Skoda is marketing the new Superb in Europe with the tag ‘the first five-door sedan’ due to its ingenious boot opening arrangement which allows for a traditional saloon-style opening or a full boot and rear window hatch opening.
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But, here in the UK, the positioning of the car will be much more as an upper-medium hatchback as Skoda targets fleet buyers and looks to protect used values, according to product marketing manager Chris Horrell.
He predicts that the upper-medium sector, which reached a peak of some 560,000 sales in 2002 and has been in decline since, will start to grow again thanks to the number of new entrants including the Citroën C5, Ford Mondeo, Renault Laguna and forthcoming Vauxhall Insignia, which replaces the Vectra soon.
“It’s certainly levelling off if not increasing right now,” he said.
Saloons are the biggest sellers in the sector with a share of 34% while hatchbacks take 27%, Horrell noted.
With its Twindoor design, the Superb competes in 61% of the market with just the one model – and a wagon – new to the line – arrives early in 2010.
The previous Superb, launched in 2002, sold 2,800 units in its best year, with around half of those bought by fleet customers.
With the new model Horrell expects full-year sales to top 4,000 with 75-80% bought by fleets.
One of the bonuses for Skoda is that nine out of 10 owners would recommend other people to buy one, he said.
Skoda sales in the UK so far this year are up 2.8% year-on-year at 26,000 units – and globally up 18% to 640,000 units.
