A friend of mine (who worked for Honda at the time) helped me enormously 4 and a bit years ago by telling me to go for a new car in either October or March, as some dealers will be desperate to hit the targets set for them by the manufacturer before new registrations come in. With a FL model on the way too, I got a real bargain with my Elegance in October 2008 (book price was approx £17k, I paid £13.5k).

When is the best time to buy a new car in your opinion? I have also heard that x-mas is a good time to order as the industry suffers a predictable downswing. Is this the case?

Also, with Octavia orders reported to be slow at present, when would you expect the first significant discount to appear? The VAT free offer has already been thrown at the Rapid, so I wonder how long it'll be before Skoda buckle with the Octy. Also, with the vRS only a few months away, I wonder when that is also likely to be discounted significantly?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated as I plot the purchase of my new motor between Dec '13 and Mar '14! Commence operation custard (it'll be yellow ;-) )!

Would the dealer not give you a big discount anyway seeing as its yellow??

I always aim for end of a quarter, December being preferable. Its usually flat leading up to December and the dealer knows its going to be quiet afterwards also, at least until the new reg appears.

Has the VAT free been thrown at the Rapid already? I thought it was only the 0% APR they have put on that for now.

My parents are looking at an Octavia but in no hurry so they are also looking closely to the prices at the moment. I am thinking around the end of year will be best.

0% APR on the Rapid, not VAT free.:

No VAT model inclusions: Fabia Hatch and Estate S, SE (Fabia Hatch SE 1.2 12V 69PS model not included), SE Plus, Elegance, Monte Carlo (Fabia Hatch Monte Carlo TECH models not included), GreenLine II, vRS and Scout. Roomster S, SE, SE Plus, Scout and GreenLine II. ** Octavia Estate S, SE, SE Plus, Elegance, L&K, vRS, vRS Blackline, GreenLine II. Superb Hatch S, SE, SE Plus, Elegance, L & K and GreenLine II. Superb Estate S, SE, SE Plus, Outdoor, Elegance and L & K - petrol models only

Best time to buy a new car?

About 4:45pm - make sure you go in hard with the lowest advertised price (currently carfile.net) and hopefully they'll be wanting to get home for tea early and cave in straightaway instead of dance around the showroom for hours......

About 4:45pm - make sure you go in hard with the lowest advertised price (currently carfile.net) and hopefully they'll be wanting to get home for tea early and cave in straightaway instead of dance around the showroom for hours......

None if my local dealers would touch the carfile price..... So I bought the car through carfile with a 2.5k discount.

Picking up my 2.0 TDI candy white elegance in a few weeks

New to the forum by the way, hello to all, ill no doubt be a regular for the next few years

What Car are reporting only small discounts being available on the new Octavia but my dealer matched Carfile's price straight away.

My boss has just bought a new A4 2.0 diesel 177bhp, leather, Bose etc and it was cheaper than the equivalent car which he twst drove which is 8 months old and has done 3000 miles. He said the deal he got was really sweetened and that is from an Audi main dealer. Admittedly it was from stock which had just arrived. It proves that deals are out there.

None if my local dealers would touch the carfile price..... So I bought the car through carfile with a 2.5k discount.

Picking up my 2.0 TDI candy white elegance in a few weeks

New to the forum by the way, hello to all, ill no doubt be a regular for the next few years

John, welcome to Briskoda! Enjoy your new car!!

John, welcome to Briskoda! Enjoy your new car!!

Thanks Dunc. I was a bit of a lurker for a while and have to say Briskskoda played a big part in me buying the car eventually. Hopefully I'll have a better time with it than with my current car

SWMBO got a good deal on a Fabia SE+ from stock at the start of august, we wanted both zero finance & zero VAT but the SE+ only had one ( cant remember which), a friendly chat with the dealer & they did a quick call to SUK. & Hey presto.

The only caveat was that it had to be registered before the end of August to get the deal, & come from stock - fortunately they had the 1st choice colour with best additional upgrade was to Alloys.

So it looks like late July, or late Feb from stock is a good time to go shopping.

If Skoda keep the VAT scheme going on the decent models in the range that could well enough see me in another Octavia vRS in a year or twos time. The sales guy at my local dealership I think did me fairly proud this time around getting me out of my 18 month old car with 1k equity (pretty much what we put into the car) and bought the new one VAT free with the equity from my old one + 500 from VWFS + 1k in from my pocket.

Not a chance in hell id have been able to buy the equivalent VW on 42 month PCP for less than 300/month.....well id have thought not anyway.

Certainly if you are PCP'ing a car its usually a good time to move them on at 18/24 months old whilst they are still quite new with a balance of manu. warranty on them; typically by that point youve crossed the bridge of the car being worth more than whats owed on the finance but does greatly depend on the car and what you put down on it in the first place. Still waiting to see what my BL will be worth in 12/18 months time vs the outstanding finance but hoping the picture will be the same particularly seeing as the BL is probably one of the most sort after MK2 vRS's for its standard spec.

I know for a fact though that if a MK3 vRS is going to cost me alot more money in terms of initial deposit and monthly payment this will probably be my last Skoda. I still think its wishful thinking on their part to start trading the brand as semi-premium given that it is only in v recent years that the brand has reached a baseline acceptance as a budget VW alternative.

If i was faced with paying nearly the same sort of money for a Skoda as a VW, id probably move to a premium marque where yes you typically pay more for the car but its residual values are much better and the overall cost of ownership probably less.