Volkswagen Transporter vs Skoda Superb

What's the difference?

So has Volkswagen done enough with this new Transporter to win back buyers in what has become a highly-competitive van market?

Based on our initial test drive of the Transporter, it’s safe to say Volkswagen has a good chance of regaining some lost ground. But it won’t be easy because there isn’t any particular area where the Transporter really sets itself apart from the competition.

It’s a pleasant van to drive, with a roomy, modern cabin and a competitive cargo area, at least with the diesel engine. The electric Transporter provides an alternative choice for a small audience, but the huge price premium and limited range will mean it won’t suit the vast majority of buyers.

The real opportunity for VW will come when the PHEV arrives in 2026. That has the potential to help create some difference between itself and the likes of Toyota and Hyundai.

It’s noticeable that the brands dominating the commercial van market are the big name ones, rather than the cheaper Chinese competition, which suggests buyers are looking for a trusted name rather than the lowest price.

So from that perspective, Volkswagen has a decent chance of regaining lost ground given its heritage in the van segment.

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

It’s safe to say the Skoda Superb is well… superb.

This car has consistently been one of my favourites, and that’s not something I say lightly. It's a fantastic package that combines all the best parts of comfort, practicality and driving dynamics.

All of those points stand out as key reasons why, despite the fact Australians are no longer buying passenger cars in substantial numbers, you should consider this over a similarly-sized SUV.

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

Commercial vans are typically not instruments of design, but rather a study in functionality. But credit to the Volkswagen designers because it clearly looks like a Volkswagen from the outside, despite its Ford lineage. While there are obviously some similarities between the Transporter and Transit Custom inside, the front-end design definitely has a visual connection to the previous generation models.

But, of course, functionality is important and by using the Transit Custom underpinnings, Volkswagen has been able to grow the Transporter. It is 150mm longer and the standard wheelbase has been stretched by 100mm, compared to the six-generation, which allows for even more cargo space.

The cabin is well laid out, with a new 12-inch digital instrument display and a 13-inch multimedia touchscreen taking prominence on the dashboard. The multimedia system includes built-in navigation plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as digital radio.

On the outside of the new Skoda Superb its design is more of an evolution than revolution. This is no bad thing because I’ve always been a big fan of the Superb’s exterior design, even more so now because it’s the only one of its kind left.

From a lot of angles this new Superb gives major Holden ZB Commodore vibes, especially the wagon from the rear three-quarter.

While I like the sporty looks and glossy black highlights, I wish Skoda still offered a non-Sportline version of the Superb locally. Globally there are premium L&K versions available with chrome accents, and they look properly premium-pushing.

Inside, the Superb is a classic flagship Skoda through and through. It balances having beautifully high-end finishes with TARDIS-like practicality with ease.

Ahead of the driver there’s a sporty-looking perforated leather steering wheel which has Skoda script written out on the hub, rather than the classic winged arrow Skoda logo.

It’s an interesting look that forms as part of the new corporate design language. I imagine I’ll get used to it after a while, and it's all subjective, but I’m currently not a huge fan.

Looking around the cabin, the interior is dominated by the new 13-inch touchscreen multimedia system that’s high-resolution. It’s mounted high on the dashboard much like an iPad, which mightn’t be to everyone’s taste.

Flanking this new touchscreen is an interesting slotted air vent design that spans the entire dashboard. It’s a really cool look, though it’s finished in glossy black and will likely gather dust easily.

Speaking of black, a lot of the Superb’s interior is finished in black. I wish there were more pops of colour, whether that's with different finishes or textures to create some visual interest.

This is the really important element for any good commercial van, both the practicality of the cabin (as drivers spend long hours behind the wheel) and the cargo capacity in the back (for the obvious reasons).

Up front there’s a wireless charging pad and seven USB ports spread around the cabin. There are plenty of small item storage spots, and some not so small items, with a large shelf on top of the dashboard and multiple in-door shelves.

Of course, it’s out the back that’s really important and, as mentioned earlier, there is more space thanks to the larger overall dimensions.

Both SWB and LWB vans come with a plastic floor cover as standard, plus there are load rated tied tie down points, a 12V charging port in the D-pillar and LED lights in the roof. 

Thanks to the extra length, the SWB has a 2.6m load length and 5.8 cubic metres of cargo space, while the LWB has 3.0m in length and 6.8 cubic metres. There’s also a steel fixed partition with window, window grille and load through hatch to stretch the usable space even more.

