Skoda Superb VS Kia Stinger
Skoda Superb
Likes
- As good to drive as you'd hope
- Awesome cabin practicality
- Subtle and refined
Dislikes
- Nearly premium pricing
- No hybrid powertrains for Oz
- Exterior styling a bit conservative
Kia Stinger
Likes
- Great looks
- Great chassis
- Excellent spec
Dislikes
- Servicing costs
- Tight rear accommodation
- A bit pricey for a Kia
Summary
Skoda Superb
Look, I get it. You’re upsizing. Maybe it’s finally time for a family car, but the thing is, you love driving and the overwhelming number of SUVs most brands want to throw at you just don’t cut it.
Increasingly few brands are catering to this specific niche. Even Volkswagen has left the humble sedan and wagon behind by choosing not to replace the Passat.
For this review, though, we’re looking at the new-generation Skoda Superb. It sits atop the Skoda sedan and wagon range, a size-up from the Octavia.
Read more about
- No hybrids, no worries: Skoda says NVES 'not scary' but believes its model mix will need to change in coming years
- If you want a cheaper Skoda, tell them! Here's why the Czech brand won't fight cut-price Chinese rivals such as the MG ZS and Haval Jolion on price alone
- Why this electric SUV won't suffer the same fate as the Tesla Model Y and BYD Seal
Does this new-generation car stand up as the ideal non-SUV for you or your family? We took a look at a preview drive in Europe ahead of its Australian arrival in the second quarter of 2025.
| Safety rating | — |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 8.2L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Kia Stinger
There is nothing quite like a car company occasionally building a car that could be considered a risk. And there are all kinds of risks in the car business - the market isn't ready for that car, people don't identify your brand with this or that type of vehicle, the list goes on. And it's long. It's very easy for me to sit on the sidelines and say, "Pft, what were they thinking?" Few cars land on your driveway without years of thinking having already gone into their development.
The Kia Stinger is the kind of car that would have caused lots of thinking and plenty of hand-wringing at Kia HQ in Korea. Not because it was a bad idea - it wasn't. Not because it's a bad car - it is, in fact, the opposite. And not because SUVs have already changed the way we look at cars - Kia has done well out of that.
It's just that Kia has never produced a car like the Stinger. A five-door coupe-sedan, rear-wheel drive and with a focus on driver dynamics. Most of us know very well how the Stinger GT burst on to the scene in a blaze of well-deserved glory. It's not all about the GT, though. There's a whole range of Stingers and just below that very accomplished sports sedan is the Stinger GT-Line.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Regular Unleaded Petrol |
| Fuel Efficiency | 8.8L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Skoda Superb7.9/10
If you’re part of the endangered species who wants to continue to go against the crowd and pick a sedan or wagon over an SUV - the Superb is about as good as it gets without spending luxury car money.
It’s slick and classy, refined and practical, it’s dollops of fun on a curvy road, and more entertaining than its most direct rivals. Frankly, it’s hard to see why you shouldn’t look at the Superb if your budget stretches far enough for it.
Remember to check back in early 2025 closer to the Superb’s launch in Australia for our final verdict and some of the missing details, but for now this is one is worth keeping an eye out for.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.
Kia Stinger7.6/10
The Stinger GT-Line is a great machine. It looks good, feels good to drive and while it's not the cheapest large sedan, it's also not a Camry. With a strong European vibe, it's a nice bridge between boring-dependable and out-of-reach European. Boasting a strong link to Europe in its chassis DNA, it has it all apart, maybe, from the badge.
But Kia has a habit of doing unexpected things and the Stinger was a bold move worth making just for the halo effect of having such a cool car in the range. It has done good things for the company's reputation, as though the rest of the range isn't proof already.
Design
Skoda Superb
There are numerous styling tweaks for the new-generation car, but at a distance it’s hardly a revolution from the outgoing version. Skoda sticks to a pretty conservative formula for its core range of vehicles.
In the metal and up-close, I reckon it looks fresh and understated, perhaps even a little stately with its extra length. After all, the Superb has a more important role to fill than ever before for the VW Group with the departure of the Passat.
