Another 'odered one' thread!

[Stevoraith]

Well, on Thursday we took the plunge and eventually ordered the Octavia we had been talking about for ages.

Hearing that the VAT deal was definitely ending for diesels and that they had a long waiting list was enough to tempt us to sign on the line now.

So... in six months or so the wifes Fabia vRS will be replaced by an Octavia vRS CR TDI Hatch in Race blue. We added Xenons, Heated seats, Maxidot, rear parking sensors and a spare wheel.

Really happy with the deal I secured from Chatham Skoda in Dunfermline. The salesman Donald put up with my haggling and eventually secured us a deal which meant I was happy enough to use him and not go via drive the deal.

This is the first car I've ever bought where I haven't had that nagging feeling of 'have I done the right thing'! I'm utterly convinced that there's nothing else out there that could come close to matching the space, pace and quality of the Octavia for anywhere near the price we paid. For a laugh I specced up a Golf with the same engine and spec as the Octavia- it came to just about £27k!

We also bought the Fabia from new back in 2005- if the Octavia serves us as well as that has then we'll have a very happy ownership!

(p.s keep an eye on the classiffieds for a very well looked after 55 plate Fabia vRS :p )

[harveys]

Great stuff - if you don't mind me asking what kind of deal did you secure - I enquired of my local dealer last week, just out of interest, although I was there for the persuading. Fancied a petrol Vrs Estate or Scout.

I'd priced stuff on DtD & they were offering in excess of 20% off. The local dealer would do the VAT off & nowt else, what sealed it was a very poor trade in price 10% below book value (before you consider any of the extra's the car has). Yes, I know if I had the time to hack around various dealers or take the plunge with DtD I could be quids in (but I don't). There is nowt wrong with my current car (just fancied a change), so just going to stick with it for now...probably !

I am up in Aberdeen, so Dumfy is only just doon the road...worth travelling for if the deal is right, although I guess I'd probably need to be quick.

[a_waugh]

Nice one mate.

Another 1 in Scotland.

[Stevoraith]

Harveys, remember that if it's petrol you're after the VAT deal will be carried over into next year so you don't need to rush into anything.

In my case DTD were offering about £1200 off the VAT free list. Considering I'm in Scotland and the DTD dealer is (rumoured to be) in London I worked out it would cost me about £500 to fly down with the wife and pick the car up, meaning the DTD price was about £700 off list in real terms.

After a fair bit of haggling (and going back and forth between two dealers) I got him to agree to about £400 off list. He also gave us around book for our fabia, which is good considering it'll be about six months before it's traded in. Worth bearing in mind though that a low milage fabia vRS is a very desirable car for a Skoda dealer to sell on.....

What sealed it was that he also reduced the APR on the finance deal to save us a few pounds a month.

If you do end up speaking to them, it was Donald King I was dealing with, tell him Steven Thomson sent you!

[Voyager220v]

Harveys, remember that if it's petrol you're after the VAT deal will be carried over into next year so you don't need to rush into anything.

Has there been any announcement as to what will happen re VAT deal next year? I understood SUK will honour it for orders placed untill the end of this year (regardless of engine type) but after that I havent seen anything (apart from some educated guesses here on the boards) about what will happen in the new year?

[Stevoraith]

My dealer said to me this week that the deal would end for diesels but be continued for petrols. He also mentioned that the Superb would be included in the deal for the first time too.

Don't think there has been an official announcement yet though.

[VwConvert]

Harveys, remember that if it's petrol you're after the VAT deal will be carried over into next year so you don't need to rush into anything.

In my case DTD were offering about £1200 off the VAT free list. Considering I'm in Scotland and the DTD dealer is (rumoured to be) in London I worked out it would cost me about £500 to fly down with the wife and pick the car up, meaning the DTD price was about £700 off list in real terms.

After a fair bit of haggling (and going back and forth between two dealers) I got him to agree to about £400 off list. He also gave us around book for our fabia, which is good considering it'll be about six months before it's traded in. Worth bearing in mind though that a low milage fabia vRS is a very desirable car for a Skoda dealer to sell on.....

What sealed it was that he also reduced the APR on the finance deal to save us a few pounds a month.

If you do end up speaking to them, it was Donald King I was dealing with, tell him Steven Thomson sent you!

Glad you secured good deal, I went down the |DTD route which I can confirm is in London. It wasnt any hassle though as they gave me full tank of gas and flight down was only £39.50! then ten min tube ride from Heathrow

[Cyril]

Can I be cheeky and ask what APR you secured? I ordered car from Donald too and may need to revise my order as I didn't really barter with him THAT much.

[PowerMalc]

Can I be cheeky and ask what APR you secured? I ordered car from Donald too and may need to revise my order as I didn't really barter with him THAT much.

If its a VRS or Scout you ordered it should be at 0% if over 2 years

[harveys]

Cheers for all that (figures & advice etc)...will drop your name in if I do speak to them. They'll certainly be on my shortlist if I decide (now or later) to go for another Skoda...I hope the post about the Superb is true, as I'd consider an Superb Estate also

I must confess, i'd prefer to do the face to face thing, rather than all over the net, it's a big purchase to make...it's not just like a cd from Amazon is it !

Enjoy it when it arrives !

[Stevoraith]

Glad you secured good deal, I went down the |DTD route which I can confirm is in London. It wasnt any hassle though as they gave me full tank of gas and flight down was only £39.50! then ten min tube ride from Heathrow

Yeah, I priced up everything and considering it's the wifes car so she'd need to come too I budgeted about £100 for flights, £100 for a hotel (have flown down to Luton, bought a car and driven it home in the same day before- there's no way the wife would want to do that! ) then food, taxis, diesel etc and reckoned it would cost nearly £400 all in. I would have done it if I was saving a huge amount but for a few hundred pounds I felt the local dealer was the best option for me this time. The fact I've got a guaranteed trade-in price is a bonus too if I don't get the Fabia sold privately.

I must confess, i'd prefer to do the face to face thing, rather than all over the net, it's a big purchase to make...it's not just like a cd from Amazon is it !

That was a factor that swung me too- although with DTD at least you can speak to the dealer on the phone etc. But with the local dealer you can go in and pester them if something isn't quite right.

Can I be cheeky and ask what APR you secured? I ordered car from Donald too and may need to revise my order as I didn't really barter with him THAT much.

If its a VRS or Scout you ordered it should be at 0% if over 2 years

Unfortunately I needed finance over five years so the 0% (2 years) or 5.4% (3 years) offers didn't apply. My dealer reckoned that they deliberately don't offer attractive finance deals over 4 or 5 years as they don't want you to keep your car that long!

I ended up getting him down from 10.9% to 9.9%. Not the most amazing finance rate but it saved me about £300 over the term of the loan. A worthwhile difference- that's the heated seats paid for