Would you ever buy a Skoda?

full forward

My question is. Would you ever buy a Skoda? Its basically the same car as the A3 and the golf. And Skoda were second in the JD power survey last year only beaten by Lexus.

Prices include metallic paint, alloy wheels and dual zone climate control.
They are all powered by the new VAG 140bhp diesel.

Audi A4 140bhp diesel 43,508
Audi A3 sportback 140bhp diesel 37,696
VW golf 140bhp diesel 34,493
Skoda Octavia 140bhp diesel 29,135

fletch

I would have no hesitation in buying a Skoda, excellent value for money, VW build quality, altogether quality cars

Borzoi

fletch wrote:

I would have no hesitation in buying a Skoda, excellent value for money, VW build quality, altogether quality cars

Wouldn't buy a new one - the depreciation is terrible. But would buy 2nd hand in principle

ambro25

Very nice quality feel to them, 'been in Octavia taxis often enough + driven a Fabia 'GTI' (well, same power plant as Golf) for a short while. Absolutely would buy turbo oil-burner or petrol RS, given the right circumstances.

EDIT: and as per Borzoi's comment, of course. Can't imagine why I'd want to finance so much initial depreciation.

BrianD3

Is the percentage depreciation on Skodas any worse than with other makes? List price of a new Octavia is several grand cheaper than an equivalent spec. Bora so it's reasonable that second hand prices are going to be a lot lower but is the actual percentage depreciation much/any worse?

Also I'd say there's plenty of scope for haggling and getting a discount off list price with Skodas unlike VWs where there is such high demand for them that there's often waiting lists, so less chance of a getting a good discount off list.

As for the 2.0 TDi Octavia, 140 bhp/230 lbs ft sounds impressive - until you consider that the car weighs ~1.6 tonnes :eek:

BrianD3

galactus

I have one - Octavia Ambiate, 1.6L, 01 reg (€14.5K w' metallic paint when i bought it, around €24K now methinks)

Only prob I've had is with the passenger door lock and that was my own fault.

Decided on getting one after a buddy left me have a go off his. I'd had a Ford Seirra before - would never go back to Ford.

Sunday Times had an article last year on how many cars are designed by the same engineers. Why pay more?

As for depreciation, can't see why a Skoda would depreciate at a faster rate than other cars. An unsubstantiated claim!

ambro25

BrianD3 wrote:

Is the percentage depreciation on Skodas any worse than with other makes?

No, I don't expect so - but the idea of buying a new car and footing an instant, totally disproportionate loss of value once there's more than demo miles on the mileometer has never agreed with me, somehow...

BrianD3 wrote:

Also I'd say there's plenty of scope for haggling and getting a discount off list price with Skodas unlike VWs where there is such high demand for them that there's often waiting lists, so less chance of a getting a good discount off list.

Sorry to disappoint (I may nonetheless be wrong in respect of Irish Skoda dealers, though), but not a prayer - from personal experience in the UK.

I considered a nearly-new Octavia VRS in late 2003 - depreciation was literally only equal to "new-to-not new anymore", as next to no miles on it and price was 'wildly' over the 'Blue Book Dealer' value.

I knew the dealer well (Hayselden's, Doncaster) since we'd bought our last 2 cars from them and they were the supplier of the second one when new + had done all services & MOTs on it for the 1st owner and us, sooooo... it's not as if they didn't know they were getting quality for the part-ex'.

They just wouldn't budge - argument being that we were getting VW quality at Skoda price, so there was no point in giving any more away, someone else would pick the VRS up at that price, thanks again for your enquiry...

Our man in Havana

I am a skoda driver and I wouldn't drive anything else.

Peace

Quality, reliable, value for money.... i think people are crazy to pay 7k+ extra for similar cars because of a badge.

Saying that i don't own a car and i drive an Opel. But int he next year or so i'll be buying and i'll be buying a skoda (octavia 1.9TDi).

yellow012

Borzoi wrote:

Wouldn't buy a new one - the depreciation is terrible. But would buy 2nd hand in principle

Is this something you have first hand experience of or are you just spreading on misinformed hearsay? I've just bought my second new Octavia, the first was a 1.4 that we kept for a year and sold on privately without any bother. Families on a tight budget love them because they get a decent sized family car for the price of supermini. Just bought the TDI version of the new model and am delighted with it. My wife drives a MK 5 Golf and there is absolute no difference in the interior or quality in fact the Octavia is nicer. I know lads who are on their 2nd and 3rd Octavia TDi's. They drive them for a year and sell them on no bother without any great loss to taxi drivers and the like. Now the 1.6 petrol version you will lose money on but thats the same with Modeo's/Lagunas/Passats.