Key changes include more sleek and compact light fittings, new wheel designs and a tweaked grille.
Inside, some of the most notable changes are the new screens and software, but there’s also a more elegant treatment for the dash, which uses an interesting pattern to cover the air vents and separate the upper and lower sections.
There’s also a notable increase in soft-touch materials. The brand also says 100 per cent of the textiles used in its new interior are made of recycled fibres.
New wheel and column-mounted switchgear helps keep the centre console clear, and key climate hardware makes a glorious return in a set of tidy multi-function dials.
Kia Stinger
The Stinger looks fantastic. I know the car has its detractors, but there's a massive Euro influence here that sits well in my visual cortex. It's maybe not as ooh-aah as the A5 or the outgoing BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, but the Stinger can and should be mentioned in the same breath. It looks terrific, even if it is a bit fussier in the details.
From the signature grille, the low beltline, big wheels and sports coupe roofline, it looks sleek and sophisticated.Â
Inside is a bit more conventional, with some real classic touches such as circular air vents, conventional-looking gear selector and a flat-bottomed steering wheel. It's cool, clean and, with the big new screen, a bit more techy-looking than before. There are lots of nice materials and the odd rogue one, but it's a good cabin that feels well put-together.
Practicality
Skoda Superb
For a start, The dials go a long way to making the interior much more pragmatic and functional, particularly for the driver, compared to almost every other VW Group product.
Not only do they provide physical hardware for ease of adjustment, you can also press them down to switch what they control. It’s even customisable via the centre screen if you don’t want to have to click through all the options all the time.
I’d go so far as to say the Skoda interior features are the best the brand has to offer. It features the best of the new stalks, screens, and touch-based light function buttons, without the inconvenience and distraction of the touch sliders which appear in VWs and Cupras.
Let’s also not forget the brand’s signature ‘simply clever’ touches, of which there are new ones. Yes, of course the umbrella is still hidden in the door, but there’s now also a little screen cleaning eraser block in the centre console (a genuinely great idea in the era of touchscreens which I’ve never seen before), a set of removable floating caddies in the armrest console (which Skoda refers to as the ‘Jumbo Box’ thanks to its 5.5-litre capacity), integrated rear window shades, Velcro cargo brackets in the boot and removable bins in the front door pockets.
The rear seat offers an enormous amount of room for myself behind my own driving position at 182cm tall, and there’s no shortage of leg and headroom. Unfortunately there is a raise in the floor to allow for all-wheel drive, making it squishy for an adult in that centre rear position.
Aside from the integrated window shades, the Superb also gets a set of three pockets on the backs of each front seat, mounting brackets for tablets or game consoles (great for kids) and a small touch panel on the back of the console for the rear climate zone.
There are also adjustable air vents and USB-C outlets for charging. Large bottle holders appear in each door, with a further two in the armrest, which also has a flip-out tray with a little phone holder.
The liftback still benefits from an impressive 645-litre luggage capacity, while the wagon balloons to 690 litres while adding that hatch opening back, larger and more useful than most mid-size SUVs.
Towing will be possible, although we don’t yet have figures for the new car, as it is subject to change in line with Australian design rules.
Kia Stinger
This is really a four-seater car. While there is good legroom in the rear, the falling roofline, small door aperture and huge transmission tunnel box you in a bit, almost rendering the middle seat useless for all but the shortest of folks. You do get your own air vents, though, which is generous.
The low roof also means limited headroom, made a little worse by the standard sunroof. I had room but taller people might brush the headlining. There are two cupholders front and rear for a total of four and each door has a bottle holder.
The boot is a modest-for-this-size 406 litres, rising to 1114 litres with the seats down. Access to the boot is good if not spectacular; the hatch opens wide but a slightly narrow aperture means loading and stowing flat packs and things like that could be a struggle.
Price and features
Skoda Superb
At the time of writing, it was too early to tell you what the final price-tag for Australian-delivered cars will be. We also don’t have exact local specification, although the brand has confirmed it will continue to only import a single high-grade Sportline for the next-gen car. It also said not to expect pricing to jump too far from the circa-$70,000 price-tag of the outgoing car.
