Buying a used Skoda Superb (3rd-gen)

The 1st-gen Skoda Superb was launched in India in 2004. It royally flopped because it was too bland, too expensive and looked too much like the smaller Octavia. The B6 (2nd-gen) Superb was the one that made things right for the Czech carmaker. Not only was it priced aggressively, it also offered unmatched cabin space, comfort, equipment & quality (GTO called it a game-changer in this article). No wonder it became the best-selling sedan in the D2 segment, outselling the Honda Accord, VW Passat and Toyota Camry. The 3rd-gen car, which was launched in 2016, has continued where its predecessor left off. The formula is similar = it is spacious, loaded with features, boasts a solid build, a VFM price etc. Yet somehow, the 3rd-gen didn't create that flutter and 'wow' factor in the market as the 2nd-gen car did. Could be due to the very understated styling, the pricing not being as aggressive and the market moving on to crossovers / SUVs. In fact, the Passat, Accord & Teana are all gone. The Superb & Camry are the sole warriors of the D2-sedan segment.

Used Skoda Superb Pros

• 75% of the A6 / E-Class / 5-Series luxury at Kia Sonet & Hyundai Creta prices
• A car that punches above its weight & how
• Timeless, elegant styling with “big car” presence. Fit, finish & build quality are top class
• Awesome space and comfort, including at the rear. Beats luxury cars costing twice as much
• Classy cabin is luxurious & practical. Cavernous 625 liter boot gobbles up big bags!
• Enjoyable 12-speaker Canton sound system includes a punchy subwoofer
• Terrific diesel & petrol engines mated to fast gearboxes. Petrol available with a manual tranny too
• Comfortable ride quality is just perfect for Indian roads
• Surprisingly easy to drive for such a large car. Driving experience makes us smile
• Loaded with features & technology. Equipment list runs pages long…
• 5-star safety rating & kit - 8 airbags, ESP, TC, ABS + EBD, EDL and lots more
• 6-year extended warranty available (a must-have on any Skoda)
• Attention to detail (THREE lights in the boot, felt-lined & illuminated door pockets, ticket holder on windscreen, boss button, triple-zone climate, rear headrests with outer support, request sensors even on the rear doors, umbrellas with a drainage system…)

Used Skoda Superb Cons

• The petrol's DQ200 AT has an extremely high probability of failure (diesel's DSG is more reliable)
• Skoda’s notorious dealerships & after-sales horror stories
• Complex electronics, expensive spares & suspect long-term reliability. Many 2nd-gen Superb owners have wept
• Single digit fuel economy of the turbo-petrol in the city
• More practical, reliable & efficient 2.0 diesel is not as easy to find as the 1.8 petrol. Diesel sold lesser
• Shorter, tighter & lighter Octavia is more fun to drive. The Superb is like a limousine!
• In such a luxo-barge, we’d prefer a RWD instead of a FWD layout
• DSGs can get jerky in crawling traffic (between 1st - 3rd gears). It’s an inherent DSG trait
• Sheer size means the car isn’t really city-friendly. Good luck in tight lanes & parking spots
• Some product planning goof-ups by Skoda (limited colours, no navigation in early cars, no diesel MT)
• 156 mm of ground clearance, coupled with a long wheelbase and soft suspension
• No full-size spare wheel provided

Related Threads

Official Review

GTO's Superb L&K

DDiSLover's Blue Sportline

hillsnrains' pre-worshipped Superb

The 2019 Price Cut

The 10,00,000th Superb

Skoda Superb vs Toyota Camry

Octavia or Superb?

Mod Potential

Like all VAG cars, the Superb is very mod-friendly. With a simple Vag-Com / VCDS, you could have some fun at home. There are also many aesthetic & performance mods available worldwide. Although, we will add that, if you want to mod a lot, you should probably consider the Octavia instead of a limousine like the Superb.

