Possibly a sensitive subject, if you feel it is, you don't need to share what you've achieved with your dealer I was wonder what real world discounts are being achieved on what are very early days. Carfile.net is apparently offering 12% fwiw.

Well, the Octavia II was offered with the VAT amount as a discount for a LONG time plus £500 contribution if you took VW finance and three years free servicing.

It would seem odd if Skoda/dealer stuck rigidly to the full list price - you can get 10% discount off VWs quite easily now. It might be a new model but the economy is still in a bad way and people want an attractive 'deal'. It is private buyers that are pushing up new car sales at the moment what with good offers on. At the end of the day the market will decide on the price.

12% discount sounds like a sensible place to start.

Wait until the end of the calendar year and you will see the real on the road price coming through.

My Blackline lease is up in 3.5 years and I hope to get a similar kind of deal as I did above, if not then I will keep the car and pay the balance which I am sure will not make Skoda or my local dealer very happy! As a current VRS owner I will not pay anything over £20k for a new VRS, so either the pricing has to be realistic or I go to a different brand/lower Octavia model.

Many dealers simply couldn't do 12% on an octavia, that wouldn't leave them with enough to cover costs. Carfile and drivethedeal etc are often sold at cost price in order to get volume bonuses.

I was offered £1500 off a £24k model in Sheffield yesterday but Lincoln dealer, as recommended elsewhere on here, doubled that today to price match Carfile, I'll be placing my order with them on Tues morning, would be tomorra but tied up in meetings all day!

Like matt pez says Hortons really looked after me with regard to the discount offered

Edited 17 March, 201313 yr by stokey

Don't be fooled!

12% off the dealer margin is the least you should expect.

Saying it woukdn't leave the dealer to cover costs is nonsense.

I looked at the new Ford Kuga and the dealer inadvertantly gave me a price list copy with the dealer costs and margin columns shown.

On a 22k Kuga they make £5100 and on options they make around 30%.

Split the margin with the dealer 12% is reasonable.

I have no doubt Skoda dealers make a similar profit-if not more due to VAG parts being used on a zillion different models over Seat/VW/Skoda cars!

I worked for an emergency service years ago in a back office function and they bought vehicles from Ford direct and got a flat 25pc discount - would expect dealers to get much the same as mentioned above in Kuga post.

Presumably those sort of discounts are only there without a part ex. Maybe laziness but more often than not trade in my old car & feel later that I should have haggled harder. I know they have the part ex to re-sell but it always seems to me that they are doing me a favour when taking in my old car. Maybe I should try & be as hard as the salesman.

Brits are notoriously cr@p at haggling - me included.

The way I see it, I work damn hard for every penny I earn, so the dealer should work hard to get my business.

If you've decided on the vehicle you want, get printouts from Broadspeed, Carfile and the like to show the price you are prepared to pay for your new car, then another set for the part-ex valuation to show what you expect there, then speak to a few dealers.

Don't be rude or unpleasant, but make it clear that if they can give you a good deal there and then you are prepared to buy, and see how you get on.

30% on a VAG car is cloud cuckoo land. The major sellers in the VAG range have ever so slightly less than half of that figure, total. They can then start to think about taking money from finance bonuses etc to try and eek out a few more £££ into the deal, just like many brokers do, where finance is compulsory to get the quoted price.

It's very common in the business world for the sales price to be split as follows: 33pc labour 33pc parts and 33pc profit.

My Blackline had a list price £22,300 but after discount came down to £18,700 a 16pc discount and this is not including the freebies thrown in by the manufacturer or the £500 contribution by taking VW finance.

It is suggested that neither the dealer nor manufacturer made any money and it was a loss leader. Unlikely.

They still made thousands from my sale.

A dealer who cannot cover their costs after offering a decent discount is obviously not run well.

The way I would do it, if you have a car to trade in, is:

1. Get the best online quote for the spec of car you want;

2. Get a quote from WeBuyAnyCar (or similar);

3. Look in Autotrader and put a REALISTIC sale price on your current car (not list, but what you'd expect to sell it for - ring someone whose advert says sold and ask them how much they got for it in the end).

1 minus 2 is the maximum cost-to-change you should pay (cos you can get that with no stress at all).

1 minus 3 is the minimum cost-to-change you would ever pay.

1 minus somewhere between 2 and 3 is the REALISTIC aim when you're haggling - you make up the difference between 2 and 3 through extras thrown in as well.

H

It's very common in the business world for the sales price to be split as follows: 33pc labour 33pc parts and 33pc profit.

My Blackline had a list price £22,300 but after discount came down to £18,700 a 16pc discount and this is not including the freebies thrown in by the manufacturer or the £500 contribution by taking VW finance.

You're blackline is a poor example, as the car was not £22,300, it's was £18,700. Not a single person paid 'list price', that's like RRP...it means nothing.

That 33% profit you give has to be split between and the dealer, Skoda UK and Skoda. The dealer cannot give you a discount out of the Skoda profit, that's not the way it works. However Skoda may offer a discount from their cut, which is what happened with the blackline.

I think actual % figures are difficult to set in stone as, given my experience there can be as much as £4000 difference in the balance to change from one dealer to the next, albeit I usually aim for 10-12% as a discount off the car I want.

I'd also be inclined to look at as many sources for prices you could expect for any part-ex then research the price of the car you want. It gives a ball park figure for the balance to change then push the boundaries as far as you can - you'll get to a price your happy with or not.

