Skoda Superb 2025 Review

The current lineup has a less powerful 165kW powertrain available, but that’s being dropped this time around to allow a pivot towards its customers’ preferences for the stronger, 195kW version.

The second quarter of 2025 is a long way off, so the importer is leaving itself some wriggle room on pricing, although Skoda Oz expects the new model to line up around the same price as the current car. At last glance, that puts the Skoda Superb Sportline (which will be Australia’s go-to spec level) at around $72,000. As an additional sweetener for buyers, Skoda will offer a 6.99 per cent finance rate, which is considerably lower than the usual finance fare.

Given that it’s at least six months from landing here, the specs on the 2025 Skoda Superb Wagon are still a touch fluid, but Skoda insists it’s going to be the value proposition in the category.

Skoda suggests that the Sportline specification will include heated leather seats, powered seats and full Matrix LED headlights, too. The panoramic roof will be an option, but the blackened grille, window frames and roof rails look as though they’ll be standard here.

There are 18-inch alloys on European Superb Sportlines, and there are 19-inch in two alternative styles as options. The Superb will also come with a seven-year warranty, which can be transferred to the second owners.

There are 10 airbags surrounding the passengers in the 2025 Skoda Superb Wagon, and the sensor suite is highlighted by new “nano” radar sensors in the front and rear corners. These are plugged in to active systems like Front Assist and Cross Road assist, which keep drivers aware of any pedestrians, cyclists or other traffic when driving out of blind driveways or intersections, and the systems will brake the car to a halt if needed.

Skoda has tweaked the multifunction windscreen camera for a wider field of vision, primarily to improve the performance of the Turn Assist system, which can warn the driver and stop the car if there is unseen traffic at an intersection. The rear nano radars can monitor traffic up to 90 metres behind the Superb, helping prevent dangerous lane changes.

Based around the “Evo” version of the Volkswagen Group’s democratising MQB platform, the 2025 Skoda Superb Wagon is going to arrive with a host of driver assistance systems, including its next generation of connectivity and Matrix LED headlights.

It’s a bigger car, although this growth has been more carefully managed than we usually see in the car industry. The 4.9-metre overall length is only 40mm longer than the current car, and that’s just as well because it remains on a 2841mm wheelbase. Marginally taller, the new Superb is 15mm narrower in the body, happily for inner-suburban residents. Oddly, the Superb is slightly wider at the mirrors.

The new Superb is fairly standard VW Group fare in the underbody bits, suspended by a MacPherson strut front end and a multi-link axle down the back. Ride height for the Sportline version Australia will get is 15mm lower than stock Superbs, and is at its best with the optional (in Europe) DCC Adaptive Chassis and progressive steering. These combine to give the driver a wider choice of driving modes, though it effectively does that same job autonomously. The adaptive dampers are a point of pride at Skoda, because they use separate valves for compression and rebound work, making it more accurate than anything the brand has ever used before.

There are upgraded versions of active cruise control, lane-keeping assist and parking assistance, and safety is enhanced by the 10 airbags scattered through the cabin. The Superb also features keyless entry to lock and unlock the doors, and door-handle/puddle lighting to find the way in the dark.

At the heart of the 2025 Skoda Superb Wagon is the same four-cylinder, two-litre turbo engine that Volkswagen uses in the current Golf GTi. The petrol-powered engine sits across the engine bay and delivers 400Nm of torque from 1650 to 4350rpm, and 195kW of power from 5000 to 6500rpm. Whatever way you slice it, that’s a broad, flat torque curve, which is complemented by an all-wheel drive system (unlike the Golf GTi) and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Given that it’s moving 1736kg and not an SUV-style two tonnes-plus, the Superb’s powerplant has plenty of urge. The Superb Wagon hustles to 100km/h in 5.7 seconds and is limited to 250km/h. Fuel is delivered to the engine from a 66-litre fuel tank. There are no hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains on the horizon, so this is it for the Superb for the foreseeable future.

Skoda has yet to lock down local consumption figures for the 2025 Superb Wagon, but it is already claiming a 0.25Cd drag coefficient for the base models (a 15 per cent improvement) and 0.28Cd for the larger-tyred Sportline.

