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By Jonathan Crouch

Old school virtues get new packaging in the fourth generation version of Skoda's big Superb. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 67

This fourth generation Superb might well be the last all-new fossil fuelled car the Czech brand ever launches, so it's appropriate that as a product, it's very 'Skoda', sensible, spacious, good value and unpretentious in both hatch and estate form. There's something old (diesel engines) and something new (cutting-edge PHEV power). The right kind of customer might even think the end result to be, quite simply superb.

Backgroundword count: 153

It seems strange now to remember what an outlandishly unusual product the Superb was for Skoda's line-up when it first launched in B5-series form back in 2001. We'd never seen a Skoda this big and luxurious. The pundits said it wouldn't sell and VW Group higher-ups made plans to quietly drop this Passat-derived model at the end of its first generation. But sell it did - so well that Skoda got the green light to build a second generation B6-series version in 2008, then a third generation B8-series model in 2015. Late 2023 saw the announcement of the fourth generation B9-series model we look at here, still Passat-based (it's now even built on the same production line) and sharing everything meaningful with the brand's second generation Kodiaq SUV. Nothing too radical's been changed here, but almost every part of this car has been thought about afresh. The result is difficult not to like.

Driving Experienceword count: 312

The mainstream powertrain options both develop 150PS and make 62mph in 9.2s en route to 139mph but are quite different. There's the mild hybrid 1.5 e-TEC petrol unit we tried, which has the VW Group's latest 48V mild hybrid tech; or, if you're more old school, the 2.0 TDI diesel, which in volume 150PS form has nearly 50% more pulling power (360Nm of it), hence a 2,200kg braked towing weight figure that's 300kgs more than the petrol model and will be of particular interest to many customers of the estate variant. This diesel can also be had in uprated 193PS form, in which guise it's mated to a 4WD system and for many, would in this guise make a more sensible alternative to a mid-sized SUV. Talking of sensible alternatives, probably the biggest news on the engine front is the massively improved PHEV drivetrain. The previous generation Superb iV PHEV generally got a thumbs-down from British buyers (understandably so, with a relatively small 13kWh battery yielding just 35 miles of rarely-achieved range). So Skoda's had another go, this time equipping the iV Plug-in Hybrid with a sizeable 25.7kWh battery pack which is supposed to be able to offer driving range of up to 84 miles. The engine that cuts in at the end of all that is broadly the same 1.5-litre TSI four cylinder unit we're trying today but with the PHEV, this 150PS powerplant is mated to six rather than seven-speed auto transmission and works in concert with a 118PS electric motor, contributing to a total system output of 204PS. Those rare folk who stretch right to 'Laurin & Klement' trim at the very top of the range get the option of the fastest available Superb engine, a 265PS 2.0 TSI petrol unit, which has to be had with 4WD and seems rather pointless given the sort of car this is.

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