BIG SKODA IS BIG ON VALUE Meet the £30,000 Skoda. That may sound a bit stupid as you have probably been brought up to believe that Skodas have their rightful place in a skip. But those days are long gone and Skoda makes very classy products these days. There’s a certain reverse snobbery in ownership, too, a bit like it used to be buying a Bentley instead of a Rolls-Royce. In the old days, those two brands were identical cars with only the radiator shell to tell them apart, but a Rolls, unless you are the Queen, was a bit new money or pretentious snobbery while a Bentley smacked of sporting sophistication. The rivalry is just as intense now Bentley, like Skoda, belongs to VW and Rolls-Royce to BMW but these days the situation is reversed. If anything, the Bentley is the new money car and the Rolls the exclusive sophisticate. That’s enough of that, though, and it’s time to get back to the Skoda. The car I have in mind as its £30,000 model is the Superb Laurin and Klement. This addition to the Superb range would easily set you back £30,000 if it had come from anyone else. It’s absolutely loaded with kit and the test car also had a 2.5 litre V6 turbodiesel engine connected to an automatic gearbox with Tiptronic feature for those who think they know more about gear changing than the car’s brain does. But leave aside all that kit and mechanical sophistication and the brilliant news is that it costs a mere £22,515 on the road. Normally, a test car comes loaded with extras to make it even more impressive but the car sent by Skoda had none. Nor did it need them as it makes an excellent impression without any extra assistance. Back in 2002, the Scottish Group of Motoring Writers made the Superb their luxury car of the year. Many people think Scots are mean with their money but they are the most generous people. Mean doesn’t come into it, but sensible does. And when you are making sensible big car choices, the Superb has to be the best there is. It looks very similar to a Volkswagen Passat but it’s based on a bigger shell created for the Far East and as a result has space of limousine proportions. If this car were badged as a VW or Audi, the likes of Richard Branson would be using it for his airline’s executive chauffeur fleet with no trouble at all. In fact, as Branson is renowned for his business acumen, I wonder why he is not using these Skodas anyway and showing his customers how sensible he is being with their money. Every executive hire fleet should have a place for the Superb. Despite its size and the 2.5 litre engine, the test car was averaging 41 mpg, which I consider a brilliant result. Not long before, I had driven the Alfa Brera coupe with a 2.4 litre diesel and that car only managed 36 mpg at best and 33 mpg most of the time. It clearly shows not how poorly the Alfa performed but how much the Skoda achieved. With figures like that, it’s hardly surprising the Superb appeals. Skoda has built more than 100,000 of the cars since the model launched in 2001 and it was given a mild refresh for the 2007 model year when the L&K model was added, too. Big cars may be a dying breed, but when they offer such great value as this Skoda does, then there’s hope for them yet. Maurice Hardy Annette's View The name for Skoda’s flagship big car, the Laurin and Klement, may seem a little odd and cumbersome but it recalls the two men who started the Skoda ball rolling in the first place, making bikes, then motorbikes. Their first car came along in 1905 while the Superb recalls a model name first used in 1934, when Skoda was a maker of large, luxury cars. Things changed after the 1939-45 war but luckily for all of us the liberation of Eastern Europe once more has seen the release of high quality cars, aided by major investment from parent company Volkswagen. The Superb is exactly what its name implies. The car has acres of interior space and the top level L&K model has leather seats, wood trim of passable quality (as good as, or better than German makers offer), and every luxury you could think of. It’s also a superb car to ride in. It’s smooth, but not floating or wallowy, and progress always feels serene. There are times when the diesel engine becomes vocal but on the whole it is well subdued. Big cars may be going out of fashion but when they offer as much as the Superb does they have to be worth a look. And that’s why 10 per cent of total production sells in the UK. Car: Skoda Superb Laurin & Klement 2.5 V6 TDI Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 10.3 secs Top speed: 135 mph Bhp: 160 @ 4000 rpm Torque: 258 lb ft @ 1,250 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £22,515 Urban: 24.6 mpg Extra urban: 49.6 mpg Combined: 36.2 mpg CO2 emissions: 211 g/km Insurance Group: 13 Best bits: big body; big diesel engine; big value.