As the UK’s roads worsen, there’s a greater need for cars with supple suspension that is able to allow fluid handling over poor surfaces without feeling vague or sloppy. The Skoda Superb is just such a car. You don’t get super-sharp steering and razor responses from a Superb, because it isn’t that sort of car. It’s meant instead to give its occupants a serene ride, and if the driver can enjoy the process, so much the better.
Body control at speed, over undulations and through bends is excellent. Naturally, this nose-heavy, softly sprung Skoda understeers strongly if coaxed too quickly into a corner, and any line-tightening it offers in response to a lifted accelerator is too languid to be of much practical use.
But if you drive the Skoda in the flowing fashion it encourages, it shows strong grip, terrific poise and confident steering. Mercifully, given the breadth of range brought by the multitude of engine, transmission and driven wheels combination, suspension is standard on all the Superbs and is hard to fault. Stick with the big-selling 17- or 18-inch alloys and you can’t go wrong.