in which case my ideal spec comes in on the nasty side of 31k!! Doesn't bother me that it'll be showing a Skoda badge on its bonnet. To me its preferable to the current A4 as its on the newer platform which carries with it inherent technical advantages.

The badge doesn't bother me (I have a Fiat one at the mo) , but I paid £16k for the last Octy in the spec I wanted. Even with £3k discount that would still be 50% more.

I'll make my mind up once I've sat in one and seen the final price list and what deals are available.

Do u really think the new vrs will sell at this high price?

Seats look nice by the way. Lets hope there just using better quality leather.

If they price too close to similar VWs and Audis its not going to do too well as the Skoda residuals do not hold up as strongly...but maybe that will change. You could get a Ford Focus ST3 for the same money? Not as practical a car but supposed to be great to drive.

I am starting to think along the lines of a white petrol manual estate with the back windows tinted and those 19" Xtrem wheels on.

With what colour roof-rails?

all will be revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 3 weeks time, no doubt....anyone else from here going?

Golf GTi 3 door starts at £25,895 so I guess vRs will start at around £24,500? Depending in whetaver standard kit Skoda UK throw into the mix.

See post 317 on page 11 .

based on your speculation £1300 cheaper than the golf GTI !!! - Skoda will not get the sales with only that sort of price difference as previous vRS v GTi price differences have been closer to £2500.

Here's one for the photoshoppers out there.

What would the vrs look like in matt black or ford asbo orange?

sent while in Le Mans

I don't understand how manufacturers can still charge so much for a head unit.

That's easy. People will pay it!!

I paid for a Columbus in my current vRS. There were numerous reasons I did this:

Know mine isn't stolen - like 99% of the ones on Ebay.

Know it won't brick if I attempt to update firmware/maps

Under full warranty for as long as the car is

For built-in Nav I'm happy to pay "what it costs" and would do the same if I went the Mk3 route.

how much does the latest golf GTI/GTD cost compared with previous model? % increase or decrease?

i couldnt care what it costs ! 23k starting and shy of 25k i still think is a bargain for a car with this kind of refinement !! the reason is you dont buy a golf is because you always go for the under dog !

the new golf starts at 25k for a basic gti 3 door but by the time youve added sat nav and paint and maybe a 5th door you pay 27k ON THE ROAD !! for a hatchback!

regardless if its the best handling, perfect ideal of a performance car but theres no crapper feeling shedding out that amount of money,to have crap service, crap aftercare and even worse you have to pay for all that !!

Save yourseleves money and wait for this octy , its going to be one of the best cars on the road for the sub 30k mark !

Cant see it being 28k, that's nearly new M135i money.

i couldnt care what it costs ! 23k starting and shy of 25k i still think is a bargain for a car with this kind of refinement !! the reason is you dont buy a golf is because you always go for the under dog !

the new golf starts at 25k for a basic gti 3 door but by the time youve added sat nav and paint and maybe a 5th door you pay 27k ON THE ROAD !! for a hatchback!

regardless if its the best handling, perfect ideal of a performance car but theres no crapper feeling shedding out that amount of money,to have crap service, crap aftercare and even worse you have to pay for all that !!

Save yourseleves money and wait for this octy , its going to be one of the best cars on the road for the sub 30k mark !

10% discounts are available on the GTI and it has a higher base spec than the Octavian will have.

But the GTI will not have anywere near the rear legroom or boot space, different markets.

The price of the vRS will be one of the deciding factors if SWMBO allows me one come 2015, well that, and the insurance :p

but VW even being the owners of skoda are **** for service the moment you walk through the door to buy a car from them ive been to three seperate vw dealers in my area and have had the same response all round ! ...

i also hate going to car shows and finding a million old golfs sitting outside with the usual brand snobbery !

as far as im concerned VW can shove there 10% up there arse !

i also hate going to car shows and finding a million old golfs sitting outside with the usual brand snobbery !

Uh, what?

How do u know its going to be the best? It's not even out yet!

but VW even being the owners of skoda are **** for service the moment you walk through the door to buy a car from them ive been to three seperate vw dealers in my area and have had the same response all round ! ...

i also hate going to car shows and finding a million old golfs sitting outside with the usual brand snobbery !

as far as im concerned VW can shove there 10% up there arse !

Are you not showing ur own brand snobbery then??? Nothing wrong with VW or the golf!

Back on topic, the vRS will need to be cheaper to get the sales, with VW residuals will make octy finance deals poor in comparison if the are priced the same

Looking fwd to seeing interior pics

... theres no crapper feeling shedding out that amount of money,to have crap service, crap aftercare and even worse you have to pay for all that !!

I know of several non-technically-minded drivers who used to buy VW cars because they had been led to believe that VWs were better-built and more reliable.

Each of these people got fed up with major mechanical faults (often clutch and gearbox) with their VWs and even more fed up with arrogant, unhelpful and expensive VW dealerships.

They were advised by more technically clued-up friends to abandon their out-of-date and unjustified brand brand perceptions and buy a Skodas instead.

Those who did so have been delighted with their cars, their reliability and the far greater courtesy, helpfulness and value-for-money they get at Skoda dealers.

As a general observation, I often notice that the less well-informed and the less technically-minded consumers are, the more gullible they tend to be in the way that they cling to out-dated and unjustified perceptions of brand quality.