What is new this time around? Expect an even nicer design on the inside, paired with a big jump in cabin tech.
The grade we tested for this review is the most similar car produced in Europe right now, equipped with leather seats with power adjust and heating, a 13-inch multimedia touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto running a fresh user interface, a 10-inch digital dash cluster based on VW’s very good digital cockpit suite, tri-zone climate control, matrix LED headlights, as well as new adaptive suspension and drive modes.
It’s worth noting Australian cars will miss out on a handful of cool features available in the European market, like the connected services features which enable more detailed navigation. We also don’t expect to see mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains this time around, which feels like a shame.
There’s no question the Superb will be an expensive car, then, but it occupies a unique position in the Australian market. It’s larger and more luxurious than a Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 6 or Toyota Camry, while competing on the price-front with luxury cars a size-down like the Lexus ES or Volvo S60.
Kia Stinger
As is the custom at this time of the year, the Stinger scored a mild update for that minty-fresh taste at the dealer. Not much has changed in the looks department (good) and the most obvious tweak is the brand-spanking new media system already seen in the brilliant new Sorento.
The GT-Line is one of two four-cylinder variants of the Stinger, priced at $57,230 or $60,690 driveaway, a solid $7000 more than the 200S and it's $730 more than the MY20. It's also uncomfortably close to the 330S, which has the delicious twin-turbo V6, but obviously a lower equipment level.
For your money you get 19-inch alloy wheels, a 15-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, camera package that includes a reversing camera, side cameras and front camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, active cruise control, powered heated and ventilated front seats, sat nav, automatic LED headlights, head up display, leather seats and wheel and even more besides. It's a lot, which is fair given the price.
The 15-speaker stereo is run by the excellent new media system on the excellent new 10.25-inch touchscreen. It's great to look at, has some really cool ideas in it (including the hilarious soundscapes list which includes, for some reason, a noisy cafe environment), DAB and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Under the bonnet
Skoda Superb
Only one engine will be available in Australia, a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four producing a punchy 195kW/400Nm, a slight upgrade on the outgoing car. It drives all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
Aside from this tweaked powertrain, the new car also has some structural enhancements thanks to its merging onto the new VW Group 'MQB Evo' platform which comes with tweaks to chassis rigidity, suspension, as well as new adaptive dampers.
Kia Stinger
Under the GT-Line's bonnet is Kia's Theta II 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine. It's the same as before, with a stout 182kW and 353Nm. Driving the rear wheels is an eight-speed automatic from the Hyundai-Kia empire.
It's pretty rapid, knocking out the 0-100km/h spring in just six seconds, a mere 1.1 seconds slower than its faster sibling's 4.9 for the benchmark.
Efficiency
Skoda Superb
We don’t have official figures for the Australian market, or even for this engine in the European market as it hasn’t started production yet (we tested 2.0-litre diesel AWD versions for this review).
Don’t expect it to stray too far from the roughly 8.0L/100km the outgoing car scores on the official combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle. The new engine will continue to require mid-shelf 95 RON unleaded petrol.
Kia Stinger
Kia's claimed combined cycle figure is 8.8L/100km. As the Stinger goes without trickery like stop-start or mild hybridness, it's no surprise that my week with it yielded an indicated 10.4L/100km, which isn't bad for a 1750kg sports sedan that was not molly-coddled and also spent some time in a resurgent case of crap traffic in Sydney.
It also drinks standard unleaded, which is a nice touch.
Driving
Skoda Superb
The Superb is just that when you get it out on the road. While it might look like a plain old sedan or wagon, it drives with quite some finesse.
For this test we weren’t able to sample the 195TSI 2.0-litre turbo-petrol which will come to our market. We drove a 2.0-litre diesel instead.
It still had quite a bit of get up and go, and we’ve driven the 195TSI in other vehicles to be confident enough to say it will remove the occasional turbo lag we experienced.
Regardless, some of the best changes to the Superb are in its suspension, steering and underpinnings. This is a tight, reactive car, with a confident long wheelbase, heaps of grip and sharp steering.
