Octavia Scout or Superb Outdoor

[Sword_Dude]

Hiya all,

I have an opportunity to side by side test an Octavia Scout with a Superb 4x4 Outdoor this weekend.

Does anyone have any thoughts about either of these ie one over the other?

Once we've completed the test drive I will post my thoughts for anyone interested.

cheers

[bobski]

The Superb Outdoor is very nice and you can probably get one delivered quickly. But I'd want to get the price down into the mid to high 40s, the value equation is just not there IMO. It also appears less rugged than the Scout.

The Scout looks great and I'd loved to have tried one if the timing had been better. But I love the backseat room of the Superb (new baby and toddler) and the plusher ride.

Report back how you go!

[wfdTamar]

The slightly more powerful engine in the Superb would be nice and more than make up for the greater weight.

[tigger73]

I'd be interested to hear your feedback too, though I've already made my new vehicle purchase (maybe buyers regret )

Of course it's going to depend on what engine combination that you get to drive in the Octy Scout 4x4... and the drive-away price.

Still no pricing on the Skoda website but if you were to get the 135TDI Scout for the same price as a (discounted) Superb Outdoor it would be a tough call. It would be down to size vs. performance/handling.

If you've only got small kids the Scout is going to be fine for the next 5-10 years - unless you want the screaming further away of course!

[Sword_Dude]

So we test drove the 2 wagons yesterday.

1st off was the Scout, the internal dimensions are pretty well documented in other places and there is no denying that there is quite a lot of passenger space in the car considering the great size of the boot and the external dimensions. We drove a petrol 132TSI and found it to be quiet, smooth, crisp changing piece of engineering with good grip and a steady body. It had just bucketed down so the roads were really wet and we pushed it up a hill and round a corner without losing traction. It drives like a much smaller car and doesn't feel as big as it is.

2nd car we drove was a standard 125TDI Superb elegance wagon. To be honest after the Scout it was a bit of a let down, the motor gearbox combination was not as smooth and we lost traction going up the same very wet hill. The ride just seemed rough. We almost walked away after that and were not going to go any further with the Superb.

Finally we drove the Superb Outdoor (after watching the fun of them getting it off the showroom floor). It was much better than the elegance we had previously driven, it held the road better, felt smoother at gear changes and was generally a better drive. This seems weird because it effectively has the same motor, gearbox, suspension, tyre profile etc. Still in terms of just driving pleasure the Scout was better, everything just felt right, but the benefits of the luxury options in the Superb (and particularly rear passenger leg room) made the total experience hard to differentiate.

In the end the real problem became what is available, pretty much all of the Scouts come with the tech pack as a minimum so the one we drove ended up actually costing more than the Superb Outdoor and they are throwing $1k of fuel and 3 years free servicing along with 5 year warranty in as well on the Superb. So the end decision was we are buying the Superb.

Don't get me wrong the Scout is a great car, it was easily the best to drive and will be more versatile with the slightly higher clearance, but we are really only going to use it for muddy/gravelly/snowy tracks and not going to be testing the limits of it 4wd capability. For us the cost and the discount on the Superb was the decider.

[tigger73]

Octavia Scout or Superb Outdoor

Nice write-up. I'm guessing the dealer was keen to shift their top of the line Outdoor demo and weren't offering much of a discount on the new Scout.

Did you get any pricing on the rest of the Scout range (other than the 132TSI)?

I think the 135TDI Scout will be a fantastic car though I'm guessing is going to be the new range-topper in the Octavia line-up with effectively the same engine as the diesel RS plus an AWD drive-train.

[woofy]

Well the new Superb being shown can't be helping sales, guessing we won't see those here until last thing in the year.

[Sword_Dude]

Tigger indicative drive-away pricing is

110TDI Manual $40k
132TSI DSG $44k
135TDI DSG $47k

Killer is some of the add-on packs eg Tech pack is $4k!, wheels not cheap, Sunroof, metallic paint etc?

Basically they gave 12.5% discount on the Superb + fuel card, free servicing, and extra 2yr warranty.

ps the Superb Demo had only 62 km on it after we finished our test drive, I think it had been out of the showroom twice.

[tigger73]

Yeah that's a reasonable deal on the Superb with all the extra goodies. Looks like they were quoting you list price on the Scout which makes it hard to go past the bigger size and extra tech on the Outdoor.


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[bobski]

Hmmm. I await final pricing and spec, but that base Scout pricing doesn't look like the good value I was expecting. A reasonably well specced sub $40k DSG model was required to compete with Subaru/Nissan etc. And where does the vRS fit in here? I know if I wanted to drop $45k on an Octavia, blow the AWD, it'd be the vRS.

I think the Superb Outdoor shows that the price point is too high, they've knocked what - nearly $7k off the price for Sword_Dude which is what I thought originally when I looked at it, great car, but sorry just too expensive.

Might be another case of dealers struggling to move them without discounting.

[tigger73]

We'll have to wait until the "official" drive-away prices are revealed but I'm with you bobski that it's just not delivering the value proposition that Skoda is known for (without heavy discounting).

If you compare the Scout to a Tiguan which mechanically is very similar, drive-away pricing on the Tiguan is:

132TSI DSG - $36,990
130TDI DSG - $39,990

So by going by this comparison the Scout is $7k more expensive than the "equivalent" VW. Unless the pricing that the dealer was giving out were pre-launch pricing based on the dealers best guess with a factor for safety... and from wanting to shift the Outdoor.

[Sword_Dude]

Don't get me wrong guys the Scout is a very good car to drive, it feels like a road car on the road, even though some of the streets we were driving through were very lumpy and exceedingly wet it was well composed. I have driven a Tig as a loaner and the Scout is streets ahead, so while you may think you are comparing something similar it just isn't.

It was just too expensive when compared with the Superb Outdoor and unfortunately very few people are going to be in the position of being able to do a back to back comparison as I have.

I too am curious to see what people end up bargaining them down to, but they weren't prepared to do anything really this early in the piece.

[bobski]

I hadn't even thought about comparing it to the Tiguan! I was just thinking the new outback looks good, new forester looks good and the base 4WD X-Trail is $37500.

But yep, well undercut by the Tig too. I'll try not to get in a lather over this one before final details though. No one likes a portly man in a lather. But Skoda needs to have sharp pricing. Firstly, I don't think people will consider it unless the pricing is similar to the big players and secondly its not fair to the people that pay near full RRP that someone can walk in and negotiate a 10-15% discount.

[tigger73]

I can understand that early/pre-launch they aren't offering any discount. Especially if they don't have stock or its scarce they can try to charge full price.

The Tiguan is certainly an older (mk5/6 platform) vehicle - not like MQB platform Octavia. Harder to compare an SUV to a wagon for sure but what I was looking at was price for essentially the same engine/transmission.

The prices quoted for the Scout seemed on the high side but as you say is probably before any discounts.

I took a new RS for a test drive and AWD would be a great addition. That's why I think the 135TDI Scout will be an awesome car. As long as it's competitively priced it should do well competing against Subaru Outback, Golf Alltrack, etc.


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[Sword_Dude]

With the pricing they are indicating, this is not going to make the sales they were hoping.

Although the 110TDI Manual may make up for it, it should drive well and be very capable, but my wife was not interested in a manual transmission for our next car.