Thinking of buying a New Skoda... any views?

spank_inferno

Thinking of buying a new Skoda.
Brand new they seemed a bit pricey (€25k for a new octavia).

Its a bit to weigh up.
Is skoda now the peer of VW in terms of price/value/reliability
Should I go 2nd hand though mabey a 05/06?

Anyone got a nearly new Skoda and willing to compare to a similar family saloons?

Lex Luthor

spank_inferno wrote:

Thinking of buying a new Skoda.
Brand new they seemed a bit pricey (€25k for a new octavia).

Its a bit to weigh up.
Is skoda now the peer of VW in terms of price/value/reliability
Should I go 2nd hand though mabey a 05/06?

Anyone got a nearly new Skoda and willing to compare to a similar family saloons?

The Octavia is a hatchback....whats your budget?

I would never buy new....at least go for soemthing 2yrs old

omega man

It depends on what you are looking for. You can only compare like with like i guess. I bought a new Octavia vRS last August so in my case i was looking for price, performance, reliability and practicality. I compared it with the VW golf gti, the seat leon fr, all hatchbacks. All had the same engine but the octavia had more space, bigger boot, a better spec by far and was the cheapest. Basically i wanted a performance family car and that is exactly what i got. Dealer was good and so far i haven't had one problem with the car. I had never bought a new car before and was reluctant but i made the jump and i haven't looked back since. Just make sure you compare like with like and get exactly what YOU want.

spooner_src

Hey,

I have a 2001 octavia tdi (110bhp) Laurin & Klement. Great car and fully loaded. Tons of room espically in the boot. Very economical. Thinking of upgrading to the new diesel vRS.

Omega_man, did you get the petrol or diesel vRS.

P.S. check out this cool vid of the new vRS in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIA6suqglZI

B

omega man

spooner_src wrote:

Hey,

I have a 2001 octavia tdi (110bhp) Laurin & Klement. Great car and fully loaded. Tons of room espically in the boot. Very economical. Thinking of upgrading to the new diesel vRS.

Omega_man, did you get the petrol or diesel vRS.

P.S. check out this cool vid of the new vRS in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIA6suqglZI

B

Petrol. I dont think you can get a better all round car for the price to be honest. Won 'what car' magazines best hot hatch 2006 and i still haven't seen anything but great reviews. The vRS has a very good spec over here compared to the UK which is unusual so you would be happy with that going from your old car. I haven't driven that diesel engine yet but having previously owned a TDI150 seat leon i imagine it will be fun. There seems to be a few around the stealers now so get a test drive!

PaddyFagan

Most feedback seems to indicate that the build quality etc is higher for Skoda than VW these days.

One thing to note, the buyer profile for Skoda tends to be very price focused, if you're buying new and plan on selling in three/four years then you should stick to the 1.4 petrol/1.9 TDI in the Classic/Ambiente spec to maximise the resale. You're unlikely to get much more at resale time for the Elegance spec or larger petrol engines.

Paddy

Sandwich

spank_inferno wrote:

Is skoda now the peer of VW in terms of price/value/reliability

Skoda is now superior to VW in all of the above (and I have a VW).
If a Skoda suits you then you should go ahead and get it - its the best all round package out there for value and quality.

DublinWriter

My Uncle bought a brand-new diesel Octavia for 25K and I nearly slapped him up and down the garden.

Buy them second-hand at around a year old. Losing 5K just for the privelidge of driving them new off the forecourt is just not worth it.

Otherwise, they're a fine bus. As one poster said, they are superior to VW's as they are still fighting that old Skoda brand image and tend to go the extra mile in ensuring the quality of their products.

Bluehair

Funnily enough a mate of mine bought a new tdi Octavia last Jan and is now facing that kind of depreciation since he'd like to trade in, he's changed jobs and just isn't doing the milage to need to keep it. Helluva bargain for whoever buys it though.

unkel

DublinWriter wrote:

My Uncle bought a brand-new diesel Octavia for 25K and I nearly slapped him up and down the garden.

Buy them second-hand at around a year old. Losing 5K just for the privelidge of driving them new off the forecourt is just not worth it

All cars in that segment depreciate by at least 20% in the first year. The Skoda Octavia is no different. In fact to pay €20k for a one year old one is a poor choice imho. The €25k car could have been bought brand new for no more than €23k cash

Biro

Sandwich wrote:

Skoda is now superior to VW in all of the above (and I have a VW).
If a Skoda suits you then you should go ahead and get it - its the best all round package out there for value and quality.

Depends... if you compare golf to the octavia, then you'd be right. New passat is a lot superior to superb though. And superb depreciates like a sinking ship. Octavia is holding its value well though, thanks to its own good build quality and earning its reputation. Quality control seems to have slipped in the VW camp, even where the build quality is up to scratch, reliability is down.
If you want a new octavia diesel, then you're not getting a bad car at all. Go for it, there's no major issues really with them. My personal choice in this bracket would be the mazda 3 saloon 1.6 diesel, but the choice is yours.

gyppo

@ OP,

If you intend keeping the Octavia for a good while, ie. 4-5 years, then buying new and the depreciation factor that entails isnt going to hurt you too much.

Also, as Unkel pointed out, you should be able to get a good discount off the list price. Ideally, if you are not in a rush, try and sell your existing car privately, and then negotiate as a cash customer for your new car.

yellow012

unkel wrote:

All cars in that segment depreciate by at least 20% in the first year. The Skoda Octavia is no different. In fact to pay €20k for a one year old one is a poor choice imho. The €25k car could have been bought brand new for no more than €23k cash

I dunno about that? Skoda are selling as many as they can bring in, the listed price is about the price you pay for them. I've bought and sold a couple in the last 2 years so i'm not repeating hearsay.

unkel

yellow012 wrote:

the listed price is about the price you pay for them

True if you don't negotiate

I bought one 3 years ago and even though it was a basic (low margin) 1.4 ambiente model with only alarm and metallic as extras, I got 10% off. The list price plus options was €19k and I got it for €17.2k on the road with a full tank of petrol

yellow012

unkel wrote:

True if you don't negotiate

I bought one 3 years ago and even though it was a basic (low margin) 1.4 ambiente model with only alarm and metallic as extras, I got 10% off. The list price plus options was €19k and I got it for €17.2k on the road with a full tank of petrol

I've had 2 * Mk2 Octavia 1.9tdi's and there isn't much give with the dealers on these particular models. MK1 Octavia different beast altogether.

unkel

yellow012 wrote:

MK1 Octavia different beast altogether.

Why makes you think that?

Sure enough the margin on a base TDI is low, but the margin on a 1.4 petrol is low too. I can't see a significant difference between MK1 and MK2 in terms of margin, but maybe there's something I'm not aware about

When I bought the Octavia MK1 the Ambiente list price was €4.5k lower than a similar spec VW Bora - basically the same car. So despite the low margin on the Octavia (or the huge margin on the Bora!) they could still give me a substantial discount. Mind, it was the end of a quarter and I was willing to do the deal there and then and I was prepared to walk away to another dealer. And I usually get what I want when it comes to negotiating

Revelation Joe

Anyone looked at the Roomster mini-MPV?

colm_mcm

Skoda dealers getting list price :eek:

er.. no.

ring around.