Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question about the no VAT thing thats going on. I gather that skodas are in high demand. Does this mean you wont be able to get a bit more of a discount on them?

Cheers

Adam

Try this website, good place to start;-

www.drivethedeal.co.uk

You will if you're prepared to do a bit of work and are prepared to travel. As Czechers said, DtD is a good place to start. Once I input the spec that I wanted, and DtD returned the price, I then emailed practically every dealer in the UK (contact details of which are on the Skoda website) with the spec and said whoever was prepared to beat the price was getting my business. A London dealer beat the DtD price by a couple of quid but a North-East dealer beat it by a couple of hundred quid and chucked in a full tank of diesel to get me up the road to Edinburgh. Was definitely worth the hard work, and the journey was worth it to give my new toy a blast up the A697.

I didn't have a trade-in so I don't know if that made the deal any sweeter or not for the dealer.

Good luck!

You will if you're prepared to do a bit of work and are prepared to travel. As Czechers said, DtD is a good place to start. Once I input the spec that I wanted, and DtD returned the price, I then emailed practically every dealer in the UK (contact details of which are on the Skoda website) with the spec and said whoever was prepared to beat the price was getting my business. A London dealer beat the DtD price by a couple of quid but a North-East dealer beat it by a couple of hundred quid and chucked in a full tank of diesel to get me up the road to Edinburgh. Was definitely worth the hard work, and the journey was worth it to give my new toy a blast up the A697.

I didn't have a trade-in so I don't know if that made the deal any sweeter or not for the dealer.

Good luck!

Which dealer did u buy it from ?

I'm in South Wales, are the savings worth going all the way to Scotland ?

Thanks

If you're in South Wales, try Sinclair Skoda in Swansea. They got close to the DrivetheDeal price for me, again with no part-ex. They were the best out of many dealers I contacted. Best of all though was the communication was excellent and they managed to find a stock car, so got it in under 4 weeks!

If you're in South Wales, try Sinclair Skoda in Swansea. They got close to the DrivetheDeal price for me, again with no part-ex. They were the best out of many dealers I contacted. Best of all though was the communication was excellent and they managed to find a stock car, so got it in under 4 weeks!

If u don't mind me asking what price did u get the diesel VRS for ?

The email I sent went along these lines...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi there, my name is [Name], and I was wondering if you could help me. I am in the market for a new Skoda Octavia VRS diesel estate with the following options:

- Metallic paint (Race Blue or Anthracite)

- Leather upholstery

- Maxidot

- Rear parking sensors

- Silver roof rails

- Sunset privacy glass

I am looking to place my order before the end of March to take advantage of the VAT and interest free credit offer currently being offered by Skoda. The best price that I have currently found for this car and specification is £18,204.18 through DriveTheDeal. This price includes road tax (they don't specify how long), the first Vehicle Registration Charge and Delivery in England.

The reason for my email is to ask you if you would be able to beat this price. Should the price be right, I would be willing to travel the length and breadth of the UK in order to place my order and pick up the car. I don't know if this makes me any more attractive as a customer, but I will not be part-exchanging a vehicle in the process, thus I won't be inconveniencing you by offloading a older vehicle onto your hands.

If you believe that we can do business, I would be interested to hear from you. I am based in Edinburgh, but you can contact me either by replying to this email, or via my mobile on 07XXXXXXX.

Thank you in advance for your consideration. I hope to hear from you soon (preferably before the end of March).

Best regards

[Name]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I latterly added the auto dimming rear view mirrror and rain sensing mirror and full size spare wheel (another £200 of options) to this once the dealer got in touch, and we still did the deal at £18.2k, with diesel thrown in for good measure. Oh, and when I sent the email, I put the email addresses of all of my chosen dealers in the "bcc" bit, so that they wouldn't cotton onto the fact that I was sending a generic email to 50-odd of them.

Statto

I would second Sinclair Skoda in Swansea (luckily they are my local dealer too). They are open to deals, very friendly and helpful too. I got a CR VRS Combi with quite a few extras for £19k with a good trade in price as well. If you are in South East Wales then for a sake of a small trip west they are worth a look. I highly doubt a trip to Scotland will be worth the trip (you may save a bit compared to the extra fuel you need to get there but if you cost your time to go and pick it up it will be a lot cheaper to buy closer. There have also been a few members getting good deals from places in Birmingham which is not too far from South East Wales either.

Just a thought.

If you can only beat DTD by £200 (or £250 if you include a tank of fuel) is it really worth all the effort as DTD will be supplying through a Skoda dealer and the DTD price includes delivery to your door?

A train journey or flight etc to a dealer at the other end of the country is going to make a big dent in that £200 and that's before you consider the time to deal with all the dealers and maybe taking a day off work to collect.

My preference was to deal directly with a dealer rather then through a broker such as DrivetheDeal, as the purchase experience was important - I wanted good communication and a dealer who cared about their customers, rather then just a bulk box-shifter. In the end this approach reaped dividends as the dealer's personal approach managed to grab me a stock car in 3 weeks.