full forward

yellow012 wrote:

Is this something you have first hand experience of or are you just spreading on misinformed hearsay? I've just bought my second new Octavia, the first was a 1.4 that we kept for a year and sold on privately without any bother. Families on a tight budget love them because they get a decent sized family car for the price of supermini. Just bought the TDI version of the new model and am delighted with it. My wife drives a MK 5 Golf and there is absolute no difference in the interior or quality in fact the Octavia is nicer. I know lads who are on their 2nd and 3rd Octavia TDi's. They drive them for a year and sell them on no bother without any great loss to taxi drivers and the like. Now the 1.6 petrol version you will lose money on but thats the same with Modeo's/Lagunas/Passats.

In your own experience how much would you say a €30,000 diesel octavia with 40k miles be worth after 3 years?

galactus

full forward wrote:

In your own experience how much would you say a €30,000 diesel octavia with 40k miles be worth after 3 years?

I'll just butt in here, well, I am a Skoda owner

I'd offer €10K for starters and €15K is the highest i'd probably go.

full forward

galactus wrote:

I'll just butt in here, well, I am a Skoda owner

I'd offer €10K for starters and €15K is the highest i'd probably go.

Interesting. Thats a 15 to 20k drop. Where as a new A4 would drop 15k at the most. But I would need to borrow money to get the A4. Hmmmm.

yellow012

full forward wrote:

In your own experience how much would you say a €30,000 diesel octavia with 40k miles be worth after 3 years?

Dunno, a Octavia Ambiente TDi would have been approx €20k new 3 years ago, dealers on Carzone are selling 02's anything from €13 to €16500k. Private sale I reckon around €12k.

BrookieD

i had the 1.9td (red) i estate. used as a taxi for 4 years. service every 3000 miles on the dot. never a problem at all, would buy another at the drop of a hat

lomb

from https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showCarCalculator

11800 euro

Borzoi

yellow012 wrote:

Is this something you have first hand experience of or are you just spreading on misinformed hearsay?

Hi, yellow02, welcome to boards.ie

I've no firsthand experience - just informed hearsay, based on a colleagues experience selling his Octavi, oh, and look at the residual values from autofinder.ie

A3 51% after 3 years
A4 No rating given
Golf 49% after 3 years
Octavia 38%

QED

galactus

38% my arse! Pseudo-science at its best. Where do they come up with this residual figure? One owner and a service history will up that to 50% easy.

Esxpect this "residual" figure to creep up as people realise *its the nearly same bloody car* as a Bora, A4 etc. etc.

Yours etc.
Angry but satisfied Skoda driver

lomb

use the revenue calculator to work it out but i would say its closer to 38% than 50 for sure. there is no way ul get more than 11800 for it on a trade in, no dealer in their right mind will offer much more than the open market selling price against the CASH price of a new one ie 11800.

stratos

No. I would never buy a Skoda. I could talk about residuals etc, but to be honest I'm a badge slave. Sad I know. I would rather drive a clapped out Barley going BMW. Sorry.

JohnBoy

if i had to buy a new 30 grand car tomorrow I'd drive straight to the skoda dealer and get me the octavia TDI.

the new model is gorgeous (never dreamt I'd say that about a skoda) but I honestly think it's one of the best looking saloons on the market this side of 50 grand.

also took a spin in an old model laurin and klement limited edition. had a nasty slidy leather interior that looked kak, but the paint was a gorgeous shade of burnt orange with lovely chunky ten spoke gunmetal chrome (closest description i can come up with) alloys

the new octavia is a really impressive car (i continue to be surprised by how much i like it)

dahamsta

I've always liked the Octavia and would buy one if I was into normal cars. But I'm not.

adam /currently looking for an old mini, just so he can look even bigger

bazz26

While I would have no problem with buying a Skoda, I would be interested to know what it would be like to trade one in against a similar model from a different brand ie. Toyota, Ford, etc. While I'm sure that you would get a good trade-in allowance against another Skoda, would you get the same allowance against another brand?

It brings to mind the old saying "Your buying a VW but your selling a Skoda". Would be interested in hearing about anyone who has traded one against a different brand to see if they got the above line from dealers.

