The Skoda Superb Estate is good enough to keep the class-winning Passat on its toes. In fact, it has some worthwhile advantages over the Passat.

For one thing, it is absolutely huge inside. There are acres of room for rear-seat passengers, and the Superb’s enormous 633-litre boot is even bigger than the VW’s. Our test car was the 4×4 model, making the Superb better suited to staying on farm campsites.

At motorway speeds the Skoda felt as stable as any rival, but in the lane-change test it couldn’t quite match the excellence of the Passat: the rear of the car was pushed around more by the caravan.

There’s no arguing with the performance from the 2.0-litre diesel engine, though. Even pulling a total weight of around three tonnes, it took just 13.2 seconds to pull from 30-60mph. The brakes were strong enough to stop car and caravan from 30mph in 11.9m on a wet track.

Our testers found that the Superb’s conventional handbrake needed a firm pull to hold car and caravan still on the 1-in-6 test hill, but otherwise the Skoda coped easily in first gear or reverse.

With a price tag just under £30,000, the Skoda certainly isn’t cheap, but Elegance-spec cars are packed with equipment. If you’re in two minds about spending that kind of cash on a Skoda, then it’s worth remembering that the Superb took the top spot in the 2013 JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey.