After buying Scout earlier in the year my mum is now so impressed she wants a Skoda too!

She does not need it till March time So wondered if VAT free offer is worth nipping in this week or waiting on seeing what new deals are? Any one heard what they might be? Last time I rushed in as told VAT free was ending in June and we all saw what happened to that! So is it the same again or new deal on the table?

Your thoughts please!

If you want it in March, better order now, not only because the deals on offer now but also because of lead times.

If you want it in March, better order now, not only because the deals on offer now but also because of lead times.

Why is it called a "lead time" I have often wondered that.

Why is it called a "lead time" I have often wondered that.

Perhaps it's from the time 'leading' up to something, or maybe it's from 'leading the way' or similar.

The joy of English is that when you read it you need context to work out if it's lead as in 'dog lead' or 'lead' as in the metal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time

Because they 'lead' you to believe that it will be with you tomorrow......but tomorrow never comes!!

Leading you on ??

Leading you on ??

All very interesting but I take it no one knows what dealers are going to offer on January LOL

All very interesting but I take it no one knows what dealers are going to offer on January LOL

If the dealers don't know, we won't know!

I'm sure they will have some sort of campaign running in the new year, hell when I ordered my Octavia last year they said it will not have the same offer in the new year, and 12 months on and they still have.

It is a buyers market so I would not worry about "missing" this deal.

My friend is also wanting to buy a new skoda after I swayed her over to Skoda into a 3 year old fabia, she is also in the same thought should she shouldn't she. I say wait until the new year and see what offers are on the table.

Skoda sales have soared on last year's scrappage and then the current VAT free deals. There is no chance that they will allow this sales momentum to stop.

I expect there will be a period of a few weeks with no new deal and then a new deal with a 15-20% saving will be introduced.

There is an anticipated 2.5% increase in the prices of all cars as of 1st Jan along with the 2.5% increase in VAT. I understand the dealers MAY be looking to soak up the price hike but I haven't heard of anything better than this as yet!

I'm sure they will have some sort of campaign running in the new year, hell when I ordered my Octavia last year they said it will not have the same offer in the new year, and 12 months on and they still have.

It is a buyers market so I would not worry about "missing" this deal.

My friend is also wanting to buy a new skoda after I swayed her over to Skoda into a 3 year old fabia, she is also in the same thought should she shouldn't she. I say wait until the new year and see what offers are on the table.

Thanks for this, think you are right I should wait as deal no doubt be comparible

The party line from my local dealer today was, the price increase is coming, as is the vat increase & end to the Vat free deal also, claiming they'd sold 14,000 cars in the recent period & have a huge backlog to clear before they can keep selling at these levels...that's probably why they didn't seem that bothered about haggling with me...the price given was the best they'd do...nowhere near the DTD deals & poor trade in offer also.

The apparent news from Skoda UK is this:-

Vehicles will increase in price by 2% as of 01/01/11

VAT will increase on top of that by 2.5%

The petrol units will be favourable for buyers and sellers - Skoda dealers are offering incentives to get pre-existing diesel buyers into petrol vehicles - petrol vehicles are cheaper anyway and they may offer another £1000 discount to convert a diesel order to a petrol order.

The prices of the diesels cars are going through the roof - the basic diesel vRS for example will retail well over 21k whilst the equivalent petrol will retail at around 16.5K then the offer of £1000 discount on top of that!

If you want a diesel vehicle you'd better order before 31-12-10 or be stung!

The apparent news from Skoda UK is this:-

Vehicles will increase in price by 2% as of 01/01/11

VAT will increase on top of that by 2.5%

The petrol units will be favourable for buyers and sellers - Skoda dealers are offering incentives to get pre-existing diesel buyers into petrol vehicles - petrol vehicles are cheaper anyway and they may offer another £1000 discount to convert a diesel order to a petrol order.

The prices of the diesels cars are going through the roof - the basic diesel vRS for example will retail well over 21k whilst the equivalent petrol will retail at around 16.5K then the offer of £1000 discount on top of that!

If you want a diesel vehicle you'd better order before 31-12-10 or be stung!

16.5k? 3k off the RRP?

Maybe a typo - should be £19.5k?

No - the VAT deal should continue with the petrol units, thus the price will be around £16.5k and then with the £1000 off, well you do the math!

I only know this because I've been looking at changing my car recently and the dealers told me as much! They had their Skoda UK meeting earlier this week so the news is very recent.

Skoda cannot build the diesel units fast enough to supply demand and thus want to get more people into petrol units, hence the 'offer'. There was talk of ordering a diesel unit then cancelling this order for a petrol unit to qualify for the extra £1000 off.

Ask a dealer and they'll tell you the same!

Edited 16 December, 201015 yr by Chubbs

Thanks for this, think you are right I should wait as deal no doubt be comparible

I'm not so sure I'd agree.

The deals will probably be comparable (although I think even if they do a 'VAT free' you'll still get stung for the 2% rise in the pre-VAT cost.)

However what would bother me is the waiting time if you want a diesel. Two dealers have told me this week that it's about 6 months now for the 2.0TDI CR.

We had thought we would change cars in the summer so I wasn't really worrying about ordering one before the end of the year.

However finding out that we have to order now if we want it for summer changed things a bit!

One thing is for certain- the price won't go down from where it is now so we get the best of both worlds if we order now- the cheap price on offer now but not paying for it until we wanted a new one in the summer.

Edited to say;

My dealer never mentioned the £1k off the price of the petrol model like Chubbs says but he did say "the VAT free offer on the diesel models ends at the end fo the year" which does back up what Chubbs is saying so I don't doubt it for one second.

Edited 16 December, 201015 yr by Stevoraith

For now, Skoda will honour the VAT free offer on all orders taken before Dec 31 - including the extra 2.5% that starts Jan 2.

In all probability they will continue the VAT free offer for the foreseeable future and make small price rises to take account of VAT changes etc.

Remember that Vauxhall just announced a 20% off offer for next 2 months. All car manufacturers are anticipating a difficult 2011. It would be suicide for them to put up prices by 20%.

I've recently seen the official Dealer lead time and "restricted engines" list - the lead times vary from 9 weeks to 19 weeks depending on engine - the diesels have the longest lead times.

Edited 16 December, 201015 yr by xman

I'm waiting...for now. A petrol at that price, might be attractive come time.

Wow, maybe I can sell mine for more than I bought it for !

Spoken to ANOTHER delaer today - the VAT free deals on diesels WILL go as of 01-01-11 but WILL continue with the petrol units.

I don't think many dealers will offer the £1000 off initially if at all, why should they, they're in the business to make profit - I understand this is only realistically likely to happen to encourage a buyer to change from a pre-existing diesel order to a petrol one as they simply can't meet the demand (hence no VAT) and that offer would only be made if the cheaper and quicker (to arrive) petrol alternative was not enough to change minds.

I put this info on really to let any potential petrol converts or buyers the potentially available 'offer' above an beyond the VAT free in answere to the original thread question.

Edited 16 December, 201015 yr by Chubbs