Ordered a new VRS yesterday and they offered me the vat deal but at 17.5% off the car and all extras, other than the delivery charge and road tax.

Got a decent trade in on my current car as well so was happy with the deal. The dealer did mention this offer was 4th January but he said he would give it to me now, although it was at 17.5% not at the new vat rate of 20%.

I am happy though !

Paul

If people weren't so eager to pay list price then this offer might have started earlier. I always thought the Yeti was overpriced but there have been plenty of buyers welcoming it with open chequebooks. It just makes it a little bit more difficult for the people who want to pay what a car is really worth.

If people weren't so eager to pay list price then this offer might have started earlier. I always thought the Yeti was overpriced but there have been plenty of buyers welcoming it with open chequebooks. It just makes it a little bit more difficult for the people who want to pay what a car is really worth.

Too true!

Well, I'm off into my dealer tomorrow to have a chat about what's going in and what I can expect.

At the very least I expect him to give me the VAT free offer, even if it means forfeiting the original discount I negotiated at the time of ordering.

I really don't like 'confrontations' as such but what should I really expect and what would you do in my situation? To re-iterate, I ordered in November and due to pick the car up end of January, build week 1. Starting to lose sleep over this now.

It's completely up to the dealer. He could enforce the contract and you pay what you signed up to, or cancel and lose your deposit. Or he could give you the new deal, as long as he is able to. What he won't do is sell the car at a loss, but he should be keen to keep his sale. If I had put down £100 as a deposit and they refused to budge, then I'd tell them to cancel, then go to another dealer in January and order one then. If you've been silly and put down a massive deposit, then you are buying the car no matter what they say.

If he changes the deal, your original discount will go out the window in favour of either 17.5% or 20%. You won't know until you speak to him.

I cant see why the dealer wouldnt offer people the new discounts... As I said before Skoda will be financing this and not the dealer.

The dealer may make another 20% on the sale if they dont pass the deal onto the customer, but would have one very annoyed customer...who they risk not getting repeat business from, as long as they are still making a profit (Same margins as on the previous deal), then I couldnt understand why they wouldnt offer you the new deal.

We are going for a test drive tomorrow, we need to decide between this, ibiza FR TDI with...but much more expensive.. or possibly something like a nearly new ford focus! We have found quite a good local dealer for servicing the current Fabia, so dont want to risk the service of Seat(read bad reviews of some dealers up here) but the DSG only box is still a worry!

Chris

As far as I'm aware, the 20% comes mostly out of the dealers margin. The current deal does.

As far as I'm aware, the 20% comes mostly out of the dealers margin. The current deal does.

Really thats odd, I would have thought that Skoda would offer the extra discount to the dealers, I dont know what profit margin is on these cars, but 20% is a big chunk!

It's likely that Skoda is subsidising the discount, but the dealer will also be taking a hit.

How else can you negotiate 10% or more off a car if there isn't a margin there to allow it?

Edited 28 December, 201015 yr by Mike Wrightson

I left £550 deposit so even if I forfeited that and took the no VAT discount instead I'd be quids in.

As the offer is from the manufacturer then I'd have thought the dealer would actually make more on his margin than a customer negotiated discount that comes straight off his bottom line?

It sounds like the offer may be more in my favour than not but I'm trying to work out if it would be beneficial from the dealer's point of view to offer the new discount as opposed to just staying with the discount already agreed. For the record I negotiated just over £1000 discount all told with top dollar for my part ex. The VAT free offer alone would net me over double that, hence why it wouldn't be much skin off my nose to forfeit my deposit should it come to cancelling the order, which of course I want to avoid.

But it does come off the dealers bottom line, or most of it will. The dealer will possibly be worse off changing your deal, but if you cancel and re-order, he will be left with a car coming into stock that he will have to sell at the 20% off price anyway. He might even have to sell that one cheaper if it has options on it, so could lose even more if he doesn't re-negotiate.

You've ordered in 2010, so you qualify for the 2 years 0%. I'm sure the dealer would much rather sort out the new supported deal than lose an order.

If you have a finance deal I am sure it doesnt become live until you take delivery of the car, the finance will be structured on list price.

I dont really understand the need for this deal. Perhaps it signals the start of the move downmarket by the brand to stop taking VW sales. I would expect specifications to start dropping soon as well.

I notice in Scotland, Arnold Clark (a massive volume and discount dealer group) have taken a franchise so something is changing.

Said it before, and I'll say it again. If VW think that by cutting the spec of Skoda, their buyers will get VW instead, they couldn't be wronger. They will still buy Skoda, and if they don't they will buy Hyundai or Kia. Many Skoda owners can't afford VW prices, and aren't taken in with badge snobbery.

I didn't buy a Skoda because I preferred it to a VW, I bought it because it was a damn sight cheaper and just as well put together. A nicer interior is not worth £3K.

