Skoda Superb vs Peugeot 308

What's the difference?

It's genuinely difficult to fault the Superb in this spec, although the front-wheel drive 162TSI version is on par in practical terms and can be had for almost $12,000 less, albeit with fewer toys.

However, the Superb SportLine wants for almost nothing in terms of specs and appointments, and it differs from the regular 206TSI thanks to its subtle, sporting demeanor.

It's flexible, strong and elegant, and it's as practical as any sports utility vehicle on sale today.

Skoda does well with the Superb in relation to the rest of its line up, but even within its own ranks, a coming challenger in the form of the Kodiaq SUV will make life unnecessarily difficult for this well-priced, well-specced wagon.

If you don't need a high-riding 4x4-esque SUV, and you're not concerned about the badge your car wears – or even if you are – you really need to short-list the Superb for a test drive.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is a beautifully designed small hatch that is comfortable, enjoyable and easy to drive. The electric motor gives this hatch good acceleration and the equally impressive handling makes for a fun car to drive too. There's good storage, a decent boot and room for even tall people like me in those back seats.

There are two clear drawbacks, however: the price is steep compared to the petrol version; and you'll need to plug the vehicle into a power supply each night if you drive the car daily and want to achieve the 2.4L/100km fuel economy we did in this test.

Last, but probably the most important thing you'll read is that Peugeot will bring fully electric cars to Australia from the second half of 2023, from SUVs to (hopefully) the battery electric version of this very 308 hatch.

If it was my money, I'd hold on - you're going to have your next car for quite a long time so it's worth waiting for the fully electric versions.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

There's a feeling that the Skoda brand has supplemented the now defunct Saab as the thinking driver's car of choice. In fact, Skoda defies its origins as a discount sub-brand of Volkswagen, with almost every vehicle sold locally optioned up like, as Skoda's product manager Kieran Merrigan told us, "a Christmas tree."

The Superb has a bold, masculine, yet friendly shape that manages to avoid being slab-sided and dull. The blacked out presentation of the SportLine variant is nicely underplayed, while the distinctive alloys give the Superb a real presence.

The Superb wagon is an amazingly versatile car that's easy to live with.

Its front end is not a million miles away from the one that adorns its smaller Octavia sibling, but in its wagon guise, the Superb SportLine is a genuine head-turner.

Inside, the Superb is clearly a high-end VW Group car, but the unique seats and sports trim and interesting Skoda touches - door bins, for example - set it apart.

There hasn't been a Peugeot in the last five years that wasn't stunning. There's the high quality feel in their build, and premium yet unique look - like a new Volvo but with more flair. And the 308 hatch and this hybrid version has all of that.

From the sinister looking LED tail-lights to the wide mesh grille, you really get the feeling that Peugeot is hitting its design stride.

This 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid looks identical to the petrol version with its low, wide stance, and big dark alloy wheels that fill up its arches.

The cabin is sporty, lavish and minimalist with quilted leather upholstery seats, the digital driver display and media screen, and avant garde small angular steering wheel.

The Superb wagon is an amazingly versatile car that's easy to live with. Its electric tailgate opens to reveal a cavernous luggage space; there is 660 litres behind the seats, which expands to 1960 litres when the seats are flipped down.

We love the handy seat releases near the rear door, along with shopping bag hooks, cargo cover, load restraint points, nets and a 12-volt socket. The load cover can interfere when larger bags or boxes are stowed, though, and the Skoda also sports an odd pseudo storage hammock that could easily be deleted.

Storage is plentiful, and there are two cupholders up front and another pair in the flip-down rear centre armrest – though the cupholders are frustratingly tiny in their diameter, defying even a regular can of drink.

Another four bottles can be stashed in the front and rear door pockets.

Rear seaters can also control the climate via temperature adjusters if they so desire. The SportLine even has heated rear outside seats, which also have ISOFIX child seat mounts added to them.

Up front is an inductive phone charging slot; simply place a suitable phone flat on the pad, and the car will charge the phone without a cable. Not only that, but the pad can enhance the signal of the phone. It didn't work with every phone we tried, though, and the slot is too small for huge devices like Apple's iPhone 6S.

