SKODA SUPERB 1.9 TDI PD 130 Comfort 4dr (2002)

Beats the competition hands down even after nearly 10 years

My parents make fun of my Skoda Superb a bit, but thankfully I'm a wee bit too young to remember when Skodas were stupid. Now, I'll grant you it's a stupid name for a car, or for anything, sounds like a hairstyle or something, but that's where the stupidity ends. The rest of it is just pure smooth driving, no nonsense awesomeness from a car maker that seems still to be massively underrated. All the saloon taxis round here are Skodas (not Superbs mind) which says a lot.

First of all, i get at LEAST 50 miles a gallon in my Skoda Superb! How about that?? More on motorways, quite a bit more. A mate of mine got a Mini recently and has been bleating on about how he's getting even more than that, but nobody else can touch it. Besides I'd like to see him get five people (with legs) into his Mini.

Practical stuff is a major plus for the Superb, like other Skodas too (I swear I'm a convert to Skoda). THERE'S AN UMBRELLA IN THE DOOR!!! HAHA! Why don't all cars have an umbrella in the door?!!! That's just the start of the smart stuff though, there's loads of other little tricks and features. The wipers know when it's raining! A light comes on outside the car to show you the ground near the door! There's other stuff which is apparently more common these days but I was still impressed by, like beeper things that help you park.

Space inside is major. Feels like a limo almost. I'm a big guy and so are my friends, and they've all got bags of legroom and headroom. The only problem there is that I keep getting asked to drive us round. The kids are almost lost back there. The boot is equally vast, can easy get my golf clubs and my dad's in, along with all the junk we've come to leave in there for no good reason.

There are other things about the Skoda Superb too that feel nice and no nonsense. Like the stereo is a normal size, so you can replace it if you want to. When I was shopping around for cars I saw that in recent years there seems to have been some move towards making stereos basically unremovable by integrating them completely into the centre panel. Arrogant! I might want to change it.

Last but not least, it's so fantastically reliable. I think I might have sounded a bit dull writing about this car, but who cares, I'd much rather have my car that's only needed tyres in six years, and one fix for the parking sensors, than something 'exciting' that needs fixing every other day.