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I should be able to test a 206 in Sydney tomorrow. I'll be interested to see what tyres are fitted & learn more about the cars technical specs, not yet revealed by Skoda. In particular, the braking system & performance. The brakes on my existing V6 are 'superb', I assume with 19" wheels, the new Skoda must also have similar big discs & callipers or better braking capability.
Reading through the various revues done by our fearless motoring press so far, I find them quite shallow. It appears there has been no serious testing of the limits or measurement of things like braking performance. In fact braking & tyres don't rate a mention in those I've seen. A complete contrast to the 2009/10 write ups of the V6 which suggested the car was 'over-braked'.
One only has to look through this forum to see one of the greatest irritants for Skoda owners has been the level of road & tyre noise entering the cabin. I made the mistake of putting Dunlop SP Sports Maxx on my V6 early on. Great handling tyres, but the degree of resonant noise in the cabin from the back, at 110kms/hr on an expressway was painful & very tiring. In the end, I through way those Dunlops when only 20% warn & replaced them with the softer, more euro chassis friendly Contisports3. They transformed the car & noise disappeared. I note one motoring writer's review of the 206TSi, wrote of noise from the back, but never mentioned what tyres were on the car or offered any comment on whether Skoda has introduced some level of sound deadening for Australian Skodas with the 2016 Superbs. I see a lot of references to peak power & torque figures, but it appears none of the writers looked at torque & power response at cruising speed on variable roads. What happens when the car reaches a long steady climb? What sought of revs is the car doing at cruising speeds? That's what I find missing; the driveability.
Has anyone yet lifted the boot mat & had a look at the wheel well? It has to be big enough to take the emergency spare, but is it big enough to take the depth of a full size spare. Skoda always claimed earlier V6 models had a bike wheel because a full size wheel was 'too high'. That was a lie. It fits perfectly. I'm hoping the same is true of the 2016 Superb. In fact it will be a deal breaker for me if the wheel well is inadequate. This move to 8" rim width is a welcome one & opens access to a far wider range of tyres used by other vehicles. 225.40x18 were virtually unavailable outside major cities, unless it was a town full of Subarus.
It would be great if some of these writers would return to reviewing more of the cars mechanicals from the drivers perspective. iPad mounts on the back of my driver's seat, I need like a hole in the head. Too many reviews spend far too much considering the comfort of passengers. Perhaps they need reminding, drivers usually buy cars & drive them, not passengers.
I've searched the web, but not found any proper technical specification for the new Superb's mechanicals.
Originally Posted by 2009fsi
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