The Superb was the result of an era of extremely unusual thinking at its parent VW, where its various brands were forced out of their comfort zones and into areas of the market they’d not visited before. That’s what saw a 4-litre V8 engine being dropped into the Passat, Audi introduce a shopping car called the A2 and Skoda produce a four door saloon that was then longer than a BMW 5-series. Sadly but perhaps predictably, all proved less than successful in the market place.
But this does not mean the Superb is by any stretch a bad car - just an odd one. Underneath it all it’s an old generation Passat, albeit with a stretched wheelbase; we quite like its very traditional but rather flowing lines. From some angles it’s actually rather elegant.
And at least it’s fairly modern under the bonnet. There you’ll find VW’s ubiquitous Pumpe Duse 1.9-litre four cylinder diesel, pumping out the usual 130bhp and a reasonably strong 210lb ft of torque at 1900rpm.
The problem is that not only is it an old design, but it's also a large saloon with an unprestigious name and, as Ford and Vauxhall will tell you, there’s not a sector of the market shrinking faster than this one.