Skoda Superb Scout 2021 review A wagonestate on stilts
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00:00G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01Some people want the space of an SUV, but don't really want an SUV, but they kind of
00:06want the extra ride height, so that's where something like this comes into play.
00:10It is the Skoda Superb Scout.
00:12It's a wagon, an estate, whatever you want to call it, but it sits a little bit higher
00:16off the ground, and it's got those off-road looking things on the side.
00:19So it is kind of an SUV without needing to be an SUV.
00:23Now they sell this in Australia just in the one specification, the 200 TSI, and it's priced
00:27at just under $62,000, and it competes with cars like the Subaru Outback.
00:33It's a fairly narrow pool of competitors in this segment, so that's why it actually represents
00:38a really good option.
00:39Today we're going to do a detailed review of the Superb Scout.
00:42If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes
00:45up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters below,
00:49and I would love it if you haven't done so already for you to hit the subscribe button
00:53and also the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we publish a
00:56new review.
00:57Now before I get started on the exterior styling, I just wanted to explain, this is our long-term
01:03loan car, so we've been living with it for a little bit longer, so some of the figures
01:06and stuff that you're going to see today is representative of our ownership over an extended
01:11period.
01:12Anyway, exterior styling, you've got eight colours to choose from, and all but grey is
01:15an extra $770.
01:16There are some other colours as well that are more expensive, they're sort of out there
01:20colours, but there is a wide colour palette, which is good news for buyers that are normally
01:23restricted with Volkswagen products to like the German rainbow, which is just all blank
01:28colours.
01:29Now in terms of the design of this car, I've got to tell you, I absolutely love it.
01:32Styling is obviously completely subjective, you may hate it, but I think it looks fantastic,
01:36it just looks so classy and elegant.
01:38They've done such a good job here with things like this grille, it stands out, it looks
01:42nice and sort of masculine and tough, but it still looks executive and classy.
01:46Skodas have really come a long way in terms of styling, even to the point with this bonnet
01:50how it's sculpted down the middle there, it's just a really nice design.
01:53So you've got front parking sensors buried in there, a radar sensor here, you've got
01:57adaptive matrix LED headlights.
01:59Now if you want to know how these compare to other headlights you can get on cars today,
02:02including BMW's laser headlights, make sure you check out our headlight comparison, which
02:07is up here, we feature our long-term Skoda in that.
02:09You've got daytime LED running lights, you'll also have indicator built into those as well,
02:14and we'll nip around to the side here.
02:1618-inch alloy wheels, you have a fairly chubby profile tyre as well.
02:20So this car rides fantastic, and we're going to go into a bit more detail about that when
02:25we go for our drive, but it's all partly thanks to that chubby profile tyre and the adaptive
02:29suspension.
02:30So being an off-road version of the Superb, it has the trademark wheel arch flares.
02:36It sits 15mm higher than a standard Superb, giving it a ground clearance of 151mm.
02:41Now in comparison to an SUV that isn't actually that impressive, even in comparison to something
02:45like a Subaru Outback that's not very high, an SUV's going to be around the 220mm mark
02:50so you're not really going to be doing any major off-roading in this.
02:53A little Scout badge on the side there.
02:56Indicator built into that wing mirror, we've got privacy glass, these brushed aluminium
03:01roof rails.
03:02Come around to the back here, LED taillights, you get a 4x4 badge so everyone knows that
03:07you've got an all-wheel drive wagon.
03:09You also get a 2200kg braked towing capacity, that's going to be enough to cater for things
03:14like camper vans and the type of things that you'll be able to go away on holidays with.
03:18So let me know in the comments below, do you like the design?
03:20I think it is a particularly handsome looking car, but let me know your thoughts in the
03:23comments section below.
03:24So we're inside the Superb Scout, let's start off with the key, it's behind this little
03:28garage door, pretty straightforward, you've got lock at the top, boot, unlock and then
03:33on the other side you have the Skoda badge.
03:36It looks very much like a Volkswagen key, it's fairly similar to every other Volkswagen
03:40key I've seen.
03:41It's a proximity sensing key so you just keep that in your pocket, grab the door handle,
03:44then once you're inside you push the start button which is just up against the steering
03:47wheel.
03:48Now what about styling?
03:49I think it's really nice and pleasant, it's elegant, I think that's the look that they're
03:53after, it's not sporty, it's not young, it's not hip, it is just elegance and you can see
03:57here with this brushed sort of plastic stuff that it really stands out nicely and then
04:02over there you've got a 3D looking Scout badge.
