2025 Skoda Superb Estate Review: Lives Up To Its Name

Its name may be a back-reference to one of its maker’s early luxury cars, but a car called the Skoda Superb brings high expectations. It’s not like it has rivals in the shape of the Ford Excellent, Vauxhall Brilliant or Toyota That’s Proper Class, That.

Now entering its fourth generation, though, the Superb has been steadily improving throughout its existence, to the point where the last version, in its fastest estate guise, could very well have laid claim to the title of ‘all the car you could possibly need’, and could credibly, if predictably, be described as ‘superb’. More of the same, then?

Skoda has cruelly denied us a proper vRS version of the Superb for its entire existence (although it did make that brilliantly bonkers one-off Sleeper last year). That continues with the new fourth-gen car, but we’ve been trying the next best thing.

The SportLine trim level gets a lightly Max Power-ish bodykit and some chunky 19-inch rims, but also some actual chassis changes: it sits 15mm lower, gets standard Dynamic Chassis Control active suspension, and changes to the power steering calibration. Inside, meanwhile, you’ll find lots of car industry shorthand for ‘sporty’: lots of black suede-ish stuff, red accents, and a pair of truly excellent front sports seats.

We’ve tried it paired with the top drivetrain available in the Superb, VW’s omnipresent EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol four-cylinder, making the same 261bhp and 295lb ft as it does in the basic VW Golf GTI. It powers all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch auto.

It’s not quite as powerful as the old range-topping 276bhp Superb, then. However, it still hits 62mph in 5.7 seconds (two tenths quicker than the Golf GTI, incidentally) and tops out at 155mph. Plenty quick, then, and really, that’s just scratching the surface of what’s unquestionably one of the very best all-round cars on sale.

For a start, especially as an estate, it’s massive. And not massive in a gigantic SUV way that makes you pucker your way through width restrictors, just massive in a really useful way. With 660 litres of boot space with the seats up, and 1950 litres with them down, it’s the joint-biggest estate car on sale right now, matched only by the VW Passat, which is the same car under the skin.

The cabin, meanwhile, has as much space as Nebraska. Even the very lankiest driver could pop the seat all the way back, and there’d still be room for four adults. The sports seats up front are hugely supportive on a long trip and pack an excellent massage function.

The materials inside are only a smidge less posh than in the Passat, and largely, the Skoda wins big interior points over its VW cousin. That’s thanks largely to the configurable ‘smart dials’ that provide proper, tactile controls for the heating and ventilation, and the steering wheel scroll-wheel that lets you easily disable the lane-keep and speed bongs via your instruments. Bliss.

There’s a big 13-inch touchscreen, but the car’s never over-reliant on it. Evidently, the priority with the interior was to make everything as un-annoying as possible, rather than show off lots of flashy but ultimately irritating tech. Other manufacturers, including some fellow VW Group ones, should take note.

The only real downer with the interior is that, on the SportLine, everything’s very dark. It’s not helped by the M135i-on-PCP-grade rear window tints, although the sheer square footage of glass does ease this a bit. Both the upholstery options for the SportLine go all-in on this moody aesthetic, so you might want to think about the optional £1350 pano roof.

As for the drive, if you see this Superb’s hot hatch-bothering spec sheet and expect some knuckled-down performance car, you’ll probably be a bit disappointed. Rather, it’s a usefully quick, rocksteady way of covering ground. There’s lots of readily available torque, aided by VW’s DSG, which is one of the best gearboxes in the business for how effortlessly and smoothly it fires out shifts.

On wider, sweeping roads, it’s a genuine pleasure to drive fast. The SportLine’s steering tweaks have served it well – it’s effortless at low speeds, and smooth and direct at high speeds. There’s just enough steering feel to let you know what’s going on, although it obviously doesn’t crackle with feedback. The all-wheel drive system provides a sense of unflappable grip and steadiness.

Try and treat it like a junior RS6 on a really twisty road, and the shortcomings become apparent. The brakes are perfectly good most of the time, but aren’t really set up to haul 1668kg of Skoda down into a second-gear corner. And speaking of gears, best leave the car to deal with them – the paddles are not only a bit small and pathetic, but when you take manual control, there’s no obvious way of seeing what gear you’re actually in.

That said, the punchy engine, responsive ’box and all-wheel drive mean you can squirt out of bends quickly, sticking to a tight line without much understeer. It stays impressively flat, too, because it’s an estate and not a needlessly high-riding crossover. Even if it’s not really the point of this car, it’s a neat extra talent.

Where the Superb is at its best, though, is on big, fast, open roads. Even on the SportLine’s big rims and low-ish profile rubber, it rides with grace and suppleness, and the cabin is wonderfully hushed. Between this and the warehouse-sized interior, it’s a properly wonderful car to sit and eat up miles in.

And yet it can do that and still beat a Golf GTI in a drag race, and carry a wardrobe, and give you a vigorous massage, and easily crack 35mpg when you’re really not trying to drive particularly economically at all. And yes, there’s still an umbrella squirrelled away in the door.

You really have to look very hard to find things to dislike about the Superb, although its price may raise a few eyebrows among those who still equate ‘Skoda’ with ‘funny little rear-engined car’. This is the top drivetrain and second-from-top trim, a combo that starts at £49,090, with our lightly-specced test car sitting at £50,065.

But let’s say you want a similarly-sized estate from one of the ‘posh’ German brands. The cheapest is the new Audi A6 Avant, and that starts at £53,285, which nets you a basic front-wheel drive, 201bhp version. Next to the well-equipped, well-made, fast and bigger-booted Skoda, you really have to ask how much a fancy badge is worth to you.

Most of all, though, the Superb exposes the utter folly that is the world’s current obsession with crossovers and SUVs. Save for being a bit less likely to make you wince on those rare occasions you have to go down a rutted track, there’s not a thing the average family crossover does that the Superb doesn’t do better. Long live the estate car, especially when it’s this, well… superb.