Sorry for all the questions, but maybe this one is aimed more at jrw;

How does drive the deal work, I know the principle of it, but now that there are only a few cars left and they aren't making any more, if I go through and tick all the options I want, then select the Race Blue and pay the £500 deposit - what happens then if they cannot find a car with all my spec that I have selected, or can't find it in that colour?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but need to act fast or I am going to miss out. 2 manual VRS's available yesterday, both has gone today...

Hope this helps and you decoide quickly so you don't miss out, but as previous try and negotiate, though you'll need to temper your expectations as you'll already be saving the 3.4k in VAT.

Go on you know it makes sense!.....

Sorry for all the questions, but maybe this one is aimed more at jrw;

How does drive the deal work, I know the principle of it, but now that there are only a few cars left and they aren't making any more, if I go through and tick all the options I want, then select the Race Blue and pay the £500 deposit - what happens then if they cannot find a car with all my spec that I have selected, or can't find it in that colour?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but need to act fast or I am going to miss out. 2 manual VRS's available yesterday, both has gone today...

I have no idea how drive te deal works either but suspect they are just another link in the chain, and because you won't be going via an approved main dealer you probably won't be able to get things like the finance (i.e. extra 500 off plus 3 years servicing) which is worth 1K and which you can pay off quickly and still retain the benefits. I would guess that when you 'place an order' on drive the deal then they are not bound to actually get you a car, so you may miss the boat- the only way of securing one for sure is via a dealer as they have direct real time access to current stock as you've found out with the 2 that were avialbable being snapped up yeasterday. Holding out for a better deal with the dealer 'making him sweat' works when there's penty of stock available but the vRS's are not in abundent supply as you've already found out and at some stage will dry up altogether so you may have to settle for the best deal you could get at the time rather than the best deal possible if all your ducks lined up. A bit of a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush (or a vRS in the garage is worth 2 on the net!). later on if you have any problems your local dealer will proably treat you better if you bought the car from them too. As you're already saving the VAT like I've said before there may not be much room for manouvre. why don't you print off what drive the deal quote you and see if the dealer will move any onhis price once he's found you a car.

As far as I understand they work with the dealers to find you the best deal as they are offering the 0% VAT, and £500 deposit contribution if you take the finance as well as the 3 years free servicing - I could be wrong, not uncommon

OK. Best of luck, hope you get what you want and don't miss the boat. Cheers, Ade

a7788, you are correct - I tried to use Divethe deal to get a candy white blackine in early October but unfortunately they were all sold. I paid the deposit of £500 but was refunded when they couldn't get the car I wanted. I eventually decided to pay the extra £500 for metallic paint but went directly with the dealer in Crewe as they pretty much matched the drivethedeal price and offered a decent part-ex which drivethedeal will not do.

Drivethedeal will basically put you in contact with a Skoda dealership and take a commission/fee. I understand that after the initial intent to buy, and deposit is handed over, you deal directly with the dealer. Drivethedeal just simply introduce you to the lowest priced dealership. You can take advantage of the same deals that Skoda are offering via Drivethedeal (i.e. for blackline the £500 off if you took finance at 7.9%, + 3 years (up to 30K miles) free servicing was available).

I decided to take a loan on lower interest rate but I believe you can take the Skoda finance deal and then pay it off in full after minimum of 6 months (i.e. with a loan at lower rate) and only incur minimal charges for paying off early, hence saving a hefty chunk of the £500. I decided not to do this as I would have been requesting a personal loan, in effect, to pay off a loan and not to directly buy a car and wasn't sure if loan would be approved on these terms.

I live near Chester and was told the dealership that Drivethedeal was working with for my enquiry was approx. 65 miles from where I lived but obviously they will not tell you which dealership or town.

Really happy with my race blue blackline estate and would definitely recommend the vRS. Would also recommend that you use the drivethedeal price to try to get the price with your local dealer(s). I bought my car over the phone, trading off three dealers until I got the right price, didn't even go near a showroom. Couple of people recommended the vRS to me and all the car reports/surveys were great so I bought without even sitting in one. The first vRS I sat in was in the Crewe showroom 30 minutes after I'd paid deposit. Strange thing was I never doubted the decision which, when considering the outlay, was somewhat of a risk.

