Statto

Hi folks, I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm looking to buy a new FL Octavia VRS Diesel estate before the VAT and interest free offer "finally" expires at the end of the month. I say "finally", because I think this is the third time it's been extended - it's like the DFS sale! Anyway, my favoured spec is as follows: - Metallic paint (Race Blue or Anthracite) - Leather upholstery - Maxidot - Rear parking sensors - Silver roof rails - Sunset privacy glass A little play about with DriveTheDeal came up with a price of £18,204.18. I contacted a few dealers to see if they'd be able to beat this, and one came back with a quote of £18,195, beating DTD by a cool £9! Two questions: 1) Is this a good price? 2) Should I bite the dealer's hand off and take the plunge? Actually, there's three questions... 3) How likely it is that Skoda will extend the VAT and interest free offer (again)? Answers please! Cheers Stephen

Urgh! Don't let me see that rear "diffuser" again. It's boggin'!

Ben, that's what I said in my previous post. Except that that somebody wouldn't have to settle for a year old Octy VRS when a brand spanking new one is £16k if bought before the end of March with Skoda's excellent VAT free offer.

This just doesn't look right. It lacks cohesion, the consequence of trying to make the utilitarian Fabia II look "sporty". A redesigned bumper and big alloys has already been tried on the Fabia II Sport, making that look too front heavy. Maybe Skoda have tried to balance the front by adding that awful rear diffuser that isn’t going to fool anyone; it ranks as the worst attempt at a rear diffuser second only to that fitted to the Fiat Panda 100HP. The car’s way too high off the ground for that to have any effect. If Skoda wanted a lesson in making a bread and butter model look sporty (with a proper purposeful diffuser), they only had to look at what Renaultsport have achieved with the humble Clio. But then again, new sheet metal, as in the Clio’s case, would have sent the VRS’s asking price from lofty to plain ridiculous. No thanks Skoda, but I’ll stick with my Mk I VRS. Or get an Octavia VRS for the same price.