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Availability

Decent for the D2 segment. The Superb has been a popular car in the big cities, regularly selling at over 200 units per month. You might have trouble outside the Tier-1 cities though. While we see plenty of 1.8 TSI petrols (which suffer poor long-term reliability), the 2.0 TDI diesel's availability is lesser (diesel was priced much higher than the petrol, and it was launched later). Will further add that, if you want a trouble-free & fuss-free ownership experience, go for a used Toyota Camry instead. Check out the Superbs on sale - link.

Pictures of a 2016, 22,000 km done Superb 1.8 TSI MT with an asking price of Rs. 17.99 lakh. This is a good looking, single owner, fully loaded luxury car with a full service history, maintained at a Skoda authorised service center for Honda City money:

Thank you to BHPian Epic for sharing this information with other enthusiasts!

Skoda India has finally started deliveries of the 2016 Superb Diesel. The new Superb was launched in February 2016, but deliveries of the Diesel models have commenced in September, after a whopping seven month delay.

The new, third-gen Superb is brought in India as CKD units, and then assembled at Skoda's plant in Aurangabad. But the automaker claimed that they didn't have the required kits to assemble the Superb Diesel, thus causing the delay in deliveries. Initial customers were notified about this delay through an e-mail, while Skoda dealers were eventually asked to stop accepting any new bookings of the diesel models.

Skoda kept on increasing its window to start deliveries of the Superb Diesel; from February, to April, and eventually to September (Click here to read the report). Customers who had initially booked the diesel model were given three options: wait for the deliveries to begin, convert their diesel model bookings to petrol, or take the refund of the booking amount.

The 2016 Skoda Superb Diesel is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that produces 174 BHP @ 3,600-4,000 rpm and 350 Nm of torque @ 1,500-3,500 rpm. The engine is mated to a 6-speed dual-clutch (DSG) automatic gearbox.

The 2016 Skoda Superb Sedan, which was launched in India in February this year, will soon come with Skoda's Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) system. DCC is currently offered with the Superb in international markets.

The Dynamic Chassis Control allows the driver to choose from three available driving modes - Comfort, Normal and Sport. According to what the driver chooses, the DCC system then adjusts the car's steering weight, gearshift timings, throttle response, and even firms up or softens the suspension system, in order to optimally suit the requirements of the driver.

The Superb currently on offer in India does get similar driving modes, but it only adjusts the steering, engine and gearbox settings. Since the Indian-spec car has a different suspension setup as compared to the overseas models, Skoda had earlier avoided the extra cost of developing and tuning an adaptive control system for the 'rough road' suspension setup. But the automaker has now decided to equip the adaptive dampers on the Indian Superb, thus completing the DCC suite.

It is a complicated procedure to develop adaptive dampers and tune the suspension system accordingly. As a result, the new Skoda Superb with DCC will likely be introduced in early 2017.

Source: Autocar India

Link to the Skoda Superb Official Review

If you booked a Skoda Superb diesel at the time of its launch in February, well, there's bad news for you. Skoda has no kits to build the diesel, with the first lot of deliveries only expected in the August - September period.

Initially, those customers who booked the diesel variant received an email stating 'no deliveries in March due to global demand'. Now, Skoda has asked its dealers to stop accepting bookings for the 2.0L Superb diesel altogether. Whoever has booked the car is being given 3 options:

1. Shift the booking to the petrol variant.
2. Take a refund.
3. Wait for a couple of months.

The 2.0 diesel produces 174 BHP and churns out 350 Nm of torque. It is the preferred engine for many due to the engine's robustness and its 6-speed DSG which is more reliable than the petrol's 7-speed DSG.

The new Superb is an awesome car; it's disappointing to see such major errors in its planning & production. We don't remember the last time that a car was launched, only to have its deliveries commence a full 6 - 7 months later.

Click here to read Team-BHP's report on the launch of the new Superb

Skoda has launched the third-generation Superb sedan in India at prices starting from Rs. 22.68 lakh (ex-Thane, pre-octroi).

