Having recently purchased the Skoda Superb 1.8 petrol (magic black), i can vouch for the "superb" feeling inside the car. Its unfortunate that i love driving else would love to be just at the back seat and stretch my legs as far in front as possible!
Great ride quality and the looks which it gets when parked at my office is worth all the money that i coughed up for this beauty. The lighting (my nephew was updating my sister that "mamas" car has lights anywhere and everywhere )takes the cake and evenings are the best time to show this car to friends/ family as the lights create a really plush feel.
The Sales team was excellent (Skoda JMD at Vashi - Ms Swati).
Today drove the E280 and yes in comparison the ride quality was not as good (Merc is great).. but you cant compare a E-Merc to a Superb (almost 22 L onroad to 45L). Having said that, the interiors of the Superb are definitely better and the legroom of the Superb is far far better than even the E-series.
Am really happy that i bought the Skoda Superb as against the Accord (price wise the right comparison i guess) as genuinely the Accord has absolutely no "gadgetery" associated with it!Superb gives you Sun/Moon roof (my 4 year old daughters favorite)/ excellent touch screen audio system with controls on the steering wheel/ fantastic boot space (with twin door opening)/ ABS/ EBD/ Traction control/ 8air bags/ parktronic for parking, etc it has everything that you could wish for and at an amazing price point!
Wish the Indian version had the "park assist" as against the "parktronic". Parkassist is a feature in the international Skoda which automatically does parallel parking and would have loved to get that gadget in the car. Also wish they had provided a GPS system (am tugging my standalone GPS with this car). Also rear passengers miss audio control at the back (which am really surprised that they have not provided considering they have thought of every minute comfort detail)
(Unfortunately had a minor accident (which made me visit their Kandivali workshop) as some nut banged his car from the left into my car when i was taking a right turn - within 15 days of me buying the car. And being a car lover have had 2-3 sleepless nights contemplating how i could have avoided the accident. Whoever sees the damage clearly feels i am overreacting as only two very small cracks have appeared in the front bumper which are not visible at all.). Wish they would do something about their service centre (as had a Honda prior to this and they had an excellent service center with a lovely lounge - Lalbaug, Mumbai ). Yes, all highend car manufactures fleece you as they only believe in replacing anything which has the slightest of dents. Thats where i miss my age old Maruti or Palio who could be repaired and cost virtually nothing! But will not pass an opinion on their after sales service at this point as its honestly early days. They definitely could have been better in their behaviour when their "top-end" car drives into their workshop :-)
Excellent interiors. Amazing lightings and touch screen is brilliantNo audio control for the back-seat