Hope this is helpful. Keep us posted on how you get on...

I have been searching everywhere and couldn't find one in the right colour with the options I wanted anywhere...

Then I found one with all the bits on it I wanted, right colour etc which is a 12 plate with 7600 miles on it for a great price - have just put a deposit down on it, so now just trying to see if selling my car privately rather than trading it in will give me a little bit more money.

Sorry another question - just spoke to the insurance company and she asked me does it have anything extra, like options etc. So do I have to tell them about parking sensors, maxi dot, basically everything that isn't standard, or doesn't it matter?

If factory fitted I don't think you need to mention, pretty standard kit parking sensors, etc.

As a benchmark, I got insurance with LV (Liverpool Victoria) on Blackline for £300.48 (mileage 16000 miles/annum, protected bonus, legal expenses, courtesy car, business 1, and £0 voluntary access).

Easy to get a quote with LV on-line and definitely the cheapest quotes I've had in recent times for car and house insurance, also get discount for multiple policies.

Well done on purchase and Good Luck

did i mean 'excess' - :think:

I have been searching everywhere and couldn't find one in the right colour with the options I wanted anywhere...

Then I found one with all the bits on it I wanted, right colour etc which is a 12 plate with 7600 miles on it for a great price - have just put a deposit down on it, so now just trying to see if selling my car privately rather than trading it in will give me a little bit more money.

Is it the white one in Birmingham?

Is it the white one in Birmingham?

No mate, race blue one in Chester. Bit of a trek for me but worth it I hope

You can pop in for a cup of coffee when you pick up car, I live just outside Chester!

Haha cheers mate! Well on the Friday the 7th we have my Christmas staff do - so getting a train up on the Saturday morning, but have to get the 05:50am train :-S The mrs lived in Chester for a few years so she wants to show me around.. I just want to get my car :p

Spoke to the insurance company this morning and I actually get a small refund on my insurance! To put it in perspective, I am 24 with 3 years NCB. Current car is an 2003 Audi A4 1.9 TDI (130) Quattro sport. So the new car will be a Octavia VRS 2.0TDI 170... Not complaining at all! Well that and car tax comes down from £195 a year to £135!

Really pleased so far, can't wait to actually drive the new motor!!

On a side note, what is the servicing intervals for the TDI VRS's?

Spoke to the insurance company this morning and I actually get a small refund on my insurance! To put it in perspective, I am 24 with 3 years NCB. Current car is an 2003 Audi A4 1.9 TDI (130) Quattro sport. So the new car will be a Octavia VRS 2.0TDI 170... Not complaining at all! Well that and car tax comes down from £195 a year to £135!

Really pleased so far, can't wait to actually drive the new motor!!

On a side note, what is the servicing intervals for the TDI VRS's?

All current Skoda cars are covered by the same servicing program and it all depends on how many miles you do and what type- it's in the back of the brochure which you can download online from skoda.co.uk. Basically fixed if you do few miles per annum, variable if you do ooads iof motorway driving. excert from the brochure is shown below for you

Service Intervals

When you order your Octavia, you can choose whether your car is on a fixed or a

flexible service regime. Your retailer will help you decide which regime suits how

your car will be driven, enabling your car to stay in the best possible shape.

Fixed regime: Service every 10,000 miles or one year (whichever comes first).

This is recommended if the vehicle is likely to be used in the following

>Driven fewer than 10,000 miles per annum and/or

> Mainly short journeys, drive mostly in towns or cities and/or

> High vehicle loading/towing and frequent hill climbs and/or

> Heavy accelerating and braking, using high revs

Flexible regime: Sensors in the engine detect when a service is needed. You will

be informed of this by a service light which will show at any point between 9,000

and 20,000 miles, up to 24 months (whichever comes first).

The flexible service regime is recommended for vehicles with a daily mileage of

more than 25 miles where the vehicle is driven regularly and mainly at a constant

speed with minimum vehicle and engine loading, minimal towing and driven in an

economical manner.