My preference was to deal directly with a dealer rather then through a broker such as DrivetheDeal, as the purchase experience was important - I wanted good communication and a dealer who cared about their customers, rather then just a bulk box-shifter. In the end this approach reaped dividends as the dealer's personal approach managed to grab me a stock car in 3 weeks.

I can understand that you might not want a spotty herbert delivering your new pride and joy, but my experience of buying from DTD in the past is that the experience once they have introduced you to the supplying dealer is the same as buying from a dealer you have selected yourself.

I haven't gone through DTD for my Octy but that's because I want to try and build a relationship with a local dealer. If you are willing to buy from a dealer at the other end of the country without any face to face contact until collection I can't see its any different from DTD.

All DTD do is put you in touch with a dealer who can do a good price. It could be the dealer round the corner from you.

But each to their own of course!

Just a thought.

If you can only beat DTD by £200 (or £250 if you include a tank of fuel) is it really worth all the effort as DTD will be supplying through a Skoda dealer and the DTD price includes delivery to your door?

A train journey or flight etc to a dealer at the other end of the country is going to make a big dent in that £200 and that's before you consider the time to deal with all the dealers and maybe taking a day off work to collect.

It was worth it for me because the dealer that eventually got my business - Silbury Skoda in Cramlington - gave me a quote that was £1500 less than my local dealer Graeme Chathams in Edinburgh. Chathams were adament that they couldn't knock anymore off the VAT free price (£19.7k), saying that they'd be selling the car for a loss. I'm not naive enough to think that they don't make anything on each unit that they sell. They must have thought that I'd think that they're just selling the cars for fun. There's always a margin to play with, and fortunately Silbury were reasonable enough to pass some of that onto me. The £15 train fare was worth it if it meant saving £1500 over my local dealer.

As for DtD, I know they only deliver for free to any address in England, and may apply a charge to be delivered in Wales and Scotland. To be honest, I preferred the ability to give the car a good going over at the dealers before signing any paperwork so that any problems could be sorted there and then, rather than get the car delivered by DtD and discover a whole load of stone chips and shredded tyres resulting from an enthusiatic delivery driver.

It was worth it for me because the dealer that eventually got my business - Silbury Skoda in Cramlington - gave me a quote that was £1500 less than my local dealer Graeme Chathams in Edinburgh. Chathams were adament that they couldn't knock anymore off the VAT free price (£19.7k), saying that they'd be selling the car for a loss. I'm not naive enough to think that they don't make anything on each unit that they sell. They must have thought that I'd think that they're just selling the cars for fun. There's always a margin to play with, and fortunately Silbury were reasonable enough to pass some of that onto me. The £15 train fare was worth it if it meant saving £1500 over my local dealer.

As for DtD, I know they only deliver for free to any address in England, and may apply a charge to be delivered in Wales and Scotland. To be honest, I preferred the ability to give the car a good going over at the dealers before signing any paperwork so that any problems could be sorted there and then, rather than get the car delivered by DtD and discover a whole load of stone chips and shredded tyres resulting from an enthusiatic delivery driver.

Ah I see. Cramlington's practically local to Auld Reeky anyway!

Justin at Silbury did me a great price as well. Enough for me to travel from Leicester to collect it.

Justin at Silbury did me a great price as well. Enough for me to travel from Leicester to collect it.

Last time I went to Cramlington to look at a car I reversed into a lamppost which fell over.

That's why I specced rear parking sensors with mine!

That's why I specced rear parking sensors with mine!

Sorry forgot to say that was in 1989. Don't think you could get parking sensors on a Fiat Uno back then.

My preference was to deal directly with a dealer rather then through a broker such as DrivetheDeal, as the purchase experience was important - I wanted good communication and a dealer who cared about their customers, rather then just a bulk box-shifter. In the end this approach reaped dividends as the dealer's personal approach managed to grab me a stock car in 3 weeks.

I went a similar route to you but phoned rather than mailed. I wanted personal service as well & ended up at Adamsons in Deal. Bit of a hack from Hampshire but fantastic & very personal service.

I decided to use DTD after no local dealer could come anywhere near the price. I will be going through Skoda finance so will have to pick the car up down south:-( however the saving of over £800 is worth it in my eyes!

As much as I like to support local dealers and have with my previous cars. I did find there was a honeymoon period with the aftersales.

What did make me laugh was when I spoke to a number of dealers I was told their service provided I.e test drives, taken up the sales person times etc was something worth paying the extra money for. :wonder:

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question about the no VAT thing thats going on. I gather that skodas are in high demand. Does this mean you wont be able to get a bit more of a discount on them?

Cheers

Adam

The dealer has to fund half of the "VAT" free offer, with Skoda covering the rest. Consequently dealer don't have much margin left for additional discounts.

Got a test drive tomorrow................