Skoda Superb Review 2024

If you’re the sort of person who likes to get maximum metal for their money, then the Skoda Superb is absolutely the car for you. It’s massive, for starters, with a level of interior space that many limousine drivers would consider excessive, and the interior also has the quality to convince in such company as well. What’s more, it costs a similar amount - sometimes less - than many cars that are a fraction of the size, so the value it provides is really impressive.

So far, we’ve only had the chance to drive the entry-level engine in the range, the 1.5 TSI e-TEC mild hybrid with 150PS. We can’t find a lot wrong with it to be fair: it certainly won’t rearrange your organs with how fast it is, but it’ll be muscular and flexible enough for most drivers, and it does a good job on refinement and economy. On the trim level front, the entry-level SE Technology trim really doesn’t want for much, and is a great bet if you’re buying on a budget, but we would blame you for upgrading to the SE L for its leather upholstery, powered seats and powered tailgate.

It sounds a little flippant, but the answer is, not many. The fact is that large family hatchbacks and saloons like this are rapidly dying out because so many folk want SUVs as their family cars, so rivals are few and far between. The Skoda Superb shares its mechanicals and tech with the latest Volkswagen Passat, but that car is only offered as an estate, so it’s not a direct competitor. Otherwise, you have mainly hatchback rivals that are smaller and slightly cheaper, or executive saloon rivals that are a bit bigger and a lot more expensive.

Any outdated notion that Skoda is in any way a budget brand is blown out of the water the very second you open the door of the Superb. The precise mix of materials and finishes you get inside your car depends on which version you pick, but in all of them, there’s tactile soft-touch plastic, glossy panelling, and bright metallic trims, while either funky fabric or stitched leatherette inserts adorn parts of the dashboard and doors. It’s an impressively classy-feeling place to sit, and shows that Skoda is as good as any other brand from the Volkswagen Group stable on that score. 

Sure, you can find one or two panels that aren’t quite up to that same high standard if you really hunt around in the lower reaches of the footwells, but the quality never falls far, and the Superb always feels high-end and sophisticated. The buttons and dials work with well-oiled precision, and there’s a general feeling of solidity that gives you confidence that the car will stand the test of time extremely well.

All versions of the Superb get the same on this score (except that the Laurin & Klement model gets an upgraded Canton sound system), so you have a 10.25-inch digital instrument panel behind the steering wheel, and a huge 13.0-inch touchscreen plonked on the centre of the dashboard. As well as the usual DAB and Bluetooth, the system also supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus wireless phone charging.

However, Skoda has fallen prey to the same temptation that parent company Volkswagen has with the closely-related Passat Estate, and made the system rather too complicated. Sure, it looks great, with a big glossy screen and sharp, stylish graphics, and the screen sensitivity is top-notch. However, there are large numbers of on-screen icons to signify various groups of functions. These icons are dotted about all over the place, and they’re also ambiguously designed, so it’s not entirely clear what kind of function some of them operate. And even when you do chance upon the right one, it merely opens up a long and convoluted submenu that it’s too easy to get lost in. It’s tricky enough to find your way around when you’re stationary, and when you’re on the move, it’s way too distracting. 

Traditionally, Skoda’s models are usually appreciably bigger than the cars they compete with, and the Czech firm will charge you a bit less for them as well. The original Superb set the tone for this trend, and it continues with the latest Superb, because as family hatchbacks go, it’s absolutely blimmin’ enormous. It measures 4,912 long (10mm longer than estate, oddly), 2090mm wide (including door mirrors), and 1,481mm tall, while it has a wheelbase of 2,841mm.

Predictably, that translates into truly vast amounts of interior space. Even with a pair of six-foot-plus adults ensconced up front, the rear seats have limousine-like legroom allowing passengers of the same size to stretch out, while headroom is also very generous as well. A pair of gangly passengers will feel utterly spoiled. Squeezing a third in is less comfortable, but eminently doable, and while the middle seat is harder and narrower than those either side, it’s still comfortable, although you do have to sit with your feet either side of a hump in the floor.

The boot, too, is predictably huge, with a capacity of 645 litres, which is only 45 litres less than the Superb Estate gives you. Folding the 60/40 split rear seats down - there are catches in the sidewalls of the boot for doing this - frees up 1195 litres of cargo-carrying capacity, meanwhile. Granted, there’s no false floor, so there’s a hefty boot lip to negotiate when loading heavy items, and a large step up to the folded rear seat backs (these also lie at an angle), but you can’t grumble about the sheer capacity you get.

Plenty of Skoda’s trademark Simply Clever features are present and correct, too, which genuinely do make life a little bit easier. These include umbrellas concealed in the doors and an ice scraper hidden underneath the fuel filler flap.

The Skoda Superb Hatchback is available with a choice of four powertrains, two petrol and two diesel. Interestingly, the estate version of the car is offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain that combines a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor and a high-capacity battery to deliver 204PS and an all-electric driving range of more than 70 miles, but for some reason, that’s not offered on the hatchback version we’re discussing here.

The petrol choices start with the 1.5 TSI e-TEC, which has mild hybrid technology for marginal gains in performance and efficiency, and with 150 PS, it’ll do the benchmark 0-62mph sprint in 9.2 seconds. 