Ringing round is crucial as that alone can save you the extra brass you want, as well as a few freebies such as flaps, mats etc.

When I bought my 110 SE plus Yeti (61 plate with 5k miles) I did a straight swap for my 170 vRS hatch (11 plate with 12k miles plus options) - the dealer 'advertised the Yeti at £15495 and then advertised my vRS at £13495.

This dealer opened my eyes as to what is possible and I thought I was quite good at haggling.

If you've decided on the vehicle you want, get printouts from Broadspeed, Carfile and the like to show the price you are prepared to pay for your new car, then another set for the part-ex valuation to show what you expect there, then speak to a few dealers.

Don't be rude or unpleasant, but make it clear that if they can give you a good deal there and then you are prepared to buy, and see how you get on.

As soon as I am ready to change I will certainly take your advice and do a bit of research. As B A Baracus posts I include myself in the cr*p at haggling brigade and have too often got a few hundred quid off the price and come away thinking "haven't I done well" when in fact I have probably been scr*w*d.

Good luck.

You won't always be able to get them to match your print outs exactly, but if you are a lot closer to them than list price you won't have done too badly.

As soon as I am ready to change I will certainly take your advice and do a bit of research. As B A Baracus posts I include myself in the cr*p at haggling brigade and have too often got a few hundred quid off the price and come away thinking "haven't I done well" when in fact I have probably been scr*w*d.

You'll always be screwed its just a case of how much. These guys do it all day everyday.

As soon as I am ready to change I will certainly take your advice and do a bit of research. As B A Baracus posts I include myself in the cr*p at haggling brigade and have too often got a few hundred quid off the price and come away thinking "haven't I done well" when in fact I have probably been scr*w*d.

You'll always be screwed its just a case of how much. These guys do it all day everyday.

If you believe everything a dealer tells you then you would end up standing outside with a charity box for them as you would think they are so hard up! What you have to do in your own mind is decide of the cost to change is worth it to you. When I change my car, the PX, the price you buy is all irrelevant its about what the difference is, you can pay full whack price and get 5K over your trade in if that floats your boat, or you can take 5k under the true value of yoru trade in and get 5k off your new car price, the difference will still be the same or thereabouts.

Its all about the price to you, when I changed from my petrol to diesel vRS because of better residuals the cost to change was not much at all, it worked out about £8 per month if I had decided on the exact same options, however I got carried away with the options box, as it turnd out I paid about £40 per month more, for that I got a brand new car, 3 years warranty, lots more optiosn and a car I really love. I couldnt of given a toss about the price and trade ins, its about the cost to change or your monthly payment thats it!

Well, the Octavia II was offered with the VAT amount as a discount for a LONG time plus £500 contribution if you took VW finance and three years free servicing.

It would seem odd if Skoda/dealer stuck rigidly to the full list price - you can get 10% discount off VWs quite easily now. It might be a new model but the economy is still in a bad way and people want an attractive 'deal'. It is private buyers that are pushing up new car sales at the moment what with good offers on. At the end of the day the market will decide on the price.

12% discount sounds like a sensible place to start.

Wait until the end of the calendar year and you will see the real on the road price coming through.

My Blackline lease is up in 3.5 years and I hope to get a similar kind of deal as I did above, if not then I will keep the car and pay the balance which I am sure will not make Skoda or my local dealer very happy! As a current VRS owner I will not pay anything over £20k for a new VRS, so either the pricing has to be realistic or I go to a different brand/lower Octavia model.

Here here BA; same mindset as yourself. Unless I can bag a bargain on a new vRS hatch or estate (probably lump for the petrol next time if the wallet can bare the brunt) I probably won't be buying another Skoda. Could certainly not resolve paying well over 20k for a spec'd MK3 Elegance, wouldn't happen in a million years!

Here here BA; same mindset as yourself. Unless I can bag a bargain on a new vRS hatch or estate (probably lump for the petrol next time if the wallet can bare the brunt) I probably won't be buying another Skoda. Could certainly not resolve paying well over 20k for a spec'd MK3 Elegance, wouldn't happen in a million years!

At the end of the day we all know there is only one winner, the dealer/manufacturer! Personally, I am very happy with 12% discount plus a tank of fuel and front flaps for a car that had only been in the showrooms for 48 hrs, and as I have no trade in this time the deal is not watered down by all that cost to change cr@p and as I can get cheap finance linked to my mortgage, the Skoda finance man will have to admit defeat but I still think there is more to come and those looking to change later in the year will probably get nearer to the vat free deal. Elegance spec cars built after June will also get the front assistant, radar, anti-collision thingy, on top of a load of other stuff that we have never seen in an Octy before and you can even get race blue and 18" alloys on an Elegance to upset our vRS friends

Edited 19 March, 201313 yr by Matt Pez

Matt pez

Take the finance for the £500 deposit contribution and 3 years free servicing then pay it off and use your finance

In France I got 10.47% discount on purchase price plus options. Which nearly covered all the options.

 

Reasonable offer on the old car as well, but I can sell privately for more if I want too.

 

Really positive first Skoda dealer experience  :love:

Incidentally the "Tarifs Réseau" or Skoda Network discount (what ever that is) lists 11% off (8% base and 3% for the VRS model). So I guess 10%+ for a normal customer, not part of the Skoda Network, is quite reasonable.