The new Superb is available in petrol and diesel variants. The petrol variant comes with a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed dual clutch (DSG) automatic gearbox. The Superb petrol is powered by a 1.8-litre, turbocharged engine that develops 178 BHP @ 4,000-6,200 rpm and 320 Nm of torque @ 1,450-3,900 rpm (250 Nm @ 1,250-5,000 rpm for the automatic). The Superb diesel comes with a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that produces 175 BHP @ 3,600-4,000 rpm and 350 Nm of torque @ 1,500-3,500 rpm. The engine is mated to a 6-speed dual-clutch (DSG) automatic gearbox.

Both versions are available in two trim levels - Style and Laurin & Klement (L & K). However, the manual variant of the Superb petrol is only available in the Style trim level.

The Superb is built on Volkswagen's MQB platform. It measures 4,861 mm in length, 1,864 mm in width and 1,483 mm in height. This makes it longer, wider and taller than the outgoing car. The new car's wheelbase of 2,841 mm is also longer than that of its predecessor. It has a fuel tank capacity of 66 litres and rides on 17-inch wheels shod with 215/55 section tyres. The Superb has a 625-litre boot. Luggage space can be increased to 1,760 litres after folding the rear seat backrests down.

Some of the features in the list of equipment on the L & K trim level include three-zone air-conditioning, leather upholstery, 12-way electrically adjustable driver seats with memory function, 12-way electrically adjustable front passenger seat, panoramic sunroof, a wireless heated windscreen, an electromechanical parking brake, heated washer jets, cooled front seats and an umbrella housed in each front door. The car also gets a 6.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system with audio controls on the steering wheel, SmartLink, USB, Aux-in and iPod connectivity.

Safety features and driver assist systems include 8 airbags, ABS+EBD, hill hold, ESC, traction control, front and rear parking sensors and rear view camera among others.

The Superb is available in 4 body colours - Candy White, Black Magic Pearl Effect, Magnetic Brown and Business Grey.

Prices (ex-Thane, pre-octroi):

Superb petrol (1.8 TSI)

• Manual (Style) - Rs. 22,68,305
• Automatic (Style) - Rs. 23,91,984
• Automatic (L & K) - Rs. 26,89,281

Superb diesel (2.0 TDI)

• Automatic (Style) - Rs. 26,39,650
• Automatic (L & K) - Rs. 29,36,850

More spy images of the next-generation Skoda Superb have surfaced on the internet. The latest round of spy shots shows the car with an all-black interior.

The Superb gets leather upholstery, a three-spoke, multifunction steering wheel, infotainment system with a touchscreen display and three zone climate control system, electrically adjustable front seats with lumbar support and memory function, heated seats, rear air-conditioner vents mounted on the centre console.

The new Superb is longer and wider than the previous model. It has the new Skoda family grille, redesigned headlamps with daytime running lights, new tail lamps and restyled bumpers.

In India, the Superb is likely to be powered by a 1.8-litre TSI petrol and a 2.0 TDI diesel engine. The car is expected to be launched in the country in 2016.

Source: Motoroids

After the resignation of Prof. Dr. Winfried Vahland, the VW group has appointed Porsche AG’s former sales and marketing director as Skoda’s new CEO, effective Nov 1, 2015. The move comes in around two weeks after Dr. Vahland, who was to head Volkswagen North America, resigned due to differences over the group’s restructuring.

Maier has an extensive amount of experience in the automotive industry. Apart from being well versed with the mechanical end of automobiles, he held several managerial positions at BMW in Germany, before joining Porsche AG and becoming the German performance car brand’s sales and marketing chief and contributing to the brand’s model range expansion as well.

The VW group is still in damage control mode and will rely on the market acumen of executives like Bernhard Maier, to bolster the growth of mass market brands like Skoda, which recently launched the highly anticipated 3rd generation Superb.

In July, we had putt up images of the next-generation Skoda Superb sedan testing in India. Now, more images of the car have surfaced on the internet. The latest set of images shows the car in Laurin & Klement trim, which sits at the top of the Superb range in international markets.