The total payload for the Transporter varies depending on the powertrain. The TDI 2WD can take up to 1062kg (SWB) and 1016kg (LWB), while TDI AWD can manage 963kg (SWB) and 917kg (LWB). The electric Transporter has a significantly lower payload, rated at 806kg (SWB) and 760kg (LWB).

Towing capacity also changes depending on the powertrain, the TDI 2WD can manage 2000kg, TDI AWD up to 2800kg and the electric 2300kg.

This is where this car properly shines.

Up front there are deliciously comfortable leather seats that are electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and have a massage function. The heating was well and truly cranked during our drive loop around chilly Canberra and it kept me nicely warm and toasty.

I also enjoy how adjustable the front seats are. No matter how tall or short you are, you’ll find a comfortable seating position.

As mentioned above there’s a leather steering wheel ahead of the driver which has perforations on it. This is handy if you get clammy hands out on the road. And I like how warm the steering wheel gets when the heating is turned on. In fact, it almost gets too hot.

The 10-inch digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel is classic Volkswagen Group in terms of layout and design. It offers what feels like limitless configurations, allowing you to tailor the information you want to see.

Moving across, this larger 13-inch touchscreen multimedia system is a breeze to use. It features new software compared to the previous-generation Superb that looks considerably fresher.

The home screen can be configured and there are easily accessible shortcut buttons on the screen for things like the vehicle settings menu, among others.

I’m a particular fan of the shortcut buttons at the top of the touchscreen that show your favourite settings in the vehicle menu. You’re able to toggle things like auto hold, engine idle start-stop and numerous other features.

Underneath the touchscreen is one my favourite parts of this car. There are three physical rotary dials that initially look like they’re just for adjusting the climate control functions, but can do so much more. They’re called ‘Smart Dials’ and also feature in the new Kodiaq.

The outer two dials are able to adjust things like the temperature, as well as the seat heating and ventilation, whereas the centre dial can change the fan speed, air direction, driving mode, sound system volume and zoom function on the sat-nav map.

They’re incredibly intuitive to use and have fantastic tactical clicks when interacted with. It’s fantastic to see a new car that puts such a big emphasis on still having physical hardware, instead of opting for the minimal look that requires you to use the touchscreen for everything.

Another big change with the Superb is the gear selector has been relocated from the centre console to the steering column. This has been happening to a range of Volkswagen Group vehicles of late.

As a result, the centre console has been redesigned with maximised storage in mind. There are now things like a display cleaner and many generous storage spaces.

Also if you want to securely store items, there are retractable covers on the centre console which also help give it a clean look.

Moving to the second row, it’s an amazing place to sit. There is so much space on offer that it puts every single similarly priced and sized SUV to shame. You can’t beat a large sedan or wagon in terms of practicality.

Second-row amenities include heated outboard seats, retractable sun-blinds, a fold-down armrest with cupholders and a tablet holder, as well as airplane-style head restraints that fold out from either side of the head rest.

Regardless of where you sit in the Superb, you’ll be in proper comfort.

Around the back is the showstopper. As standard there’s a hands-free power tailgate which is handy if you’ve got hands full and need to open the boot.

Once the tailgate opens there’s a generous amount of boot space on offer. Skoda claims the Superb liftback has a 589L capacity with the rear seats upright, expanding to 1795L with them folded.

With the wagon on the other hand, there’s 634L of boot space with the rear seats upright, expanding to a massive 1920L with the second row lowered.

‘Simply Clever’ touches include an electrically retractable luggage cover, a retractable luggage sling, moveable luggage separators, and a vast net system.

Under the boot floor there’s a space-saver spare wheel.

The new Skoda Superb continues to only be offered in flagship Sportline trim level in either liftback or wagon body styles.

Pricing starts at $67,990, before on-road costs, for the liftback and extends to $69,690 before on-roads for the wagon.

While this is a circa-$2500 price rise over the outgoing model, Skoda has packaged in a considerable amount of equipment that was previously locked away in option bundles. As a result, this car is fully loaded.

Outside there are slimmer matrix LED headlights, new design 19-inch alloy wheels, gloss black exterior highlights, dynamic indicators and a hands-free power tailgate.

Inside there are new sport seats with integrated head rests that are also electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and have a massage function.

Other interior highlights include a heated steering wheel, 10-inch digital instrument cluster, 13-inch touchscreen multimedia system, 12-speaker Canton premium sound system, wireless charging with ventilation, roll-up rear sunshades and heated outboard rear seats.