04:05Then what they've done as well is integrated this screen with a chrome surround, I think
04:09this could also be a little bit higher to make it visually more accessible but outside
04:13of that the styling is quite nice.
04:14Now what about the materials here and the touch points?
04:17So this is fantastic, this is what Skodas have really become known for recently.
04:23You kind of get, dare I say it, Audi quality here without the Audi price tag and that means
04:27that all of these touch points such as this centre console, the door trims are all nice
04:32and soft.
04:33Now we do have a tool to test exactly how soft they are, it's called a durometer, we
04:37have tested all the surfaces in this car.
04:38If you want to see how this car compares to other cars that we have tested before you
04:42can follow the link in the description.
04:45Now what about build quality?
04:46It is rock solid.
04:49This comes back to my comment about Audis which we've found to be fairly solid in terms
04:53of build quality, it all feels really nice and well put together.
04:56Moving on to infotainment you get a 9.2 inch infotainment system, it's called Skoda Columbus.
05:01Now this is just going to be a brief overview but if you want a detailed review and a look
05:05at all the features that this comes with you can click up here to watch our Skoda Columbus
05:09detailed infotainment review.
05:10So on the left hand side you have these shortcut buttons but they're not really buttons, they're
05:14capacitive touch, so you just basically tap with your finger and then it all happens.
05:19Super high resolution screen and you'll notice that you get extra context menus as your hand
05:23approaches, you can see them appearing there.
05:26Then on top of that you have gesture controls, watch this, with sound effects, I don't understand
05:33the point in that feature but anyway it's there nevertheless.
05:36In terms of radio you have AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio, you've got a CD player as well
05:41for music.
05:42And then in terms of smartphone connectivity everything runs over a wired system so it
05:47is not wireless.
05:48I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like.
05:50Really impressive integration, look at that, full screen, very high resolution and super
05:56quick as well.
05:58Let's take a look at Android Auto, another full screen integration, that looks great
06:02and then you've got your menus there, we'll do a little scroll around Google Maps here.
06:06Yeah that is nice and fast, very impressive.
06:10Moving on to Virtual Cockpit which is the screen in front of the driver, it measures
06:1410.25 inches, fairly high resolution and the good news is using the view button you can
06:20switch between a stack of different displays here so you really do have a high level of
06:25customisation.
06:26Then on top of that you can also flick between different context menus too, you can display
06:30everything from audio, car data, telephone right through to navigation.
06:35So really nice integration, very clean and easy to use as well.
06:39Talking about the speakers, you have a 12 speaker Canton branded sound system and in
06:43terms of connectivity, one USB port down the front here which is used for your CarPlay
06:47or Android Auto.
06:48You've got a 12 volt outlet, another USB port inside the centre console, you also have a
06:52wireless phone charger that sits right down there, fits a big sized phone as well and
06:58then in the glove box you have SD slots and your CD player.
07:01Let's talk about safety technology, you get autonomous emergency braking, it works forwards
07:06and backwards, you get rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring built into the
07:10actual wing mirror itself instead of the glass, you get a lane departure warning, radar cruise
07:15control, front and rear parking sensors but let's have a look at what this reverse view
07:19camera looks like.
07:20That's pretty impressive actually, so you can see the sensors appearing there and then
07:23same with my finger as it approaches, that lights up that context, you've got your guidelines
07:28there, we can make that disappear.
07:30We also have tools for connecting a trailer and then you also have semi-autonomous parking
07:35for parallel and perpendicular plus that rear cross traffic alert on a wider screen as well
07:41so really nice integration there.
07:43Moving on to practicality and we'll start with storage, so your phone lives up there
07:46in the wireless phone charger but you can put it down here if you want and in terms
07:50of bottle storage, you've got ample room there to store your bottle and then inside the door
07:55you've got bottle storage as well.
07:56What I love about Skoda's though is the carpeted door bins and then there's also a little bin
08:02in here as well, it's super cute.
08:04Now the centre console is interesting, oh by the way, roll the doors there and there
08:09as well.
08:10The centre console is interesting, you open it up, there's an air conditioning port which
08:13is handy but down here you have like a secret slot, I have no idea what that's for so let
08:19me know if you can figure out what actually belongs down there, why does that slot exist.
08:23To give you an idea about the depth of it, there it is there, you can fit a bottle in
08:27there very easily, that's carpeted too and then you have your glove box, easily fits
08:33the bottle and also air conditioned.