If you're worried about ride height, don't be; the Superb cleared our steep drive test front and rear with ease.

The multimedia system has an 8.0-inch touchscreen and easy to use satellite navigation as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Phones are easy to connect and stay connected, too.

Seating is generous and supportive in all positions, with loads of room throughout the car for five people. Rear legroom is a particular standout, with our lanky teen enjoying limo-like space in the back seat.

The Alcantara fabric isn't perhaps as soft and as luxurious as the leather you'd find in the 206TSI 4x4, but it's grippy and comfortable, and cleans up just as easily as the leather, despite having perforations. Don't ask how we tested that...

And as usual, Skoda adds its cool little touches, with small umbrella ports in both front doors and garbage bins in the door pockets, as well as sun shades on the rear side windows.

Oh, and if you're worried about ride height, don't be; the Superb cleared our steep drive test front and rear with ease.

Peugeot's 308 is a small hatch, think Toyota Corolla, only beautiful and more spacious.

So, the 308 can carry five people with just enough head and legroom for a semi-giant like me (I'm 191cm) to sit behind his driving position.

There's good cabin storage with large door pockets, a long and deep storage box under the centre armrest up front along with two cupholders up there, too.

The boot has a cargo capacity of 361 litres, which isn't bad for this class.

To power devices there's a wireless phone charger under the dash, and USB ports for front and rear passengers.

A quirky Peugeot design feature is the low-placed angular steering wheel. I found had to squeeze my knees past to sit in the driver's seat. I'm not sure what size human was used as the test case for this but it wasn't somebody with stilts like mine, I can tell you that.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid lists for $64,990 before on-road costs. The ‘GT Sport' part of the name is the grade and the hybrid only comes in this grade. In comparison the priciest petrol 308 hatch is the GT Premium for $48,990. The 308 GT Premium also comes in wagon form and that's $50,490. Alas the wagon doesn't come as a hybrid.

Is it good value? Nope. A charge of $16,000 over the cost of the GT Premium petrol version with almost identical standard features is pretty unreasonable. It's also not good value when you could buy a fully electric car about the same size such as a new Tesla Model 3 for $64,300, or a Polestar 2 for even less at $63,900.

However if your heart is set on a PHEV, the main competitor is another Euro hatch - the Cupra Leon VZe from $59,990.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid standard features include LED matrix headlights, 18-inch alloy wheels and a panoramic sunroof, while inside there are two 10-inch displays - one for the media system and one for the driver's gauges.

It also has black full-grain Nappa leather seats (heated and massaging for the driver and front passenger), a 10-speaker Focal stereo system, proximity unlocking, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, wireless phone charging, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The same (EA888) 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor that powers the VW Golf R is the engine of choice for the SportLine, and it makes the same 206kW as its corporate cousin.

Torque is rated at a hefty 350Nm from a low of 1700rpm, and it hurls the SportLine wagon to 100km/h from rest in a claimed 5.8sec.

It's backed by a six-speed dual clutch transmission and runs a Haldex all-wheel drive (AWD) layout that biases traction to the front wheels. The Superb also has a drive mode select switch that modifies the behaviour of the throttle, gearbox and steering. It also runs adaptive dampers.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid has a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine making 132kW and 250Nm combined with an electric motor at the front wheels making 81kW and 320Nm.

The combined output of the engine and motor working together is 165kW and 360Nm, and sending that grunt to the front wheels only is an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Acceleration is good. We're talking 0-100km/h in 7.4 seconds which is more than two seconds quicker than the petrol-only variant.

Skoda rates the Superb SportLine at 7.3L/100km on the combined fuel economy cycle, and it needs 95RON fuel as a minimum. Its 70-litre tank should yield 958km of range.

Over 380km of testing, the Superb returned 12.2L/100km according to the dash, which is a surprisingly high figure when compared to the claimed average. The majority of the test was conducted with the car in Sport mode, but this has only a marginal effect on consumption.