The European cars with this powertrain and wheel and tyre package post 7.6L/100km on the WLTP combined scale, for 173g/km (grams of carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre), and it won’t be much different here.

Skoda has never pretended that the Superb was a sparkling handler, put on this earth to bring joy to enthusiasts, but it won’t offend anybody either. The 2025 Superb Wagon is no different.

There’s always been a foolproof competence about the way the Superb goes about its business, only this generation has been supplemented with a polish it never had before, and a calming luxury it never even aspired to achieve before.

The standard selection of adaptive dampers is a clever choice for Australia’s widely variable road quality, and it’s this ride quality that jumps out first. The dampers seem impossible to outsmart, delivering ride comfort that belies the lower ride height of the Sportline and reassuring the driver that everything is always under control.

The grip levels are high and the steering is direct and well weighted, with the majority of the controls easy to use (although finding the active cruise control can be awkward the first time). Suspension engineers have fettled the Superb for optimal body control, and the car corners with a restrained, progressive lean.

It even has the good manners to handle with considerably more enthusiasm than its predecessor (or any SUV this size), and the Superb can be hustled through bends with surprising pace. Suddenly-tightening bends, sharp ruts or even gravel-strewn corners saw no change in the Superb’s assured stance, and the only issue we found that may reflect in the Australian market was a slight tyre roar from the rear on coarse-chip surfaces.

Skodas are known for being two things inside – roomy and practical – and the 2025 Superb Wagon will deliver more of the same successful formula.

Stretched for 65mm more rear legroom than the current car, despite using the same wheelbase, the Superb also provides generous head and shoulder room in all of its outboard seats.

Visibility is terrific and the practicality stands out, with hooks that pop out and bins in places that leave you wondering why nobody else does it. There’s an enormous centre console, with real estate freed up by placing the transmission lever on the steering column.

The only significant issue is that the rear seats don’t fold properly flat without the optional variable boot floor, which enhances luggage capacity by 30 litres for an astonishing 645 litres. With the seats folded down, that booms out to 1920 litres, and that’s big in any language.

But the bigger surprise is the marked gain in quality, in both materials and design, throughout the interior.

The slightly staid cabin layout of the current car is ditched for a revelation in new materials, a textured, layered dash design and a clear embracing of technical and premium design facets, rather than just a stripped cabin with a big infotainment screen.

Skoda has been left largely to its own devices with even the way the infotainment works, including the addition of a ChatGPT-based interface. Information is displayed through the combination of a 10-inch digital instrument cluster and a 13-inch main screen. There are still some buttons, which show the company doesn’t seem to be a fan of the Volkswagen brand’s “sliders” for controlling temperature and volume.

Three clever “smart dials” are large rotating buttons with functions that change whenever they are pressed, each current function displaying separately. The central button can pivot between the navigation mode, the drive modes, the fan speed and other functions, while the outboard buttons control temperature and seat ventilation and heating.

As a unit, it works far better than the one in the (pre-facelift) Golf, and the customisable homescreen is simple to customise with the user’s own shortcuts. It also allows multiple functions to be visible at the same time.

Down the back, there’s the same material quality, a pair of USB ports, a climate control panel, an integrated tablet holder and even an armrest.

Frankly, the biggest challenge Skoda faces with the 2025 Superb Wagon is finding a way to corral the few people these days who don’t want an SUV. There are plenty of compelling reasons for those prospective buyers to take a closer look at the Superb.

Developed alongside the Volkswagen Passat, the Superb has overtaken its more storied German stablemate in ride, handling and common-sense infotainment processes. With all-wheel drive, it also easily accomplishes everything most urban SUVs are asked to do, and adds improved ride quality, better body control, far better active safety and considerably reduced fuel consumption.

It’s the thinking person’s SUV and deserves a bigger fanbase.

2025 Skoda Superb Sportline Wagon at a glance:
Price: TBA
Available: Second quarter 2025
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 195kW/400Nm
Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: TBC
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: TBC