On the dynamics front, the new Superb picks up 'Dynamic Chassis Control Plus', which is essentially Skoda-speak for adaptive dampers. It’s an updated version which features two independently controlled valves, and allows for 15 stages of configurability. There’s now also progressive steering.

As mentioned earlier, Volkswagen has been able to diversify the Transporter for now and into the future, which means the choice of diesel, electric and plug-in hybrid.

Despite the electrified additions, the most popular choice for buyers is overwhelmingly going to be the turbo diesel. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit makes 125kW of power and 390Nm of torque and is paired to an eight-speed automatic. It’s available either with front-wheel drive or Volkswagen’s '4Motion' all-wheel drive set-up.

The eTransporter is rear-wheel drive only, and has a single-speed gearbox attached to its 210kW/415Nm electric motor.

The PHEV isn’t here yet, but when it does arrive, Volkswagen has confirmed it will be producing 171kW/205Nm.

The new-generation Skoda Superb is still powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder petrol engine, but it has been upgraded.

It produces 195kW of power, which is technically 9.0kW less than the previous-generation version, and 400Nm of torque, which is 50Nm more.

It’s worth noting this engine also features in the new Skoda Octavia RS, as well as the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Tiguan R-Line.

The engine is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with drive sent through an all-wheel drive system.

Fuel economy for the diesel is rated at 7.9L/100km for the two-wheel drive variant and rises to 8.4L/100km for the 4Motion AWD. 

Our test drive was limited, so we couldn’t get a fair real-world fuel figure, but if you can hit those claims, with its 70-litre fuel tank it has a theoretical driving range of 886km for the 2WD and 833km for the 4Motion - which should be enough to get even the more active delivery drivers through a few days.

As for the eTransporter, VW claims a driving range of 330km, with 125kW DC charging able to replenish the battery from 10-80 per cent in just 38 minutes. Volkswagen is confident that this should be enough to appeal to back-to-base-style operators looking to cut fuel costs and emissions.

While the new Superb is claimed to be faster, it’s also claimed to be more fuel efficient. In liftback guise claimed combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel consumption is 7.7L/100km, while in wagon guise the official figure is 7.8L/100km.

The entire range comes with a 66-litre fuel tank and it requires a minimum of 95 RON premium unleaded.

With this claimed fuel consumption you could theoretically travel up to 850km on a full tank of petrol. In our test cars however, they were displaying 900km of range when we started off the drive loop.

Unfortunately the Superb doesn't come with any form of electrification, whether that be a mild-hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Skoda Australia is currently evaluating and testing the Superb PHEV, but if it does launch locally, it won’t be until 2026 at the earliest.

Volkswagen is a company that prides itself on its driving dynamics, even when it comes to vans. Even with the Ford influence, the new Transporter unmistakably feels like a Volkswagen in the way it drives.

It's worth noting we drove the Transporter unladen, so it may respond differently when filled with cargo, but the fundamental behaviour should remain the same.

There’s no mistaking you’re behind the wheel of a big van, but the Transporter reacts well to your inputs, so it feels responsive and surprisingly agile for such a sizable vehicle.

The same is true for the turbo-diesel engine, which feels strong enough to pull the big van along with a minimum of fuss (although, again, that was without a full cargo load in the back). What the engine does well is perform quietly. The cabin is well-insulated from the outside world, so it makes for a more relaxed environment, which will be a welcome factor for anyone looking to spend their working day inside the Transporter.

We sampled the electric Transporter and it also performed well. Dynamically it felt very similar, despite being rear-wheel drive, but obviously the bigger difference is under the bonnet. The electric motor does a fine job, but it feels solid rather than being particularly punchy. The TDI feels like it does the work easier, even under acceleration which should be the electric motor’s strength.

Starting up the Skoda Superb Sportline you hear the familiar sound of this 2.0L engine, variations of which are used in numerous VW Group models. It’s fairly muted and smooth, which makes the cabin a serene place to be.

Setting off you use the column-mounted gear selector to change gears. It takes a little bit to get used to the new placement, but after a few uses it feels normal. This relocation has also allowed for so much more storage on the centre console.

Around town the Superb’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine barely makes itself known. The full 400Nm of torque comes on tap from as little as 1650rpm, making this car effortless to drive and almost turbo-diesel-like in practice.

Skoda claims the new Superb can do the 0-100km/h sprint in 5.6 seconds in liftback guise and 5.7 seconds in wagon guise. This is 0.3 seconds faster than the old version.

It barely requires any thought driving in the typical urban sprawl. The car does all the heavy lifting for you.

When it comes to parking, however, there’s no way around the fact this is a long car. You may find yourself needing to do three-point turns in order to navigate tighter urban car parks.

