Was looking at Octavia Scouts on Skoda's website today. Typed in search for Octavia Scout. Top half dozen or so come up located at my local dealer in Dumfries. I looked closely at the pictures and in the background is what looks like an old hangar and row upon row of various Skoda models.

Now I know my local dealer has no Scouts on the forecourt so thought it strange. So I changed my location from Dumfries to Watford(300miles) away. Guess what same half doz or so cars come out at the top of the list as being located at Watford.

Obviously these cars are stored at a facility somewhere, which is not a problem, what I don't like is that you may make a wasted trip to your local dealer to view a car(s) that are not there.

Why don't they just be honest and say something like "centrally retained Skoda stock"?

My Dad (old ex RAF) seems to think it's an old airbase in Bedfordshire.

There seems to be a fair number of used Scouts (ex demo I think) with around 6000 miles. Anyone know what sort of selling price? PM would be appreciated if you don't want to declare what you paid.

I noticed the exact same thing, except I actually made the mistake of travelling to my local dealer (York) expecting to find half a dozen Scouts - very annoying!

I too was looking at the centrally stocked Scouts that are all photographed at an airfield somewhere.

Collect mine tomorrow from Rainworth Skoda in Mansfield - 08, black, xenons, 6,500 miles - £14,200.

There aren't many 08's left now as the majority are 58's around £16,500.

Mine is registered to Skoda UK and was used as a "managers" car - apparantly.

When I was looking I found four identical cars across the UK, and I mean identical, all black, registered within a few months of each other and all with mileage between 6 and 8,000 miles. The price varied from £14,590 (mine) to £15,999.

I did notice in the few months I was looking that prices began to creep up.

Its a shame the descriptions on Skoda's website are all the same. It makes it difficult to find the exact specification you want. The dealer didn't realise mine had xenons until the deal was done. Just wish I could have found one with maxidot and the steering wheel stereo controls too!

Ah yes the old airfield maquerading as your local dealer having stock at their location .....

Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI CR vRS 5-Dr Estate

Edited 18 August, 200916 yr by VRS-LE-OCT-II

VW do a similar thing, but at least they state that it's group stock (same airfield) and to contact my local dealer (details given).

I would agree the advanced search options are to limited and not always accurate. Recently looking at used Scouts myself, not particularly looking for leather but I thought I would see what came up.

Later on the same search found a couple of Scouts that had leather but had not shown up on that specific search.

Would be nice if they could include a separate comprehensive list of any options fitted, instead of repeating the standard spec all the time with the odd option thrown in now and then.

After I bought my Golf, I found out that it had the 6 disc/10 speaker radio upgrade. This was news to the dealer, central stock again.

The airfield is at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, it used to be a US Air Force Base hence the rather sturdy hangars in the background. The runway is now used to store 000's of new and used ex-fleet vehicles.

Google Maps).

I also found a low mileage Scout on the Skoda website, the dealership had about 6 on offer, went to the dealer and all they could ask is which colour I was interested in - all the vehicles were parked miles away on the runway! I would have liked to have seen the vehicle before making any commitment however, to wait to have it delivered to the dealership, unprepared, a week later (I assume) was too much hassle (they never offered to do this). Seems odd for a dealership to offer cars which are inaccessible to the viewing public.