Skoda ?Superb?

Hugo - A female friend in her mid 60's (a nurse) has a 2016 Skoda Superb - only a city car - but she's not impressed.

The motor blew up at 30,000kms and had to be completely rebuilt. They did repair it under warranty, at no cost to her.

Didn't find out what the exact problem was (if Skoda would ever tell her, anyway) - but she was pretty appalled that the motor in a so-called "superior European vehicle" would crap itself big-time, when all she does is drive it around the city, with an occasional short country trip.

I don't think she'll buy another Skoda again.

Cheers, Ron.

The Skoda vehicles are heavily promoted and advertise bling and features. I doubt if it is really suited to tow much at all.
A petrol engine, while economical when not towing will drop it’s economy and use far more fuel when the engine has to operate in power mode of the ecu to provide the torque needed for towing.
Any problems like above then requires a dealer to fix it. Where are they?

A Skoda is not the type of car that gets mentioned very often on this forum. They have been part of VW for around twenty years. You may find more information on their towing capabilities on forums like the Grey Nomads or the Caravaners forum.

I tried looking up the specifications on current Superb models and noticed the towing capacity was 2000 kg on the ones that I was looking at. If your van is only 1200 kg fully loaded then you should not have any problems. That is a good safety weight margin and providing you don't have the rear end of the car loaded to the max or beyond then jacked up with another company's suspension, everything should work well.

Before you buy one, or any other car for that matter, have a look at the towing instructions in the owner's handbook. Do not base your decision solely on the specification brochures. Take note of any instructions on the use of a WDH. The book may say you must or must not use one. Do not ignore anything the manufacturer says to do unless you know more about their cars than they do.

As for blowing up engines as Ron said, I could write all night on major problems that I have seen on new cars as a mechanic in my much younger days starting with broken con rods on three near new EH Holdens in 1964. As a third year apprentice I was given the job of fixing one of them starting with a new block and pistons.

I left the trade in 1986 after working on six different makes, including Landcruisers and three from Europe, and they are all the same.

The engines in Skodas are the same engines in VW's and Audi's. My son has had a Skoda Octavia for 10 years and over 100k kms for zero issues. It's a VW Jetta come Audi A3 with different panels and trim. The Skoda Superb uses the same platform as the VW Passat. We've had 6 VW's ourselves over the years and the only complaint we've had was concerning the early DSG gearbox which was horrible to drive. Currently we've got an Audi Q3 with a lot of common gear in it, basically a VW Tiguan or Skoda Yeti. I think most people don't have many if any issues, but if you do, the VW group don't have a great reputation for dealing with it, but I think you can say that about most brands now.
My experience with the brand is you will get a nice drive, great fuel economy and lots of standard features. They are responsible for getting the Koreans and Japanese to lift the game in that department. Conversely, the Euro brands have had to lift their game in the reliabilty area. European cars definitely look better.

Another item to look at is the towball weight specified for the vehicle. Most midsize European cars have a low towball weight, eg 85 kgs. and this may be less than your loaded Jayco van. Phil

A towbar that costs "only" $1700 for the Skoda Superb, plus a 2 litre engine, plus a notorious DSG gearbox - what a great combination for towing a Jayco van! - not!

Cheers, Ron.