SKODA SUPERB ESTATE

W WHY IT WON

EVERY good estate should offer a cavernous boot that can swallow just about everything you can throw at it, but it also needs to team this with attractive looks, efficient engines, refinement and a quality cabin.

Last year, the Volkswagen Passat Estate drove off with the Auto Express Best Estate Car award, but this year that honour goes to its VW Group stablemate, the Skoda Superb.

It’s based on the same flexible MQB underpinnings and offers the same solid range of engines as the Passat, but the Superb boasts a bigger boot and a similarly upmarket interior for a lower list price.

Even so, Skoda has added lots of useful touches, including an ice scraper in the fuel filler cap, umbrellas in the doors and cup-holders that grip your drink so you can take the lid off one-handed. Although these only sound like small details, they’re the kind of features that can make living with a car so simple.

The Superb Estate rises to the top when it comes to practicality, too. Along with enough room in the rear to rival a Mercedes S-class and excellent cabin storage, it has a massive 660-litre boot that’s easy to access. Sharp looks mean the Skoda is now easily on par with the Passat for style, too, and as with the latest cars in the firm’s range, the cool design is a big draw.

If you’re a fleet buyer, the 1.6 TDI in SE Business trim is attractive thanks to its claimed 67.3mpg economy and CO2 emissions of 109g/km, as well as its long list of desirable equipment. The 118bhp diesel doesn’t feel underpowered, while the 148bhp 2.0 TDI provides that extra degree of flexibility thanks to its bigger capacity.

A good estate car needs to offer plenty of space first and foremost, and that’s exactly what the Superb Estate does. But it ticks so many more boxes, too, with impressive refinement and quality at a price that its rivals can’t match.