The Superb Laurin & Klement comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, bi-xenon headlamps, 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, three zone climate control system, electrically adjustable front seats with lumbar support and memory function, heated seats, front doors with umbrellas, parking sensors, keyless entry, electrically operated tailgate and adjustable suspension.

In internationally markets, the Superb is sold with a wide range of engines including 1.4-litre, 1.8-litre and 2.0-litre TSI petrol units and 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre diesel power plants. Transmission options include manual and DSG automatic gearboxes.

Skoda is expected to launch the Superb in India in 2016.

Source: Autocar India

Click here to read Team-BHP's detailed report on the third-gen Superb

Thank you to Gaurav Wagh for sending us these images. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing them with other enthusiasts!

Two test mules of the third-generation Skoda Superb has been spotted in Aurangabad.

The new Superb is 28 mm longer and 47 mm wider than the previous model. Its wheelbase has been increased by 80 mm and the front overhang is 61 mm shorter than before.

The car has a coupe-like look compared to the outgoing model. It features the new Skoda family grille, restyled headlamps with daytime running lights, redesigned tail lamps, restyled bumpers, chrome lining for the windows, a shark fin antenna and 5-spoke alloy wheels.

Internationally, the Superb is available with a wide range of engines. Options include 1.4-litre, 1.8-litre and 2.0-litre TSI petrols with output figures ranging from 123 BHP to 217 BHP along with 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre TDI diesels with output figures ranging from 118 BHP to 188 BHP. Transmission options include manual and DSG automatic gearboxes. It is unclear which engine and transmission combinations Skoda will bring to India.

The Superb is expected to go on sale in India in 2016.

A series of teaser images, multiple spy shots and renders later, Czech car maker Skoda has finally disclosed the details of the third generation Skoda Superb (B8). The all new Superb skips the B7 platform and draws its design inspiration from the VisionC Concept that was showcased at the 2014 Geneva motor show.

The new Superb - that will make its public debut at the 2015 Geneva motor show, will see its market launch in June 2015. The model debuts after the B5 that arrived in 2001 and the B6 that debuted in 2009 and was refreshed in 2013. Given below are the details:

Dimensions:

Detailed specifications are yet to be revealed, but the new Superb sees an increase in interior space. The wheelbase has been increased by 80 mm while the front overhang has been cut down by 61 mm. Skoda says the passengers up front get a 39 mm increase in head and elbow room, while rear legroom stands at 157 mm. Rear elbow room is up by 69 mm, while boot space is up 30 litres over the outgoing model and stands at 625 litres.

Power-trains:

The new Skoda Superb comes with five TSI petrol and three TDI diesel direct-injection turbocharged engines based on MQB technology. All power-trains comply with EU6 standards and have stop-start technology and brake energy recovery as standard. The petrol engines have a power output of between 123 BHP and 276 BHP, while the diesel engines produce between 118 BHP and 188 BHP.

Except for the entry-level petrol version, all engines are available with a dual-clutch automatic transmission. Four engines are available with all-wheel drive based on the Haldex 5 clutch. The new engines are said to offer up to 30% lower fuel consumption values and emissions, complemented by a weight reduction of 75 kgs.

Features:

Skoda will be offering an array of new features with the new Superb. The saloon gets dynamic chassis control (DCC) with driving mode select, three zone climate control, a sliding and tilting panoramic sunroof, rain and light sensors and one umbrella in each of the front doors instead of one in the rear left door. Select markets will also feature auxiliary heating, heated seats, a wireless heated windscreen and heated washer jets. The new Superb will also get park assist, a rear view camera and the handbrake is now an electronic one.

Safety:

Safety features include electronic stability control (ESC), multi-collision brake, front assist with emergency brake, electronic tyre pressure monitor, seven airbags + optional rear side airbags. The Superb can also be equipped with adaptive cruise control, crew protect assist, lane assist, emergency assist, blind spot detection including rear traffic alert and driver alert.