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Business
Luxury redefined
THE CZECH automaker, Skoda, has added a fine contender to the prestige class segment with its new Superb. This front wheel drive car has a wheelbase of 2.8 metres making it the roomiest and most comfortable in a class that includes the drive Mercedes E Class and BMW 5 Series.
Powered by advanced petrol and diesel engines from the parent Volkswagen group, it shows how the highest quality products can come from even ``transitional" economies.
The powerful and smooth (but economical) engines, coupled with fine transmissions and exceptional suspensions, make for a simply superb ride even over bad roads. Superbs will be launched in India later this year with V6, 2.8 litre petrol or 2.5 litre diesel, engines and promise to be class leaders in an "Indian'' group that includes the Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata and Mercedes E-Class besides the forthcoming Opel Vectra. My guess is that only next year's revamped E-Class Mercedes will match this truly superb Skoda, but at nearly twice the price.
The Superb itself is the proud renewal of a name from Skoda's golden past of the 1920s and the 1930s. Skoda began manufacturing automobiles in 1906 thanks to a partnership between the businessman Vaclav Klement and engineer Vaclav Laurin (shades of Rolls Royce). It claims that, from the very first, every car manufactured by Laurin and Klement was built according to the philosophy that good workmanship is measured by the quality of the parts that you do not see.
The cars themselves were magnificent limousines that had nothing to hide and were marked not only by great beauty and technical precision, but also by their exceptional spaciousness — for their occupants' arms, legs and heads. The new Superb follows in this tradition and has a well-appointed cabin that complements its elegant exterior with fine leather, hardwood and metal creating a refined ambience.
Rear passenger room is probably unrivalled even among cars a size up, and that includes the Mercedes S Class costing more than three times as much! Taking even a short ride in the Superb, few will consider anything better.
Last Word
Motoring Matters was first to report, from Frankfurt last September, on the new Superb but a well known Indian automobile "glossy'' took credit a month ago with a cover story and the same headline (`Simply Super'') that this column used eight months earlier! It has followed that misrepresentation this month with a cover page "world exclusive'' on the Mahindra Scorpio — something that The Hindu carried on June 17.
C. Manmohan Reddy
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