VW are overpriced and think they are an upmarket aspirational brand. If they want more sales, they are going to have to earn them like in the good old days Other manufacturers are following the trend with better offers, better warranties, good finance because they have to if they want to keep selling new cars and say in business.

At least it's got you all talking about Fabia vRS!

Ok, I went into my dealer today and had a right old chin wag.

I didn't need to mention any more other than ask him if he'd heard of this upcoming no VAT promotion and indeed he had. He was in fact looking over my deal figures as I walked in to see him and immediately told me that he'd be putting me on the best deal regardless.

That made me smile straight away but it's not as straight-forward as it all seems. Firstly, Skoda have yet to disclose whether the no VAT offer includes factory fitted options (as it does on the current no VAT offers I believe) or whether it is simply off the list price of the standard car. If it's the former then I personally will be over £1500 better off than on my current deal but if it doesn't include options then it's really close to call against my existing deal.

Skoda may also revoke the 0% finance offer if I change my deal according to my dealer which means I'd either have to pay outright or take another finance package instead. Obviously if I get both the £1500 off AND get to keep the 0% then I'll be a mighty happy chappy but at the very least I know I'll come out of this better off than when I ordered in November.

At the moment there's too many variables on my deal to draw a conclusion on what's the best deal to take so I'll just have to wait until the week of the 4th January to find out the finer details. As soon as I know more I will let you know!

Edited 29 December, 201015 yr by scottpcs

Had a chat with 3 Skoda dealers today and this is real, and it will happen 'soon' and if I ordered a car today they would all make sure I got whatever the price was at the time of DELIVERY if that deal was better than they one they could do me now.

The people I feel sorry for are the ones who have just taken delivery at the old price as they have quite literally lost 17.5% minimum overnight in terms of their residuals.

It's worth noting that SEAT are also now doing this offer.

Does the Seat deal include the Ibiza FR 2.0 tdi ? if so I could be tempted.

Skoda Order form 2010

I've dug my order form out and re-read the small print on the rear

Section 5

If you fail to take and pay for the goods within 21 days of notification that the goods are available for delivery, we may treat the contract as cancelled and keep any deposit paid by you.

Well I'm still wanting the car and have no plans to cancel, but this does give me a 21 day window that takes me waaay past the 4th of January.

Section 7 (ii)

If the recommended price is reduced you will be notified of the amount of the reduction we intend to pass on to you. If the amount passed on to you is not the same as the reduction of the recommended price you have the right to cancel the contract within 14 days of the receipt of this notification. If you do not cancel the contract the reduced price will be the contract price.

All this done within the scope of The Sale Of Goods Act 1979 and The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

Thank goodness all that snow came and held up delivery from Grimsby, otherwise I might have paid out just before all this came to light.

BRISKODA forum has done me a huge favour

Edited 29 December, 201015 yr by marcusfordus

BRISKODA forum has done me a huge favour

Here here. Thank goodness I read this thread!!

Edited 29 December, 201015 yr by scottpcs

Does the Seat deal include the Ibiza FR 2.0 tdi ? if so I could be tempted.

Yes it included until close of play tomorrow on 20% Discount, after that it goes down to 10%

Been in seat today discussing the FR, nice car, but cramped in the back

does the 20% come off the list price or final total including options then Vat ?

looking here it seems i should be able to get a fair deal as what i was offered wasn't

Edited 29 December, 201015 yr by daydotz

does the 20% come off the list price or final total including options then Vat ?

As I said earlier, Skoda haven't disclosed whether they are including factory options or not yet. The current no VAT offer DOES include them so here's hoping.

As I said earlier, Skoda haven't disclosed whether they are including factory options or not yet. The current no VAT offer DOES include them so here's hoping.

i wasnt offered this deal looking at skodas offers the vrs is excluded from this but it sounds like some dealers are offering this deal

so if i could have got this offer i could spec a vrs up then knock 17.5% off ? (20% being the new rumoured offer)

thanks

Edited 29 December, 201015 yr by daydotz

i wasnt offered this deal looking at skodas offers the vrs is excluded from this but it sounds like some dealers are offering this deal

so if i could have got this offer i could spec a vrs up then knock 17.5% off ? (20% being the new rumoured offer)

thanks

the Vrs is in this offer PETROL only................including the new Fabia Vrs

the Vrs is in this offer PETROL only................including the new Fabia Vrs

Actually, there are some diesels included in this offer but not the Octavia vRS diesel or Yeti (either petrol or diesel.)

My dealer showed me his screen today that pointed out all applicable models and it's quite clear that's it's not a petrol only offer. It is, however, definitely a 20% discount of some description, yet to be fully defined by Skoda.

In todays The Times newspaper there is a Seat advert giving No VAT on the basic price only, not on factory options, from 4th Jan to 31st March.

Applies to certain models only.