08:36Sunglasses, they live up here and one final storage area just near the driver's knee,
08:41you have a little holder for coins, garage remotes and that kind of thing.
08:45Let's talk comfort, so you get automatic tri-zone climate control, two zones up the front, one
08:50zone for the second row, you get headed seats as well for the first and second rows and
08:55then seat comfort.
08:56Check out these seats, they get like a half alcantara suede, half leather type thing with
09:02Scout lettering there.
09:03The seats are electrically adjustable, you get memory here as well and they're really
09:08comfy.
09:09Steering wheel is nice and small, sits beautifully in the hand, you get paddle shifters, all
09:12of this stuff is really easy to reach.
09:14The only thing I would like here though is a head-up display, I think for this kind of
09:17money it's something I'd expect to see.
09:19Righto, this is what I love about the Superb, if you're mates with Shaquille O'Neal or perhaps
09:26Scott Colley, my colleague, if you have tall friends they are going to love this back seat.
09:31Look how much leg room I have, it is incredible and this seat is pretty far back as well,
09:36I have acres of knee room, toe room is fantastic, head room is pretty reasonable, taller passengers
09:42are probably going to rub a little on the side there, but you get my drift, there is
09:45heaps of room here, so if you've got a litany of kids they are going to be able to stretch
09:49out easily here, getting your baby seat in and out will be straightforward too because
09:53you have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats.
09:56So, centre armrest, let's have a look at that, pretty decent size, cup holders, a bit
10:02of a weird system, kind of fits okay though, which is good and then you have a ski port
10:08to get into the back, this also goes inside the door which is carpeted, a little bit of
10:13room either side there, you have shades, there you go, they go up nicely, I forgot to mention
10:18earlier as well that these rear seats, you do have child locks and window locks combined
10:23so the driver is able to basically prevent your rear seat passengers from running out
10:27of the car before it's stopped, so it's a handy function.
10:29Over here we have mat pockets, these are your heated seats in the third zone of climate,
10:34you can get your own air conditioning vents here, little hidey hole here with a 12V outlet
10:39and what looks like an ashtray, hopefully your kids aren't smoking just yet.
10:43This is interesting though, this is quite a high transmission tunnel, so this is all
10:47wheel drive which is the reason you have this hurdle here to get over, so, I don't know,
10:52it looks a bit big to me.
10:53I forgot to mention this as well, it's like an accessory you can get, allows you to put
10:57your iPhone and stuff in there so it doesn't really move around and it'll keep the kids
11:01entertained.
11:02Let's talk cargo space, this is one of the big advantages of a wagon, you have a big
11:06loading area, this one's no exception, so just under 700 litres of cargo space here
11:11with the second row up, fold the second row which I'll show you in a second and you get
11:15just under 2000 litres.
11:17Now how does all this work?
11:18There's nets and all that sort of stuff, I'll run you through the peripherals first, so
11:22you've got hooks on the side there which are handy, love this feature, you basically
11:26have the ability to detach a torch and then you can use that for seeing things at night
11:33time and then it charges in its cradle which is really clever and then with these nets
11:38you can simply remove them to reveal your underfloor and then under here you have a
11:44space saver spare tyre, your jacking equipment and if you want to hide a couple of things
11:48you can probably slide them under there.
11:49Swap vault outlet off to the side here, your first aid kit lives under here, another couple
11:53of hooks there.
11:54This is quite a clever cargo blind because it deploys in two stages, you can either have
11:58it there or fully enclosed and then to get rid of it, it's just one push there, it goes
12:02to your second stage and then another push gets rid of it altogether and then as referenced
12:06this will clearly easily fit in, there's your bag space, plenty of room in there and I'll
12:14show you what it looks like with the second row folded as well.
12:17So you can deploy them from the top of the second row or just off to the side here, one
12:21pull of that should drop that but it doesn't, manually pull that down and that gives you
12:28just under 2,000 litres of space.
12:32We've just hit the road in the Superb Scout and part of the recent update includes the
12:36addition of a petrol particulate filter, so this has gone from having 206 kilowatts of
12:41power to 200, so a little bit of a drop off there for environment saving and all that
12:45kind of thing but 2.0-litre turbocharged, 4-cylinder petrol engine, 200 kilowatts of
12:50power, 350 newton metres of torque and that's all mated to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission.
12:57Now you know that I'm not the biggest fan of dual clutch transmissions but surprisingly
13:02Skoda's done a good job with this one, at low speeds it actually hooks up nicely, the
13:05throttle is a little bit dull but they've done that to just smooth it out a bit so you
13:09don't get that jerkiness or that elastic motion, it's actually a really impressive setup.
