet dome has been retained, but the badge
is now chrome steel. The headlamps have been reworked, which are now flatter
and sharper. The headlamps incorporate LED daytime running lights along with
LED indicators. At first, the flatter front-end seems a bit out of place with
the rest of the design of the car, but tends to grow steadily on you. At the
rear, the bumper has been redesigned as well. The license plate has now moved
up on the boot lid instead of the bumper as was on the older car. The bumper,
as a result, looks clean in design terms and the tail lamps are all-LED that
look smart.
One
of the biggest strengths of the Superb has been its high quality, spacious
interiors
The model we drove was the 2.0 TDI Elegance
— the top-of-the-line variant. On the inside, the similarities continue barring
the steering wheel, which we have already pointed out is a three-spoke unit
with paddle shifts. The interior is bathed in ivory leather and soft-feel
plastic and the touchscreen infotainment system is the similar to the one on
other Skoda cars. The front seats are comfortable and come with 12-way
adjustable settings with memory function for both the driver and co-passenger.
The rear seats, on the other hand, could do with a bit more thigh support.
However there is plenty of room at the back for three and even has boot access.
The split seats increase the boot space even more (as if the boot space wasn’t
adequate already).
Rear
legroom (157 millimetres), headroom is enormous and beats cars costing twice as
much in this regard
Even though this is just a facelift, an
upgrade in power could have worked wonders for the car. The 2.0-litre unit
produces only 140bhp of max power and offers 320Nm of peak torque. The diesel
version of the Superb comes with a six-speed DSG gearbox. There is a bit of
latency in the shifts in drive mode, but that change the moment you put the car
in S Plus mode. The paddle shifts add to the driving experience. The torque
turns out to be adequate, but the luxury sedan feels a bit sluggish, especially
on inclines. Then there is the noise that comes from the engine bay and seeps
into the cabin. The TDI unit has a fair bit of engine clatter, which sounds out
of place in a luxury sedan of the Superb’s stature. It is noisy both at
standing still and on the move. There are other problems too, like the lack of
a reversing camera, which is useful on narrow roads and helps to differentiate
between flora and a fairly large stone. In terms of handling, it is not a
sports car, but still manages to hold its own in the corners, which gives the
driver confidence in the car’s ability.
From
the rear you will immediately notice the new LED tail-lamps housing three light
strips which make up the C-shaped rear lights
The steering provides good feel and so do
the brakes. Though in tighter corners, it feels as if the front-end has turned
while the rear is a bit slow to catch up.
But the biggest redeeming quality of the
car is its ride, which is simply sublime. There is no pothole that it can’t tackle
and the perfectly tuned suspension and ESP ensure that the car stays planted at
all times even at high speeds. During our drive we encountered sections that
would make most sedans shy away, but the Superb was well, superb even on bad
stretches.
