Skoda Superb 2010 News

Three weeks after the global scandal broke, Australian owners of VW diesel cars finally know if their car is affected or not.

In fact, it's better than just plain good.  The Czech wagon is cavernous inside, is incredibly flexible, good to drive, well up on safety and ideal for family work. It also has the sort of thoughtful touches - an umbrella tucked into the back door and a clip-out torch in the boot - that will bring people back and have them bragging to their friends. A starting price of $40,990 makes the Czech car a wonderful deal, and even the fully-loaded Elegance turbodiesel lists for less than $50,000. The only negatives for the Superb are the unproven Skoda brand - which is still struggling for traction in Australia, even though it's part of the quality Volkswagen Group - and a driving experience which is a touch down on the class standard. More on Carsguide Car of the Year 2010

In fact, it's better than just plain good. The Czech wagon is cavernous inside, is incredibly flexible, good to drive, well up on safety and ideal for family work.It also has the sort of thoughtful touches - an umbrella tucked into the back door and a clip-out torch in the boot - that will bring people back and have them bragging to their friends.A starting price of $40,990 makes the Czech car a wonderful deal, and even the fully-loaded Elegance turbodiesel lists for less than $50,000.The only negatives for the Superb are the unproven Skoda brand - which is still struggling for traction in Australia, even though it's part of the quality Volkswagen Group - and a driving experience which is a touch down on the class standard.Skoda Superb wagon: review

Three newcomers a week is way beyond the normal rate, even in a car world where 100-plus newcomers - everything from a facelift tweak to a full body change - hit showrooms each year.  Things were a bit quiet through March and April, but when the calendar flicked across to May the ships started landing with fresh new metal to tantalise anyone with a taste for something new in the driveway.Everyone in the car business knows fresh metal is the best way to lure buyers into showrooms and, with demand running at near-record levels, the conversion rate right now is massive.Hyundai is doing huge business and this week it has the successor to the Sonata - now with a trendoid i45 badge on the boot to try and break the dowdy Sonata pattern - with the tiny Euro-focus i20 in June.  We are also getting a first serious look at the Toyota Rukus, the first move in a plan to win Gen-Y buyers to the world's biggest brand, and Skoda has the station wagon stretch on its latest Superb.  Did I mention we're also having a first fang in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS at Phillip Island this week?The real problem with so much new stuff is finding the space inside a weekly Carsguide. In today's edition we still have to clear the impressive new Suzuki Kizashi and the classy BMW 5 Series before we can move on to the next round.  The other good news is that the cars we are seeing are all potential contenders for the Carsguide Car of the Year award.The Volkswagen Polo has already set the bar but the Kizashi will make the finals and so should the 5 Series. Later in the year we know Holden will have a VE Series II with star potential, Benz is about to uncork its Gullwing SLS, and the Jaguar XJ will arrive to take the British brand in a new direction.And that 911 RS? Not a COTY contender, but only because it is far too narrow focussed with a scorecard that reads 100 per cent for thrills and pace but closer to zero for value and people carrying potential.Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