This is what it's all about right? Well, Peugeot says that after a combination of open and urban roads the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid will use 1.3L/100km.

At the launch I did a 34km test loop through Sydney's Northern Beaches with a good mix of morning traffic and hilly terrain. At the end of my journey the trip computer reported an average fuel consumption of 2.4L/100km.

I drove the entire loop in Hybrid mode, but there is a Sport mode, a Battery Save mode and EV mode.

If you were to drive in EV mode Peugeot says the electric driving range with a full battery is 60km.

At the start of my drive the battery was about three-quarters charged with the gauges displaying 38km of range.

A mileage of 2.4L/100km is still excellent fuel economy and from experience I can tell you a petrol-only variant would be up around the 8.0 or 9.0L/100km mark for the same trip.

There is a catch, and that is you'll need to plug in your hybrid 308 daily to charge the battery if you plan to achieve the fuel economy I did.

Charging will be slow, however, because Peugeot has fitted this hybrid with a small 3.7kW on-board charger. So, even using a fast charger you'll be looking at more than four hours to fully charge the 12.4kWh lithium-ion battery.

This charging time and small electric driving range in return could be a deal breaker for some and it's the reason why I've given the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid a lower mark. If you aren't always charging this car your fuel usage will rocket. New buyers unaware of this could end up using more petrol than ever.

A fully electric vehicle may be a better solution for city dwellers.

The Golf-R engined Superb belies its size with mid-range urge that would shame a lot of larger capacity engines. It's not as vocal – it's not an RS model, after all – and it's missing a bit of the oomph that Skoda Australia's hot weather tuning takes out of the European spec engine (about 16kW and 30Nm), but it's still a marvel to think this big car has such a relatively small engine under the bonnet.

Its chassis balance is spot on, too, with the 19-inch wheels and 235/40 R19 tyres still offering a decent ride compliance, as well as sharper handling when the dampers are turned up to Sport.

The Superb shrinks around the driver, behaving for the most part like a smaller, more agile car.

The AWD system, too, is a great addition, providing a more stable, connected feel that ties both ends of the car better than the FWD-only versions. Be warned, though – AWD cars need to have all four tyres replaced at the same time, even if you've only worn the fronts or damaged a single tyre.

Steering feel is good, if a little isolated, but overall, the Superb shrinks around the driver, behaving for the most part like a smaller, more agile car.

Once you've become accustomed to the strange, low steering wheel with its angular design the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is superb to drive. The suspension is composed and comfortable, the handling is excellent, the steering is light and with the combination of both the electric motor and petrol engine, acceleration is good.

For those of you who haven't driven a plug-in hybrid before I think you'll like the quiet electric power at low speeds and the feeling of ‘instant' acceleration the electric motor adds, but compared to driving a regular petrol car the experience is much the same, just less noisy and smoother.

The petrol variant of the Peugeot 308 achieved low scores when it came to protecting its front passengers in ANCAP's frontal off-set crash test and it was for mainly this reason that the vehicle scored four out of  the maximum five stars in its ANCAP and equivalent European safety rating.

That said, Peugeot Australia has added more safety technology to the 308 than the European version of this car, such as a more comprehensive autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system as standard.

Along with AEB that can also detect cyclists and pedestrians, other standard safety tech includes lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert.

For child seats there are three top tether anchor mounts across the second row and two ISOFIX points on the outside rear seats.

There are front and side airbags for the driver and co-pilot, while curtain airbags cover the first and second rows.

Skoda offers a pre-paid 'Service Pack' for the Superb , with a three-year/45,000km plan costing $1299 and a five-year/75,000 plan coming in at $2650.

Service intervals of 15,000km or 12 months are suggested.

The car is covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is covered by Peugeot's five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Peugeot will cover the hybrid battery with an eight-year/160,000km warranty.

Servicing is recommended at 15,000km or 12 month intervals and it can be expensive. Peugeot says the first service will be $425, then second is $771, the next is $425, then at 60,000km the costs will be $900, then $439 for the following.