I have no problem with the cars themselves and wouldn't mind having a Superb Tdi 130bhp.

unkel

fletch wrote:

I would have no hesitation in buying a Skoda, excellent value for money, VW build quality, altogether quality cars

Agree

Borzoi wrote:

Wouldn't buy a new one - the depreciation is terrible

What do you base this on? Things have changed dramatically since the Felicia

Obviously, the less you spent on an Octavia, the smaller the relative (%) depreciation, so the absolute depreciation (how many € it loses) is even smaller

As stated, the discounts that can be had are pretty ok

yellow012 wrote:

Families on a tight budget love them because they get a decent sized family car for the price of supermini

Classic case of family happy with car that exceeds expections. This is the reason the Octavia has won the JD Power family car of the year for 5 years in a row now iirc

JohnBoy wrote:

if i had to buy a new 30 grand car tomorrow I'd drive straight to the skoda dealer and get me the octavia TDI

Or maybe the RS

gurramok

BrookieD wrote:

i had the 1.9td (red) i estate. used as a taxi for 4 years. service every 3000 miles on the dot. never a problem at all, would buy another at the drop of a hat

Agreed, I own a 1.4L Fabia, 3 yrs old..40k on clock, never had a single problem with it. I'm a new skoda owner and would buy again with no hesitation

halenger

They're nice cars that's for sure. This badge thing never got to me much, being that young I guess, but if it was the Lada Octavia then I'd be thinking very much twice.

Anyhow they are nice. My Dad's been looking around at cars for some time now and he thinks it's about the only one out there with all the "features" that he's looking for.

He just needs to check if it'll actually fit in the garage! :P

ubu

My Dad had a 2001 Audi A4 2.0 and replaced it with the Skoda Superb Prestige 1.9 TDI 130, i told him to get the 2.5 TDI V6 but didnt listen to me, afterwards he agreed, not that the 1.9 TDI is underpowered, im sure alot of you are familiar with this VAG engine and its no slouch,

anyway this car has pretty much everything you could want inside, full leather, heated elec seats, etc and it cost about 3k less than the equivalent Passat.

The car itself is physically bigger than the Passat, it uses an extended version of the Passat chassis, which was used only China to transport ministers apparently.
As you will see from the pic, the extra space went mainly into the rear seat space, the back doors are huge, the legroom in the back is incredible, on a par with the 7 series.

Overall it is a quality, well built car, with plenty of spec for less money, resale value wasn't an issue for my aul fella as its a company car but i cant see anyone having any trouble selling this car because it is so nice.
I'd have no problem buying a Skoda either, but it would have to be an RS for me!
Sorry about the quality of the pic, i can take proper ones if anyones interested...

btw, i think the 225/45 R17's really finish it off aswell, they are big arches and standard steel wheels would look dwarfed on the car.

unkel

ubu wrote:

My Dad had a 2001 Audi A4 2.0 and replaced it with the Skoda Superb Prestige 1.9 TDI 130, i told him to get the 2.5 TDI V6 but didnt listen to me, afterwards he agreed

Not sure I understand. Performance wise the Audi and the Skoda 1.9 TDI are on a par, except that the Skoda has loads more torque at lower rpm

The 2.5 TDI has only slightly more torque / is only slightly faster. It's up to €10k more new, surely your dad would have had to fork that out himself? Why otherwise would he have gone for a car below his lease threshold?

ubu wrote:

on a par with the 7 series

It is something else alright. Probably even better than a 7 series, but not as good as a 7 series L

ubu

unkel wrote:

Why otherwise would he have gone for a car below his lease threshold?

BIK basically, afaik the tops is 40k, after that he'd have to pay, the 2.5 V6 comes in at just under that in the middle spec, but afterwards, he said he wouldnt have minded getting the 2.5, your right theres not that much in the difference, 130bhp vs 163bhp and 285 vs 350 on the torque front but it is noticeable all the same & it would be nicer to have it when you need it.

unkel wrote:

...but not as good as a 7 series L

i dont think there is much that is, never mind for under 40K!

unkel

ubu wrote:

BIK basically, afaik the tops is 40k, after that he'd have to pay, the 2.5 V6 comes in at just under that in the middle spec

Ah, so he opted for the 1.9 with loads of extras

Lemme see, for about €11k* you would get......almost everything

*Skoda Ireland price list difference between cheapest 130bhp 1.9 TDI and 163bhp 2.5 TDI

ubu

heh, pretty much yea, he got the prestige which is €35 odd grand and then a few extras ontop of that, cant say its lacking anything, even has an umbrella!