Skoda Superb Combi wagon

It’s not just the practicality that puts the Combi at the front of the Superb line, it’s also the looks.

... cleverly converts from a normal boot to a hatchback for huge practicality. But it’s about to be gazumphed by the newest variant for the line-up: the Superb Combi estate (Euro currency for station wagon). And it’s not just the practicality that puts the Combi at the front of the Superb line, it’s also the looks.

Admittedly it’s competing from a fairly low base, but the conservative styling of the sedan is put squarely in the shade by the sweeping sportback line of the wagon.

It’s a big vehicle – 4.8m long, 1.8m wide and 1.5m high – and that translates to a large amount of cargo capacity: 633 litres that balloons to 1865 litres with the seats folded down. That’s large enough to be shadowing Holden’s Commodore Sportwagon. It also means a sense of space when you’re inside, helped on the show car at Frankfurt by the optional two-piece powered sunroof.

It lets a massive amount of light into the Combi, but unfortunately for Down Under it will also let in a fair bit of sun, because there’s no solid blind, just the mesh one that is becoming as much of an epidemic as sun cancer.

Also on the options list is a power-controlled tailgate, that like the slide-out floor is designed to make loading easier over the low edge. The Combi was launched in Frankfurt with the same engine list as the sedan — 92kW/1.4-litre and 118kW/1.8-litre turbo plus a 191kW/3.6-litre V6 for petrol, and two 2.0-litre turbodiesels developing 103kW and 125kW.

Skoda Australia boss Matthew Wiesner says the spec levels will probably be identical to the sedan in Australia. “We’re going to try and keep the spec consistent with the sedan — we’ve got pretty good spec across the two levels,” he says.

Wiesner is expecting to see the Combi here in the second quarter of next year, with hopefully only a small increase over the sedan. He won’t talk about numbers, but says that the Combi will probably parallel the wagon in the Octavia line-up with about 40-45 per cent of sales, surfing on the wave of movement away from large SUVs.

“There’s a trend towards this sort of car,” Wiesner says. “People are getting out of SUVs. And now wagons look much better than they did in the past.”

And in some cases better than the sedan they’re derived from.

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