13:14So being the long termer it means we've been able to spend a bit more time with the car
13:18and kind of get to know it a bit better but it also means that our fuel economy is going
13:21to be more representative of what an owner has as opposed to the week we normally spend
13:25with the car.
13:26Skoda claims a combined fuel economy of 7.1 litres per 100km which is pretty impressive
13:32for a car this size but let's have a look at what we are achieving, we'll flip through
13:36here to our driving data, so over 2200km of driving we've averaged 9.3 litres per 100km,
13:45most of that's city driving and look to me that's pretty impressive, it's not quite the
13:497.1 but it is a reasonably impressive figure when you consider the size of the car and
13:54the type of driving you're going to be typically doing with it.
13:57There is a downside to the petrol particulate filter that's fitted to this car though and
14:02it is that you need premium unleaded petrol so it's going to cost you a little bit more
14:06to fuel this car because the quality of fuel in Australia isn't very good, you need to
14:10basically be filling it up with the best stuff that you can.
14:12Righto, let's talk about the drive modes and there are a stack to choose from, Eco, Comfort,
14:17Normal, Sport, Individual, Off-Road, OK we'll go in reverse order there, so Off-Road is
14:23when you're off-roading so that will put the stability control into an off-road setting
14:27and if you want to see what that kind of looks like have a look at our Volkswagen Amarok
14:31review by clicking up here, I'll give you a demo of the ABS modes in Off-Road so you
14:35can see the advantage that you get out of that.
14:37In terms of Comfort and Sport, both of those are fairly similar, you get that very laid
14:42back and relaxed suspension setting.
14:44We're in Normal mode right now and the ride is sensational, those adaptive dampers do
14:49such a good job of just soaking everything up that's thrown at them and while we always
14:53talk about the Koreans doing an Australian ride and handling tune and making it bespoke
14:58for our country, this actually just works straight out of the box, whether you're driving
15:01on a gravel road or a poor country road like this, it really just attacks everything with
15:06confidence.
15:07Then when you do switch over to Sport mode, the ride firms up, the gearbox goes into an
15:11S mode which you can see there on the screen and then if you do punch it, really nice and
15:17sharp and responsive, revs out nicely, you would never really pick that this is a 2.0
15:23litre engine, it is just a really good package.
15:27Right, what about 0-100, Skoda claims a time of 5.7 seconds, let's see if we can match
15:32that claim.
15:42Now what about handling, this is a permanent all-wheel drive so it's always shuffling
15:46torque between the front and the rear axle and that means it's rather dynamic, it's got
15:51decent steering feel, that engine as I mentioned before is nice and punchy and it sits fairly
15:57flat through corners, it's definitely no sports car but I think if you found yourself
16:01a mountain pass all of a sudden, it wouldn't exactly run off scared.
16:04One of the few downsides to this all-wheel drive system is the turning circle, it's 11.1
16:10metres so you'll find yourself having to do three-point turns every now and then to get
16:16it around.
16:18Let's talk about visibility and what it's like to drive this, so clear visibility out
16:22the front there, the sides are fantastic as well, visibility out the back is excellent
16:26too.
16:27This car doesn't feel big out on the road so you don't feel intimidated like you do
16:30in some SUVs, it just feels like any other car despite sitting ever so slightly higher.
16:35In terms of noise, it is super quiet in here as well, they've done a really good job in
16:40terms of making it a nice and serene environment.
16:43So Skoda Superb Scout, their tagline, it's super cheesy, simply clever but I don't know,
16:48it just does that, it is simply clever, you've got plenty of room in the boot, it's sort
16:53of off-road so you can feel like you've got an SUV without having to own an SUV, it's
16:58punchy, comes with a lot of standard kit and it just leaves you happy.
17:02So I think that if you are a family person and you need something bigger in your life
17:05that isn't an SUV, this is a fantastic option and it's much cheaper than stuff like the
17:10Audi A6 Allroad which is effectively the same car in the sense of what it does and its size.
17:15So I don't know, seriously consider this if you are in the market for something big but
17:19don't want to go down the path of an SUV.
17:21Let me know in the comments below, what do you think of this, have I been hoodwinked
17:24by Skoda and their Superb Scout or is it actually a good car?
17:28Let me know in the comments below.
17:29If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you share it with your friends, hit the like
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17:36time we publish something new but until next time, drive safely.