WHITE goods come in all shapes and sizes and prices these days, and the right car can be everything you’ll ever need.
Click the air con on warp factor whatever and it’ll turn into a fridge. Crank up the heating up and allofasudden it’s a cooker.
But slip one of the VW Group’s excellent diesel engines under the bonnet – in this case the 2.0 190ps one – and it’ll turn into a very acceptable user-friendly car that moves a bit.
And if it’s got a Skoda badge on the front and says Superb on its rump, then you’re quids in.
Check out the latest version of this Czech limo and you’ll find it’s everything an estate car should be, majoring on the vast load area side of the equation before racking up the brownie points on the user-friendly, economy and comfort stakes.
Everyone here travels in comfort, especially those in the rear where the legroom really is in the limo class.
It’s superbly comfortable, with a great driving position attainable by anyone from Warwick Davies to Meadowlark Lemon.
And with a dsg box fitted you can really relax behind the wheel. The interior gets the full VW Group treatment in that it’s well finished, smart and rattle free.
It looks long and when you come to park it you find out your initial impression wasn’t too far wide of the mark, so the rear park sensors earn their inclusion on the specification with the SE L Executive model tested here.
But while it looks big it has a certain elegance about its shape, set off by decent sized alloy wheels that don’t hamper the ride quality too much and a rear end that curves gracefully down to the bumper. For something of this size, it retains a remarkably sporty silhouette.
Stop/start technology is a real boon when you’re in a stop/start queue of motorway traffic – a welcome addition to the already high spec of this Skoda. The only shame being it halts the smooth progress of what is a superb motorway cruiser.
It’s hailed as the largest and most luxurious car to ever wear the Skoda badge, and to my mind it’s one of the best. There’s no denying its inherent good looks and its functionaility – ideal for family or business use. Or both.
You get some neat, added value, user friendly touches, like the luggage compartment and footwell lighting; a handy LED light that illuminates the luggage area but which can also be used as a torch (you might need it to find the furthermost extremities of the vast load area if you go shopping and forget to take your bags for life…); and that must have accessory for the British motorist, a collapsible umbrella stowed discretely away in the drivers door lining.
Other little touches, like the door mirrors folding away when you lock it, or the puddle lights that come on when you unlock in the dark are relatively unobtrusive additions to the standard spec but one’s you’ll appreciate, especially with the increasing number of lardy bottomed motorists in car parks these days when it comes to the former.
And here’s another. You can open the boot by sweeping your foot under the rear bumper thanks to the ‘Virtual Pedal’. Saves putting your shopping down in a wet car park when both hands are full.
I did have one minor niggle. When the auto parking brake clicks in and the stop/start operates as you roll to a stop it can spark a little jerk as you move off again – but feather the brake and the engine keeps running and the problem is partly solved.
FASTFACTS: Skoda Superb SE L Executive Estate; £29,920; 2.0 litre TDI, 190ps, 295lb/ft torque; six speed DSG box; top speed 1445mph, 0-62mph7.8secs; combined mpg 61.4; CO2 120g/km.
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