Car companies are about to be put to the test in the Global Green Challenge and Carsguide is going along for the ride. There are two key buzz words in today's world of clean, green motoring: more and less.Car buyers, pricked by an environmental consciousness, are driving demand for better efficiency to reduce the impact on their wallet and less emissions to reduce the impact on the environment.And there's an added caveat to this quest for green sustainability: it has to be affordable without robbing the family car of performance or driveability.Welcome to the challenge facing car designers as they chase motoring's holy grail — producing a workable, green friendly car for the future. A bookmark of just where the industry is at will be on display at the end of the month when the Eco Challenge for production cars, run in conjunction with this year's Global Green Challenge, sets out from Darwin on October 24 and heads south to Adelaide.It will be real-world 3000 kilometre reality check, albeit most of the driving will be on highways, to show buyers what more-for-less cars are available now, or the near future.This week car companies have been jostling as they line up for the starting grid — some have still to fully show their hand but organisers say 21 cars are expected to contest the Eco Challenge while a further 38 dedicated solar-powered cars will also follow the same route the following day in their own race.This year's production car field is an eclectic mix.Hyundai Hyundai is using the Global Challenge to launch its 2010 Santa Fe wagon, promising more power and reduced fuel consumption which will attract caravan owners looking for an alternative to heavier 4WDs.Hyundai's Team R has entered two Santa Fes, one of which will be driven by CarsGuide. The wagon gets Hyundai's new R turbo diesel and a new six-speed manual transmission along with a recalibrated suspension and steering package for our tougher road conditions. A six-speed automatic will be optional. The Santa Fe goes on sale at the end of the year.Skoda Skoda will use the event to showcase its new flagship, the Superb saloon. Skoda says the 2-litre direct injection turbo diesel is capable of 5.4l/100km on the highway, meaning you can marry luxury with economy.Suzuki will use the event to showcase the ability of the tiny Alto, which the carmaker claims can travel 100 kilometres on just 3.5 litres of precious fuel on the highway. Tests in India have already shown it can do better at 3l/100km.The car is being kept on the road by a team of apprentice automotive engineers from the Melbourne's Kangan Batman TAFE college.Holden Holden and Ford will be fighting each other in the Challenge. Holden had been tipped to show of a Commodore, which like Saab, can run on 85 per cent ethanol, or a diesel, but the General will instead showcase its recently launched 3-litre Omega Sportwagon, fitted with the new SIDI (Spark Ignition Direct Injection) engine and six-speed automatic transmission.Holden won't reveal what fuel economy goal it is aiming for but it maintains the SIDI is now the most fuel efficient Aussie-built six-cylinder in the market. Holden says the engine, rated at 9.3l/10km is 13 per cent more fuel efficient than the previous motor at 10.7l/10km.Ford Ford will come out fighting with an XR6 Turbo and a Fiesta Econetic which will be launched in November and has the potential to run at 3.7l/100km. Again, Ford won’t talk about economy goals.BMW BMW is another keeping its cards close to its chest until closer to race. It will have a fleet of three diesel Mini Ds, one of which is will be driven by former Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan. The 1.6-litre Mini diesel is capable of 3.9l/100km combined and 3.5l/100km on the highway.Tesla While all eyes will be on the known brands, one entry which will likely steal the limelight will be the all electric Tesla roadster — the world's first production all-electric car which is being entered by broadband company Internode.The company's managing director Simon Hackett imported the first car to Australia recently.Kia Kia has entered two LPG electric hybrid Fortes, which have a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine mated to a small electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries — a first for a mass-production small automatic car. Kia says it can return 5.6l/100km.Based on the Cerato, the Kia Forte has the potential to make it to the Australian market next year for less than $30,000. Based on the Cerato The Forte was launched in South Korea in August and displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last month.NON-PRODUCTION AND EXPERIMENTAL CARS Independent team Deep Green Research has come to the party with an electric Honda.Students from South Australia's Annesley College have built a petrol/electric hybrid Holden Viva. The all-girl Annesley team has taken part in previous solar challenges but this is the first time they have entered the production car class. The students will be driving the car on the 3000km journey.Research and development company Intex is entering a four-cylinder petrol Ford Spectron Van with a retrofit hybrid system that converts the drivetrain to a plug-in hybrid electric.Absent This year Toyota is a notable non-starter after impressing in 2007 with its Prius.And there has been a late scratching with Volvo confirming it was withdrawn its two C30 DRIVe hatchbacks because they are stuck on a ship from Europe, a victim of stormy weather in the Atlantic. Volvo had high expectations for the 1.6-litre diesel which sips a claimed 3.8l/100km. The eco hatch will now be launched in Australia early next year. 

... 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.Read more stories from the Frankfurt Motor ShowMake One Degree of difference today by calculating your carbon footprint and finding out what you can do to reduce it.