To anyone who remembered me posting for opinions etc. on the Superb recently - bad news.

The time has come for me to order my new car which up until a week ago was to be a Superb 1.9TDI 130 Comfort. It was the only car for me, I was sold.

I asked my employer for a final up to date quote on the Superb and it's competitors and the long and short of it is that for 30 quid a month less than the Skoda I can have a....................................................................................................................................................................................................................Passat 1.9TDI PD 130 SE 4MOTION.

the VW badge doesn't matter a bit, but the 4 wheel drive along with the excellent diesel sealed the deal.

I'll hang around and become something of a bad smell if that's OK. :cheers:

Ah, at least it's "keeping it in the family"!

Strange how the Superb is more expensive for lease than the Passat though...guess it might

be something to do with residuals...

Rob.

Originally posted by robmawer in this post

Ah, at least it's "keeping it in the family"!

Strange how the Superb is more expensive for lease than the Passat though...guess it might

be something to do with residuals...

Rob.

... and the amount of money VW are prepared to throw at the Fleet companies to support their product - not that they are worried at all....

My thought was the residuals , but perhaps not . Do I detect a little rivalry within the VAG camp ?

I can't believe the VW is cheaper, my gf had an allowance from her company of

Do I detect a slight reluctance from Skoda to give in to the fleet market? I wonder what the p.c.m would be on a fleet of vRS'? Although, the Golf PD130 must be a fairly similar'ish price to a vRS, so I would hope it was not much more a month. It sounds to me like VAG want to leave the Audi and VW alone as the fleet brand?

Jason - im sure philc has a fleet of RSs at his company - maybe he can give us an insight

Originally posted by devonutopia in this post

Do I detect a slight reluctance from Skoda to give in to the fleet market? I wonder what the p.c.m would be on a fleet of vRS'? Although, the Golf PD130 must be a fairly similar'ish price to a vRS, so I would hope it was not much more a month. It sounds to me like VAG want to leave the Audi and VW alone as the fleet brand?

All ex-VAT per month from HSBC

Octavia vRS-

Our company are a bit unusual, because we purchase our cars outright. The mileages across the company car users are so variable (from 50K per year down to 10K per year), that leasing just wouldn't work. Plus we're quite a small outfit (40-ish employees), so we can be more flexible. We don't really have a "standard car list" -we bought the RS's to replace some cars which were on expensive credit deals, and it worked well for us. Obviously, our sales staff just run to the nearest BMW dealer, but the more canny techies go with Skodas, to keep the tax bill down!

Phil

Originally posted by philc in this post

Our company are a bit unusual ... Obviously, our sales staff just run to the nearest BMW dealer ....

Phil

An unusual company, but with predictable salesmen ....

Time for the salesmen to come out of the woodwork. Come on - any salesmen out there driving Skuds?

Oh - so, there's one sort-of fleet of RS', even if they were purchased outright. I suppose even doing a rental thing with a bank is kind of purchasing outright because Skoda are still getting the total cost of the car straight away. I know my dealer said they got their

Originally posted by devonutopia in this post

I wonder what year it will be when I'm totally debt free? My money's on somewhere around 2015

Unless you get a mortgage, especially round your way! I know

the feeling though - 4 and bit years left on personal loan, about

4 years for student loans, credit card and overdraft whenever...

Fortunately mortgage should be paid off by the time I'm 47!

Rob.

Well, Nick, as our company doesn't have any sales people as such, I have to do my own selling...

In fact, there'd be no room on my business card for all the things I do. I present you: account manager, traffic manager, head of IT, telecommucations manager, purchase manager, fleet administrator, (remote) network operations manager, espresso machine manager, and oh, I also do a bit of copywriting in between.

Nah, it's best that our beloved marque is associated with the cool, creative, hipster, three-day beard, zippy sunglasses part of my job.

Hoohah.

Incidentally, we also buy our company cars outright - much cheaper compared to leasing. It's only when you have to run and administer a enormous fleet that leasing becomes interesting.

I have it on good authority that the residuals are to blame. I originally walked away from getting an RS on lease due to the nearly

zispeed

Re 4x4 diesels

Fuel consumption is a fair bit less though (or do fuel costs not matter anyway?)

My A4 Tdi Quattro 2.5 (185 chip) averaged 36) and my 1.9Tdi Quattro 110 (Chipped to 135) gave 39.

Both a lot less than the front wheel drive versions. But I still like 4WD !

Originally posted by Fabpreza in this post

zispeed

Re 4x4 diesels

Fuel consumption is a fair bit less though (or do fuel costs not matter anyway?)

My A4 Tdi Quattro 2.5 (185 chip) averaged 36) and my 1.9Tdi Quattro 110 (Chipped to 135) gave 39.

Both a lot less than the front wheel drive versions. But I still like 4WD ! [/quote

Economy matters - a bit. But I doubt tha passat 4motion will be too far away from 40 ish. That'll be good enough for me. Living as I do in Scotland and covering an area that see's a bit of weather in the winter is what attracts me to the 4wd.

I noticed a few of the regs couldn't believe the VW was cheaper than the Skoda - neither could I !

Still a pity you don't have the Octavia TDI 110 4x4 - and it completely escapes me why you can't get it. The car's hugely popular in the Alpine countries, and would serve well in the Scottish rough.

I would see why they wouldn't bother in the Netherlands, but still we have it here and you don't.

Something to do with RHD conversion?

Then again, the Passat 4motion is a genuine quattro IV, so I can understand where you're going!

In response to earlier posting. I am a sales rep and I drive a Skoda (Superb 130 Comfort). Boy did I take some stick from colleagues. The lease value for the Superb would have only got me a Passat S PD 110(or is it 100?) anyway the less powerful one, so i was surprised to see the 130 4 MOTION for less, looks like VW are propping up the brand.

Originally posted by dan123 in this post

In response to earlier posting. I am a sales rep and I drive a Skoda (Superb 130 Comfort). Boy did I take some stick from colleagues. The lease value for the Superb would have only got me a Passat S PD 110(or is it 100?) anyway the less powerful one, so i was surprised to see the 130 4 MOTION for less, looks like VW are propping up the brand.

Nice one, Dan. Nice to see someone breaking the mould! The only sales people we've got without BM's are one with a TT (which she fought tooth & claw to get) and one with a Zafira. (He's got 5 kids, tried my L&K 1.8T, and pronounced it "too fast") I think the rest just like paying tax.

Phil

Dutch

You are correct on your assumption RE the TDi 4x4 Octy , it is unable to be engineered for RHD , i think thers no room for the steering column or something like that!

it is unable to be engineered for RHD

But is there an equivalent 4X4 drive diesel model in the VW or Audi range? Just asking because I have a suspicious turn of mind....

Seat Toledo never had a LHD '4' model, so don't bother looking for an eventual RHD. The Leon does have a LHD TDI Topsport 4, but it isn't listed on the Seat UK site.

The VW UK site doesn't like my browser (and that's mutual: I don't like the VW UK site!), so can't check for any Golf or Bora TDI 4motions.

Does anyone have a clue on the possible existence of old-model RHD A3 TDI quattros?

Dutch

We dont get the 4x4 Leon either , nor any TDI 4wd Golf or Bora. I'm not sure about the A3 , but im pretty sure all the Quattros are either S3s or 1.8T powered cars.

All about UK Marketing/volume potential/profit potential. No engineering-only reasons