jonnyboy78

Thanks fo the tip, was not aware of the lag, will keep checking over the coming days as I am running out of time and need to get a new vehicle this month, not ideal rushing In but it is what it is. It's a great example though of the second hand market price with the link you provided. 19 plate with 16k miles going for £22500, 20 months ago Skoda dealers were offering these new for that price after Skoda finance contributions etc, now your paying that for 2 year old models. I did miss out on a private sale last week for a 245 DSG in white being sold privately for £17500, so it really does show the main dealer mark up on these, I am all for them making profits and understand they have overheads but £5k or 30% more than a private sale is greed.

I get what your saying but I must admit over the 30 years of buying cars I have had mixed experiences of both, and can't ignore the ridiculous mark up main dealers charge over private sales, sometimes £3-£4k more, and then alot of their stock come from auction or ex fleet. When I have bought privately in the past (always 1 owner vehicles full history etc) it's good to meet the owner and get a feel for how the vehicle has been used / cared for. You don't get that at garages but as you say there is extra protection, but when buying privately alot of that risk is avoided if vehicle less than 3 years old and still under warranty.

Hi all, Having owned a yeti for a few years and then moved to another manufacturer I am coming back to Skoda but this time the Octavia Vrs Estate petrol FL 67 plate onwards. I did look to purchase the octavia new just after the Yeti when the Mk3 FL was just coming to end of life, my local main dealer had a brand new one in stock and offered it up at £22500. Now 2 years on I see used stock at dealers are similar prices, so the vrs estate does seem to be holding its value or its just dealers trying to get what they can in the current market and they do hold the lions share of stock. I am looking at a 67-68 plate range and a budget of around £16500 depending on plate and mileage, spec, ideally want the black pack and 245 engine man / auto. At the moment the best I can find at dealers is £18k for an 18 plate with above average mileage, that does seem silly price for a 3 year old vehicle that has now been replaced. Where is the best place to buy Skodas these days, I looked at Autotrader and Motors, car guru, piston heads classified, it seems at the moment the best bet is a private sale, but where do people advertise privately these days as majority of adverts are trade and main dealer at that.

I have just spoken to the dealership and a second salesman (the one I dealt with yesterday not back in until Monday) told me that he had the same issue with an Octavia order earlier today, they will be calling someone at Skoda monday to get confirmation of what is happening as its correct MY20 are now in production. I may have to opt for a Demo or Pre Reg not alot of stock about with right colour etc, on the plus side these demos do seem to be loaded with options but trying to put a price on a vehicle with so many options is difficult, they want £25300 for a 245 DSG Estate with just under 2k miles on it (19 plate June), comes with £3450 worth of options inc Pan Roof, Digi Dash, Heated Seats, Rear Camera, Spare Wheel, Front & Rear Sensors and Winter Pack. Without the options similar mileage & year are around £22500 so paying an extra £2800 for the privlege of £3.5k of used options, dont mind paying a bit more but they seem to be trying to claw back almost the full cost of the fitted options which does not feel right on what is a used second hand vehicle... thoughts?

Is that only the challenge model you have listed, I am looking at the standard 245 as don't really want 19" Wheels and Keyless entry and start.

I went to look at a fully kitted 245 Demo yesterday and with all the options it was costing more than a new 245, so challenged the salesman on this and we went inside to see what he could get a new one down to with the current pcp contribution, he come back and said he could not put through a factory order on a 245 DSG Estate. He is ringing me Monday with an update, but that may be it for factory orders. On this note if there are no further factory orders and the mark 4 is due to hit dealerships by early next year / end of this year is it worth holding out for stock clearance or sell off of demos, or does it normally work the other way and the vRS will better hold its value at least until the new vRS hits the streets. My thoughts are dealerships are not going to want a mark 4 Octy in the showroom alongside a mark 3 vRS, test drives on the Mark 3 will not be needed pretty soon if orders are not possible and so the sell off begins.

I am still on the look out for the right vRS Estate, having extended my current Yeti lease to give me more time, my Yeti currently has a 1.2 engine combined with the DSG and works really well, but its a lease car that will not be kept beyond warranty, read so many DSG horror stories, I had a DSG on my 2005 A3 2.0Tdi, and that was ok after 84K, however it did feel to sometimes struggle to find the right gear at the most critical times like pulling away at roundabouts, you could say it hesitated alot. On the Yeti with a petrol engine its alot better, not perfect but better, so I think in combination with a petrol engine it is better suited. Doing around 10k miles per annum I have settled on a petrol vRS (I think the days of sporty cars with Diesel engines are going to be a distant memory in the next few years). So what are the newer DSG boxes like on th FL petrol Octavias, would you keep beyond the warranty? I am still thinking of leasing an Octavia in which case its DSG, but If I do buy for the longer term would a manual make more sense. Got details of a leasing deal yesterday, 245 Estate vRS DSG 8k miles per annum, 36 months £296 pm no deposit, or £316 pm for the challenge on same terms, really tempted by this or buy a nearly new manual for £20.5k....or brand new via broker for £22k Decisions Decisions

Not sure, its a Skoda main dealer stock but as I say the pcp put me off, looking around and other manuf are still offering decent gfv of around 50% after 3 years, Skoda are down to 35%. All they could say was there would be equity towards your next vehicle doing it this way. Sorry Bye

£20500 is the going rate for a new Hatch Diesel vRS at the moment, It looks something like this. £28k, minus £2500 Skoda contribution, £3500 dealer discount and then another £1500 on top for a Diesel (Petrols dont get the extra £1500), must be stock vehicle and registered before end of March. I was offered a 245 DSG Estate for £24k brand new from stock with a couple of extras. What put me off was the optional final payment on the pcp, £12300. After 36 months they were basically only guaranteeing a price on trade in of £12300, if its worth more then i get that towards my next car, if i walk away I lose, If i pay the £12300 to keep then its not exactly been a cheap way to buy a new car.