Regarding Golf v. Octavia comparison: you're not really comparing like-with-like. The Octavia is a larger car.

but VW even being the owners of skoda are **** for service the moment you walk through the door to buy a car from them ive been to three seperate vw dealers in my area and have had the same response all round ! ...

i also hate going to car shows and finding a million old golfs sitting outside with the usual brand snobbery !

as far as im concerned VW can shove there 10% up there arse !

Totally agree with the VW image being better than reality. I used to have a VW Passat and it was rubbish compared to my Superb II and my new Octy III has moved the quality on again IMO. One thing I can't get my head round is how Skoda manage to make the same parts work more reliably, for example, the Passat had a new clutch, new turbo, new tank fuel pump and various other problems over 63k and three years of ownership, the Superb II only had a partial turbo rebuild at about 85k, but other than that I had 88k of trouble free motoring on the mechanical front, but don't ask me about the Columbus head unit, that was rubbish! I guess the Czech's just have a better level of quality control and attention to detail in the assembly process, which accounts for the better build quality and when problems do arise, the Skoda dealers just seem to have the knack of dealing with it more efficiently, but again the fact that Skoda are owned by VW just adds to the pleasure that us well informed Skoda owners take from knowing we always have the last laugh over the brand snobs!

Talking about discounts, I am sure the vRS will get similar discounts to the other Octy III models in the range, I managed to secure 12% discount, direct with my dealer after flashing a Carfile.net quotation under his nose, plus the free servicing and £500 deposit contribution so all in that equated to about 16%, not far off the vat free deal and that was for a launch weekend order and with no trade in! :sun:

One thing I can't get my head round is how Skoda manage to make the same parts work more reliably,

<snip>

I guess the Czech's just have a better level of quality control and attention to detail in the assembly process, which accounts for the better build quality and when problems do arise, the Skoda dealers just seem to have the knack of dealing with it more efficiently,

I'm not entirely convinced that this is the case.

There is definitely an element of Skoda owners A ) seeing everything with rose tinted glasses, and B ) being so determined to prove that their cars are superior that they play down any problems.

By contrast, a lot of VW customers are expecting perfection and are more critical of even minor issues.

My Mk1 was very reliable, with just a failed clutch master cylinder in 82k.

Mk Mk2 wasn't. It took more than a dozen visits to multiple dealers to get creaking noises from the suspension diagnosed and replaced, and some of the service was dire. The turbo also failed just under warranty, after less than two years.

Edited 20 June, 201312 yr by Dr Zoidberg

As far as I can tell most reliability indexes put VW lower than Skoda. Most satisfaction surveys put Skoda significantly higher, however thats not quite the same thing.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is the case.

There is definitely an element of Skoda owners A ) seeing everything with rose tinted glasses, and B ) being so determined to prove that their cars are superior that they play down any problems.

By contrast, a lot of VW customers are expecting perfection and are more critical of even minor issues.

There is an element of truth in this. Not all Skodas are perfect, nor are their dealers. But they do, usually, seem to offer splendid value-for money.

And we should remember that there was indeed a time when Skodas were indeed truly awful, and there was a time when VW scored well in reliability surveys.

But that was quite a long while ago. As is usually the case with most consumer products, the brand snob are simply out-of-touch and years behind the times.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is the case.

There is definitely an element of Skoda owners A ) seeing everything with rose tinted glasses, and B ) being so determined to prove that their cars are superior that they play down any problems.

By contrast, a lot of VW customers are expecting perfection and are more critical of even minor issues.

My Mk1 was very reliable, with just a failed clutch master cylinder in 82k.

Mk Mk2 wasn't. It took more than a dozen visits to multiple dealers to get creaking noises from the suspension diagnosed and replaced, and some of the service was dire. The turbo also failed just under warranty, after less than two years.

There is an element of truth in this. Not all Skodas are perfect, nor are their dealers. But they do, usually, seem to offer splendid value-for money.

And we should remember that there was indeed a time when Skodas were indeed truly awful, and there was a time when VW scored well in reliability surveys.

But that was quite a long while ago. As is usually the case with most consumer products, the brand snob are simply out-of-touch and years behind the times.

My comments are definitely not through rose tinted glasses! One other major issue I did not mention about the Passat was that at only 3 weeks old it had to spend a month off the road while they re-built the rear end as there was a creaking that they eventually pinpointed to faulty welding on the strengthening beam under the rear parcel shelf. It was supposed to be a sandwich of steel and filler/membrane but most of the filler was missing and most of the spot welds had failed. They managed to sort it on the 3rd attempt but the car was almost rejected completely by the dealer. Had it not been a lease car, I would have certainly rejected it! After 3 years, I was told by the dealer that they had carried out over £5K of warranty work on that car, and despite the number of trips to their facility, they never really made the extra effort to make sure I was happy, that was Nottingham VW in West Bridgeford.

By contrast, Bickerton Skoda in Sheffield, have a much more efficient service department. I took the Superb there for 4 years and SWMBO's Octy II also goes there and we have no complaints. The only reason I have switched to Horton's in Lincoln is due to the Bickerton Sales Dep't not wanting to price match Carfile, and as my round trip to work via Lincoln is actually better than via Sheffield, I think I will give Horton's a chance to service the new Octy as they did me a cracking deal on the purchase.

All I can say is "If only everything in life was as reliable as a Skoda", I think I heard that phrase somewhere before....?? :rofl:

Edited 20 June, 201312 yr by Matt Pez

Skoda's lower cost compared to VWs is a major selling point and is a big part of what makes Skoda's such great value.

Managed to wangle a ticket to Good wood on the Thursday. Can't wait to see it in the flesh