Superb Test

[Renegade]

Just struggled through a test of the Superb - I say struggled because somewhere halfway thru the, er, twisties, this g8 decides to pull out of a junction without stopping and, to make things worse, maintain a steady 25km/h before pulling the same no-stop stunt at the end of the road. I hope they don't notice the marks my fingernails left on the steering wheel out of sheer frustration - maybe I should have used the Superb's bulk to run her off the road or something....

 

Anyway, here's my impressions of the occasion - stepping into the car reeked of familiarity. The tactile feel of the dash, switches, grab handles, door handle....even fiddling around with the seat to find a comfortable driving position felt second nature. The overall cabin felt pretty well put together albeit a tad drab (must be a VAG calling card) although some effort to give a sportier feel on the dials worked out pretty well. Being a non-wood (kayu ? ) person, I'd trade the wood inserts for aluminium in a heartbeat, which IMHO goes better with the overall ambience of the cabin, and get rid of that unsightly Sony head unit.....

 

On the feel-good toys front - in addition to the digitally-controlled air-conditioning for the passengers and driver, both the glovebox AND the armrest get the fridge treatment, too, tho' I don't know anyone who'd want to freeze their CD's. There's the usual trip computer tho', sadly, they left out the cruise control on the Classic. An additional $20-odd grand gets you additional toys like a fridge in the rear armrest, sunroof and some other doodats which, honestly, most of us can live without - I'd personally save that extra for additional useful things. Like mods - upsized rims and tyres, chipping...the list goes on..... Funnily enough, the rear seat does not fold at all, but makes do with a ski-hatch which I'd find less useful during my next IKEA trip when I need to add another Benno CD rack to my living room. But, of course, there's the legroom - ah, yes, that - I guess everyone's familiar with that one already so all I'll say is it's HUGE! How much legroom can one have before it's too much ?

 

Drive - for a car its size, I found its ride pleasantly firm with body roll surprisingly well controlled (even in stock form, riding on 16"ers). Understeer (as far as I could tell till my fun was prematurely terminated ) being the order of the day, the Tiptronic is definitely a welcome on the twisties for hard cornering - the auto-box just doesn't seem to cut it under such situations. Brakes, typically soggy and could do with more feeedback - half the time mere tapping didn't seem to provide a whole lot of feedback. With the ubiquitous 1.8T mated to its 5-speed tiptronic found elsewhere in the VAG empire, pick up was decently progressive rather than explosive (pity... )but quite without drama. Strictly from a feel standpoint, its (1.8T unkitted) Passat brethren felt significantly faster. Somehow. For its bulk, I can understand why they don't offer one with the 2.0 like they do with the Passat. But that said, for a car its size, it definitely is tons more fun than many other similarly-classed cars I've driven in recent time, particularly the one I drove down under.

 

So...do I like it? Yes, it's definitely well built, drives well and yes, it's got tons of space. Being a self-confessed VAG-bigot (you know what they're like), driving the Superb quite like what it really was - a bigger VAG. I enjoyed the drive, loved the pace and space and revelled in the familiarity of it all. The only thing niggle for me at this point is, somehow, as thrilling as it was, I didn't feel stirred, like there was some inexplicable spark of excitement that wasn't there. Could this be, for me, a case of being in tounch with something all too familiar ? But that said, can't think of many others in its category offering the same combination of comfort and thrills. Wonder what 18"ers and a chip would do to its ride and handling..... watch this space

Edited December 30, 2004 by Renegade

[RadX]

Oh yes!

 

And a certain Bee-em owner was pretty comfortable in the backseat

[Soya]

kns...neber jio me?

[Renegade]

...I blame it on that roadhogger who killed lots of intended fun....

[Renegade]

My fault.

 

I scared your expectations too high....

[Soya]

u mean like the kopi not up to std?

[RadX]

nbz...everytime jio u u say u no money for petrol....so how?? u cycle wor

[RadX]

They at Czech Auto also admit

[Soya]

jio me first lah. then i see can siphon petrol off a 5-er later....

 

ok, dun OT lah.

[Seansene]

Ah... well done! Looks like the outsourcing is working

[RadX]

".......outsourcing is working ......."

 

u mean u outsourcing ur death threats??

 

But of cos, we still had our cuppa at u-know-where

[Seansene]

Of course you did, your regular pitstop

[Renegade]

u mean like the kopi not up to std?

 

Yeah.

 

To have kopi there you actually need to get out of the showroom....

[Renegade]

Actually, I have a stinking suspicion he works there and hangs out where we think he works....

[Seansene]

Yeah, you got a point there...

 

I was impressed with it during the test, but a day or two later I began wondering about the need for soooooo much space

[Renegade]

Ditto.

 

It's got the "value-for-money" proposition splattered all over it but in the back of my head I'm also asking "why pay for something that you won't use?". That, and the inexplicable lack of that final spark, whatever it is.

 

But that said, along with the legroom, I sure won't complain about the boot either....

[RadX]

Yeah.........I serve coffee at both places...i kopi boy rem

[Renegade]

...not kopi-money boy, meh ?

 

Heh....