Unlike some smaller vehicles which share the same components, you can feel the Superb’s weight and breadth shift around a little more in the corners. But it does so with a pleasing amount of grace, and powers out of corners in such a way that it’s hard not to have a smile on your face.
This is a car which is pragmatic in the day-to-day, but also a dollop of fun on a curvy road. As you sit nice and low and feel a lot more connected to the road than you do in one of Skoda’s SUVs for example, the Superb is perfect for the ex-hot-hatch driver.
Ride-wise this big car proved very comfortable in our time with it. The suspension components have been upgraded for this new generation version, but so has chassis rigidity.
It’s hard to draw a definitive line through refinement, though, as the European roads on which we were testing our cars are much better sealed than Australian tarmac. Still the Superb soaked what few bumps were there up with ease.
There’s even a notable increase in refinement, thanks to acoustic lamination on the windows, and even the diesel version’s engine note was quite distant.
The drive experience here is hard to fault. Sure, this is a big car with a bit of weight to throw around, but it proved to be confident, graceful and comfortable, at least on the European roads we tested it on.
Kia Stinger
I have driven and loved the Stinger GT. It's tremendous fun, goes like a rat running away from a cut snake, which itself is being chased by a mongoose with its bottom on fire, and it handles like a proper sports sedan.
The GT-Line is obviously not that quick, but it's not slow, either. But it does take a bit of the GT's DNA and delivers a driving experience eerily reminiscent of an E90 BMW 3 Series. That seems like an out-of-date reference, but it was a beautiful car to drive with a lovely balance of ride and handling.
The steering has good feel and you know what's going on underneath the front wheels. You sit towards the centre of the car, also a BMW trademark. Turn the wheel and the car goes with you, despite its bulk, and it's happy to dance a bit with its limited-slip diff.
The 2.0-litre turbo does a good job in most conditions but you feel it coming up short when you're hustling it. It's never breathless, but the torque deficit to the turbo six is clear. If you've not driven the faster Stinger, you may not notice, but there's a touch of lag in the 2.0 that contributes to the idea it's working hard to move the big sedan.
But back off a little and it becomes a fluid, fun drive. In town it's firm but very comfortable, gently bumping rather than crashing into potholes. The rear suspension is a complicated five-link set-up that costs money and eats into boot space but delivers the goods.
Given its length the Stinger is a bit tough to manoeuvre in tight spaces and its 11.2m turning circle isn't too flash either, but you soon get used to it.
Safety
Skoda Superb
Expect the full array of active safety gear when the Superb lands down under, including freeway-speed auto emergency braking, lane keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. There’s also adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition.
The Superb is also equipped with an array of 10 airbags, and as the version which will land in Australia is built in the same plant as its European companions, there’s a higher chance its Euro NCAP maximum five-star rating will transfer across to an ANCAP assessment.
Kia Stinger
The Stinger ships with an impressive safety package that includes seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, high- and low-speed forward AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, intersection assist, lane-keep assist, steering assist, driver attention alert, high- and low-speed forward collision warning, front cross traffic alert and rear cross traffic alert.
You get two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors.
The Stinger scored five ANCAP stars in 2017.
Ownership
Skoda Superb
Expect Skoda to continue with its seven-year and unlimited kilometre warranty. It’s the first Euro brand to offer such a warranty, and hence moves the game forward and puts pressure on its most direct rivals to do the same.
Expect the usual pre-packaged service plans, although pricing and details will be revealed closer to the Superb’s launch window in 2025.
Kia Stinger
Kia's ground-breaking seven year/unlimited kilometre warranty along with roadside assist for the first 12 months. Each time you service your car at Kia, you get an extension on your roadside assist for up to eight years.
Perhaps the only thing that makes you go, "Oh, what?" about the Stinger is the 12 months (Good)/10,000km (Oh...) service intervals. That's pretty common with Kia's turbo engines but is a little inconvenient. Then there's the cost - prices range from $312 to $685, which adds up to $3459 over the first seven services. If you stay under 10,000km/year, that's not bad going at under $500 per year for servicing, but if you're a high-miler, it will add up.
The servicing isn't outrageous - and the prices are capped - but it's not cheap, either.