It doesn’t help that the surround-view camera system is surprisingly low-resolution, which is disappointing given the Superb is a flagship vehicle for Skoda. It’s more noticeable because the central touchscreen is incredibly high-resolution.

As standard there’s a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission which has one more ratio than the previous-generation Superb. Though this isn’t necessarily obvious in everyday driving, the dual-clutch is still a classic Volkswagen Group unit, meaning it’s snappy and intuitive.

This car comes with a progressive ratio steering system which increases the amount the wheels physically turn as you feed on more lock with the steering wheel. It helps make the car feel more agile and sporty, while also requiring less effort.

With the updated adaptive dampers you can now configure the system in 15 different ways, which is wild. This spans all the way from beyond ‘Comfort’ through to ‘Sport’.

In ‘Normal’ mode the Superb still errs on the sportier side, which makes sense because the Sportline package is standard. This also brings a 15mm ride height reduction.

Despite feeling sporty as standard, the Superb is never uncomfortable. This is really surprising because there are sizeable 19-inch alloy wheels and low-profile tyres.

Dialling the car through to ‘Comfort’ mode makes the drive pretty much effortless. It’s incredibly comfortable and supple, ironing out virtually any road imperfection you can throw at it.

Unlike other Skoda vehicles with adaptive dampers, this Superb doesn’t get that bouncy cloud-like feeling in ‘Comfort’ mode. Instead, it still feels grounded.

There’s an ‘Eco’ drive mode which unsurprisingly prioritises fuel economy. It makes upshifts happen low down in the rev range, and also shifts the car into neutral when coasting.

Although the car is in ‘Eco’ mode, it doesn’t feel like you’re lacking any oomph. You’ll still be keeping up with urban traffic easily.

Slotting the Superb into ‘Sport’ mode immediately sharpens the throttle response and makes the car feel like it’s hunkering down, ready to attack. The suspension and adaptive dampers noticeably become stiffer, making you jiggle about in the driver’s seat more than in other drive modes.

It’s surprising how Sport makes this huge sedan and wagon feel much smaller than it is. This is likely credit to how dynamic the Volkswagen Group has made its 'MQB Evo' platform.

Thanks in part to the all-wheel drive system, this car is an absolute beast out in the twisties. You can take corners with a lot of heat and still feel incredibly in control.

Once again, the car does a lot of the heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on what’s going on with the road ahead. It’s very smile-inducing.

While this car is dynamic and thrilling to drive, it’s worth noting it’s no full-fat RS model. You reach a ceiling with the turbo-petrol’s outputs when accelerating hard, but there’s still plenty to play with. Only proper performance car nerds will care about this.

Out on the open road, the Superb becomes a great long-distance tourer. It feels like I could drive from Melbourne to Adelaide in one hit without stopping.

At higher speeds, however, there is a bit of road and tyre noise. This is common in European vehicles, but still ruins the ambience of the cabin if you don’t like listening to music behind the wheel.

More concerning, though, is the virtually brand-new Superbs we sampled at this media launch were already starting to develop noticeable rattles in the door cards. Underwhelming in a circa $70K car.

The new-generation Skoda Superb hasn’t been tested by ANCAP just yet, though Euro NCAP gave the car a maximum five-star rating. The two safety authorities have harmonised testing protocols so it’s likely the rating will eventually be carried across.

In terms of standard equipment, the Superb has 10 airbags, an upgraded autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system, blind-spot monitoring, front and rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, lane centering, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, driver fatigue detection, a surround-view camera, front and rear parking sensors and a semi-autonomous park assist.

There are ISOFIX points on the outboard rear seats, as well as top-tether child seat anchorages on all three rear seats.

Volkswagen says the Transporter and eTransporter require servicing annually or every 30,000km - whichever comes first.

The diesel is significantly more expensive to service, with even the cheapest visit costing $670 and the most expensive $892. Over the first five years the Transporter will cost $3880 to maintain.

By contrast, the eTransporter costs $410 for every visit, except the 90,000km major check-up which is $496. So over five years it will cost $2136 to service.

While VW has an expansive national network of dealers for servicing, and a history with commercial vehicles, that’s not a big advantage over its key rivals in this market - Toyota, Ford and Hyundai - which all boast the same.

The new Superb, like all other current Skoda models, is covered by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

This warranty length is slowly but certainly becoming the standard in Australia.

At this stage Skoda hasn’t detailed service intervals or service pricing. It has said it’ll offer pre-paid service packages, however.