Review of the new Skoda Superb Greenline

With the core Skoda Superb attributes of a spacious interior, a novel boot arrangement and a comfortable driving experience married to 64mpg economy and 114g/km emissions, the Superb GreenLine will be a perfect match for buyers who don't share the market's obsession with sportiness. It'll make a usefully tax-friendly company car too.

Skoda would have us believe, and both the tape measure and the weighbridge will confirm, that its Superb is a full-size executive car for family saloon money. That being the case, the Superb GreenLine edition has got to be one of the greenest executive cars out there at the moment. Its 103bhp power output won't command much respect in the golf club car park but owners will be flavour of the month with the accounts department when they hand in their fuel expense claims.

Skoda had quite some success with the original Superb. The wheeze of taking a Volkswagen Passat, adding a few inches of extra wheelbase and re-badging it as a Skoda proved simple but effective. At the competitive prices Skoda asked for the car, buyers could get Passat quality with significant gains in rear legroom. Taxi drivers loved it. That model was replaced by this one and, again, the underpinnings are Passat in origin. This time it's a mixture of the old Passat and the latest model but Skoda has done a far more thorough job of making the Superb feel like a model in its own right.

The Superb is quite a size and it takes a prodigious leap of faith to imagine the 105bhp 1.6-litre TDI diesel engine powering the GreenLine model with any great conviction. If anything, the car's 12.5s 0-60mph time is surprisingly brisk but if you're after lusty performance from your big family/executive car, you won't get it here. Dismissing it on grounds of its modest pulling power would be missing the point of the Superb GreenLine completely, however. The GreenLine is all about efficiency and that tallies well with the relaxed road manners common to all Superbs.

"Skoda's Superb loses very little in the conversion to economy-focused GreenLine guise.."

The Superb's executive car pretensions are underlined by a silky ride quality and hushed interior. It's a cosseting car to drive but isn't as alert in feel as the sportiest models in the sector. The GreenLine is the sort of vehicle that would make a great choice for buyers who get the same satisfaction from taking it easy and eking out the best possible fuel economy, as others do from going round corners on their door handles.

Hatchback or saloon? It's the perennial poser for buyers in the medium range sector but the Skoda Superb neatly sidesteps it by being both bodystyles at the same time. Skoda has engineered a novel rear opening for the car which provides access to the large 565-litre luggage bay in the style either of a saloon or a hatchback. Press one of the buttons on the superb's rear and a small saloon boot lifts open. Press the other and the whole of the rear windscreen rises up as one with the boot lid to form a full-size hatch opening. This novel arrangement probably adds little in terms of practicality but the Superb is highly practical already. Fold down the rear seats and a huge 1,670-litre space presents itself. If that isn't versatile enough though, there's also a full estate version.

The Superb's size immediately strikes you. The old Superb was hardly compact but this model is 35mm longer. From some angles the shape isn't particularly graceful but it's pleasant enough and from the inside it's hard not to be impressed. The Volkswagen and Audi design cues are evident all around the interior and the general feeling of quality is tangible. In the rear your lucky passengers will find legroom of a level only usually found in luxury saloons. There's 19mm of extra kneeroom over the old Superb and space for even the preposterously tall to get comfy.

The GreenLine model costs from around £18,000 and sit between the S and SE derivatives from the standard range. That means that they feature the basics found on the S model such as air-conditioning, a trip computer and electric windows but also add stuff like cruise control, a leather steering wheel and tinted windows. The aerodynamic modifications that actually serve to improve the look of the car are also thrown in and these amount to lowered suspension and a dinky rear spoiler in the boot lip.

The unorthodox boot design of the Superb means that Skoda only had to invest in designing and building one Superb model rather than the saloon and hatchback versions that most marques are forced to produce in order to satisfy the whims of the markets in different countries. It's a clever solution and it gives the Superb an interesting feature of differentiation in its battle against the likes of Ford's Mondeo, Honda's Accord and Renault's Laguna.

The Superb GreenLine formula will be immediately familiar to anyone who's acquainted themselves with the manufacturer's Fabia GreenLine models. Indeed, most mainstream marques have an eco-friendly model line these days and in most cases a similar set of modifications are relied upon to supply the environmental benefits. The Superb GreenLine has a reduced kerb weight thanks to numerous small weight savings made about its person, longer gearing, a re-mapped engine management computer, improved aerodynamics and low rolling-resistance tyres. The bottom line of all this is 64.2mpg on the combined cycle and 114g/km of CO2 - figures which have the potential to save owners a considerable sum over a year of high mileage driving. Company car drivers will save more still.

Skoda's Superb loses very little in the conversion to economy-focused GreenLine guise. It was never particularly sporting or dynamic to begin with so the fitment of longer gearing and the modest 103bhp diesel engine will only deter buyers who were never really interested in a Superb anyway. The car's impressive refinement and ride comfort remain largely intact but with fuel consumption improved to 64mpg, the Superb GreenLine becomes one of the most fuel efficient big cars on the market.

Anyone prioritising space, comfort and efficiency in their next vehicle will do very well to consider the Superb GreenLine. It doesn't give us much to get excited about but what it does, it does very well.

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