Any Diesel vRS owners like to comment on real world mpg, going by the petrol numbers I am guessing they average around 50, always good to know when diesel is 10p more expensive but at the moment the diesels models are now cheaper to purchase than the petrols.

Just got back from a third dealer,they have a 245 DSG estate in met paint with couple of extras for £24k after all discounts applied. They did not have a new diesel only the petrol, salesman was hinting towards better residuals on the petrols over the PCP term, anyone have any thoughts on this, I was set on a diesel but that was when considering a lease deal, to purchase maybe the petrol will be the better option longer term only doing 12k miles per annum so maybe not diesel territory and with the 8p difference at the pump petrol may be a wiser option, how does £24k OTR new with 2 services sound, anyone had a better deal recently?

Thanks for all the replies and advice, without replying individually I will do a general reply. I get the private sale argument v's the security of buying used from a dealer, and yes the dealers do have movement on the prices as I found out today but only significant if you take their finance packages which is a bit of chicken and egg as rates are quite high compared to seperate finance from elsewhere, over the years its been win win with many of the private sales I have done, the seller gets more than a dealer has offered, and I as the buyer get a vehicle a lot cheaper than those sitting on a dealers forecourt, but as mentioned webuyanycar has probably been the biggest reason for private sales evaporating. Here is an example of a vehicle I have been looking to purchase https://www.monmotors.com/used-car-details/used-skoda-octavia/id-13883617251012/ The dealer wants £19k for a 2 year old with 14k miles, this does feel high for a 2 year Skoda Octavia and Autotrader says its a good price?? there are a couple of Diesels about in manual, white paint (non met) with standard kit and higher mileage 17/67 plates for around £18k. Webuyanycar prices for these vehicles is less than £15k, I know their prices are low but that difference does seem quite significant. Anyhow I have been to 2 seperate dealers today to check out some of the used vehicles and the vRS estates are approx £3k above trade in most cases, some higher / some lower, the salesman was telling me after 3 years of ownership a typical DSG 2.0l Tdi estate with an OTR price of £30k would likely get £13k-£14k if I traded back in with 10k per annum mileage with the intention of taking another deal. (But cannot guarantee that as the GFV on the actual PCP agreement is £12.5k). However at the moment on new Octavias Skoda are offering £2.5k deposit contribution alongside some quite decent discounts being offered by the dealer until the end of the month, I can drive away a New Diesel DSG vRS with met paint for less than £22k, my actual quote with a few extras came in at £22,750. So weighing up new v's used there does not seem to be much difference and if I pay off the PCP as suggested on here within 14 days then I get to keep the £2.5k contribution from Skoda, Seems a no brainer, new for £22750 (3 year warranty, 3 year Recovery, 2 free services, free mats, half of tank of fuel) or 2 year old used for £19000, perhaps this highlights how high used prices are when there is only a few thousand difference, some of the used vRS on Autotrader are advertised for more than the quote I have for a new unregistered vehicle.

My current lease is up this month so for the past few months been looking at my next vehicle and have now settled on purchasing a used vRS estate, 17/67/18 plate. I never thought it would be so difficult to track down the right spec at the right price. Dealers have them but your looking at a £4k premium over trade, so I am looking at something mid way from a private seller, maybe someone coming to the end of a PCP / PCH deal who wants to offload and happy to make a few hundred quid more than dealership are offering, or settlement price on the finance. Just suprised how little private sellers there are out there for these cars, what are you guys doing with your cars, before going back to the dealer surely you try a private sale first, Autotader used to be full of these type of sellers but at the moment there is only 1 private seller for a vRS estate 2017 (facelift) or newer, any other sites I could use to connect to private sellers? Piston heads classified was great at one time for private sales but even that is now just full of trade sellers

Be very careful with Skoda PCP at the moment, they are now offering very low final (Baloon Payments), whereas they used to around 50% of the retail price after 3 years, they are now 65%. I enquired about a new vRS at £30k, with various discounts got it down to £25k, however the PCP quotes shows a final payment of £9500, so basically after 3 years they are only guaranteeing a price of £9500, its highly likely the vehicle will be worth around £5k more but if the market crashes I will only get a guaranteed £9500. If I walk away and hand the vehicle back it would end up being an expensive 3 years of ownership. I challenged my local Skoda dealer regarding this and even though they have no control over the finance figures, agreed that VWFS are setting the GFV low to protect themselves as so many custumers are now handing vehicles back due to diesel gate and the crash in diesel prices, also it forces customers to take another PCP deal, hence repeat business, so without doubt best route get the discount, cancel PCP within 14 days and then use savings or lower APR loan and buy outright, PCP becoming less atteactive every year.

Its the air temp sensor, it sits jump behind the honeycomb grill, you will see the hole that it pushes through from behind, if your hands (or the kids) are small enough you may be able to do it without removing the grill. If your struggling to find the correct location I'll upload a photo