The other petrol option can only be had with range-topping Laurin & Klement trim level, and with four-wheel drive, and it’s a 2.0-litre turbo with 265PS, making the Superb capable of 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds.

The 2.0-litre TDI diesels come with either 150PS or 193PS. The former has a 0-62mph time of 9.2 seconds, while the latter, which comes with four-wheel drive, cuts this to 7.5 seconds. All of them use a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

So far, we’ve only had the opportunity to drive the entry-level petrol, and to be honest, we can’t find a lot wrong with it. There’s a gap of a second or so when you initially put your foot down before the engine and gearbox start talking to each other to figure out what level of acceleration you’re asking for, but once the power kicks in, it does so reasonably strongly, and there’s enough muscle to move you along quite nicely without the petrol engine having to work its socks off. It’s not fast, but it’ll be plenty fast enough for most folk, and the level of performance actually really suits the easy-going nature of the car.

The Superb is, by and large, a very relaxing car to drive, because that comfortable ride is accompanied by an impressive level of refinement. Wind- and road noise are well contained, even at 70mph, and the petrol engine we’ve tried stays calm and muted for the vast majority of the time, even on the motorway. 

It becomes a bit more vocal if you really boot it, with a raspy, strained note emanating from under the bonnet, but it’s not too loud and there are very few occasions where you feel it necessary to work the engine that hard.

As standard, the Skoda Superb gets all the driver assistance tech you expect. There’s automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assistance, lane keeping assist,  side assist, an exit warning system, an excess speed warning, rear cross traffic alert, manoeuvre braking, and a driver attention and fatigue sensor.

That’s all very well and good, but the last two items can be annoying. The manoeuvre braking sensors are far too sensitive and overcautious, and often when you’re slotting the car into a tight parking space, the brakes get slammed on when the system considers that the extremities of your car have come too close to another object, an object that you have a perfect view of and are plainly not going to hit. This is annoying the first time, and when your car shudders to an abrupt halt umpteen times during the same parking manoeuvre and there’s a line of cars waiting for you to get your manoeuvre done, it’s downright embarrassing.

The driver attention system will annoy you, too, because when you’re trying to find and perform a particular function on the over-complicated touchscreen while you’re going along - which you absolutely should be able to do - it scolds you and tells you to keep your eyes on the road. That’s a bit rich when it’s the fault of the car.

Regardless of all this, Euro NCAP has seen fit to award the Skoda Superb the full five-star rating after conducting the usual crash tests.

The latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index - our go-to source of reliability information - tells a rather mixed story of how reliable the Skoda Superb is likely to be.

The brand placed a slightly-better-than-average 13th out of 29 car makers in the manufacturer rankings for overall satisfaction, which is reasonably encouraging. Skoda didn’t feature in the list of the top 10 best manufacturers for reliability specifically, but it didn’t feature in the bottom 10, either.

The Superb, however, bucked Skoda’s trend, being voted as the fourth most reliable model in the entire study. Obviously, this is based on previous iterations of the car, as the latest fourth-generation model is still too new to have contributed, but that does bode well for the latest car’s dependability.

The warranty arrangement is rather average, though. You get unlimited-mileage cover for the first two years, and then a third year of cover limited to 60,000 miles.

Insurance groupings for the Skoda Superb range from 23 for the least expensive versions with the least power, right up to 34 for versions with the punchiest engines and priciest trims. As insurance groupings range from 1 at the cheapest end of the scale to 50 at the most expensive, this tells you that premiums on the Superb won’t be cheap, but they won’t be ruinous, either.

The flat rate of VED car tax for regular petrol and diesel cars currently stands at £190 per year, and that applies to most examples of the Superb. The versions that are packing 48-volt mild hybrid technology do qualify for a discount, but it’s only a tenner, so you’ll still have £180 left to pay per year. 

And that’s provided the cost of your car didn’t exceed £40,000 when it was brand new. Around half the range sits below that threshold, but adding a few optional extras to your car could easily take it above. And if that happens, you - and any subsequent owners - will be saddled with the luxury car surcharge for VED, which will see you pay an additional £390 on top of the regular annual charge for a five-year period between years two and six of the car’s life. It’s always worth performing a quick online check with the registration number of any potential purchase before you buy, to be absolutely sure of what you’re letting yourself in for.

Anyone who’s owned a Skoda in the last few years will be familiar with the Superbs range of trim levels, which are known as SE Technology, SE L and Laurin & Klement. Even the entry-level one is very well stocked. On top of all the infotainment and safety gear we’ve already talked about elsewhere, the SE Technology comes with alloy wheels, all-round LED lighting, front fog lights, privacy glass, a leather multifunction steering wheel, heated front seats with massage function, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist, front- and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, keyless go, and power folding and adjusting door mirrors.

The step up to SE L earns you cleverer Matrix LED headlights, keyless entry and go, leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats with advanced massage function, 14-way electric front seat adjustment, ambient lighting, and a powered bootlid mechanism with hands-free kick function. 

The Laurin & Klement comes with its own interior finish and leather upholstery, along with heating for the rear seats, steering wheel and windscreen, while you also get the upgraded Canton sound system, a parking package with 360-degree cameras, Dynamic Chassis Control, and a space saver spare wheel.