Skoda India plans to retire its flagship luxury saloon Superb

The flagship luxury saloon, Superb, which featured a robust V6 petrol powertrain and an all-wheel drive layout has been retired by the Skoda India without much fanfare. The reason behind this drop-out came up as the car was not doing fairly good in the Indian auto market. In the luxury car segment, the success of Superb relied mainly on its turbo diesel unit. Presently, petrol-run luxury cars are something of a rarity in the Indian market as 90 per cent of them are powered with a diesel engine.

Furthermore, what makes it unique is that the 3.6 litre V6 petrol powertrain, which was configured to deliver 260 bhp of peak power and 360 Nm of highest torque. Lack of a turbo or a supercharger unit forced the powertrain to deliver a lower mileage, ranging between 6 and 8 kmpl, which added to the negativity of model. For a price sensitive market like India, the car was quite an expensive deal in light of the steep hike witnessed in the prices of petrol during May 2012.

Although the car was incorporated with dual-clutch DSG Automatic transmission, the fuel efficiency of the V6 model did not showed any favourable outcomes. Therefore, it was quite obvious that the buyers of Superb petrol rather opted for its turbocharged, direct injected 1.8L TSI petrol model.

Buyers desiring petrol vehicles are relatively less in India and, thus, penchant for V6 Superb relatively declined. This was the catalysing factor behind Skoda's decision to stop the car in market. Superb V6 was known as the brand building model for the car maker which further added to its high-performance credentials. The car was offered in an option of petrol and diesel variants in the country. The petrol version was assimilated with a 1.8 litre TSI unit which had the potential to churn out maximum power of 160 bhp and 250 Nm of peak torque. On the other hand, the diesel Superb was powered by 2 litre TDI turbo powertrain, which is capable of belting out 140 bhp power and 320 Nm torque output.

The petrol version of Superb was mated with a 6 speed manual as well as 7 speed DSG automatic transmission units, for buyers to choose from. However with the diesel model, the company only offered a 6 speed DSG automatic gearbox. Recently, the company added a new variant to the Superb range, Ambition. The new addition was offered by the car maker at a competitive price after shaving off several features. Skoda Superb has been a consistent performer for its maker, because of its appealing looks, interiors and wide range of features.