Skoda Superb review - Practicality, comfort and boot space

Once you’ve got over the acres of space that make sitting in a Superb feel like relaxing in your living room, it’s time to cast an eye over some of the clever ‘practical’ touches.

Useful features include a parcel shelf that can be slid behind the rear seats when you need it out of the way, a removable LED torch in the boot and a grippy cupholder in the front so you can unscrew bottle tops with one hand. Like the Octavia and Fabia there’s an ice scraper hidden in the fuel filler cap, while iPad holders can be fitted to the back of the front seats and there’s an iPad cradle in the storage bin between the front seats.

Big storage bins in the front doors, and slightly smaller ones in the rear doors, improve things further, as do cupholders in the pull-down central armrest in the rear. Features such as lane assist (which nudges the steering automatically to keep you between the white lines) and traffic jam assist (which steers, brakes and accelerates for you at slow speeds in jams) help to take the stress out of long journeys.

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Size

The Superb’s roomy interior is one of its most attractive features, but Skoda hasn’t employed any trickery to make the space – the Superb is a big car on the outside as well. At 4,861mm it’s nearly as long as the 4,899mm BMW 5 Series. 

Leg room, head room & passenger space

If you thought the previous Superb was cavernous, prepare to be surprised. This new model is larger in every direction, and while there’s no more legroom (there really wasn’t any need to add any), elbow room and headroom have increased both in the front and the rear, so three adults can sit in the back with space to spare. In fact, the only car the VW Group produces with more space in the back is the long-wheelbase Audi A8 limousine.

Boot

The boot in the Superb hatch measures 625 litres with the rear bench in place. Fold the split rear bench down using two levers in the boot and space increases to 1,760 litres. The space is deep, wide and extremely long with the rear seats down, so chucking a couple of bikes in there would be easy, even with all the wheels attached.

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Towing

The Skoda Superb has towing capacities in line with much of its competition. Less powerful units can manage braked trailers of 1,500 to 1,900kg, depending on spec, whereas the more powerful engines allow the saloon to tow up to 2,200kg of braked mass. Each engine and gearbox combination has specific ratings, so it’s worth checking these before hitching up; also note that in some cases if a tow bar is not specified from the factory it can’t be retrofitted.