Who remembers the Superb Sportline? Those who cannot get enough of cars probably do. The rest will have to scratch their heads for a while. Let’s quickly reacquaint ourselves with the model in question before shooting it out of the scene for good! To add some sportiness in Superb’s portfolio, Skoda Auto India launched a Sportline trim level in October last year. As the name suggests, it came with a bunch of sporty elements such as dark tone alloy wheels, chrome highlights on the rear diffuser, gloss black finish on some bits and sports seats draped in Alcantara.

Do you like the sound of that? Well, it is time to burst the bubble of hope. The Skoda Superb Sportline is no longer available in India. In all probability, it did not even complete a year of existence on our shores. That’s quite sad. However, this development does not qualify as a surprise. The Superb’s Indian customer has specific requirements, and none of them has the word “sporty”. In other words, Skoda’s flagship sedan has attracted only those who wanted a comfortable, premium, practical and properly put-together sedan.

To sum it up, the Superb is now available in Corporate Edition, Style and L&K iterations. Under the bonnet, you can have either a 1.8-litre turbo-petrol producing 177bhp/250Nm or a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, which puts out 174bhp/350Nm. If you want the asking price to be as low as possible, the best option would be to get the former engine with a 6-speed manual transmission. Else, the petrol motor is also available with a 7-speed DSG. On the other hand, the only gearbox available with the diesel mill is a 6-speed DSG.

Skoda Auto India is yet to upgrade the Superb to comply with BS6 (Bharat Stage 6) emission norms. That is likely to happen early next year alongside the launch of its mid-life update. Apart from that, Skoda will be attending the 2020 Auto Expo. That’s where we’ll get to see the concept of the compact SUV which will become the first product from SAVWIPL for India 2.0 project.