Hi,

 

After 10 years being a very proud VW MK4 Golf R32 owner, its time to think about changing to something that closer resembles a family wagon.....but still keep the sporty vibe alive. I plan to keep the new car for 10 years so depreciation doesn't really bother me. I have decided on a new Black Octavia vRS estate Petrol, manual with the following extras:

 

• Keyless entry
• Sunset glass
• Black design pack
• Adaptive Cruise control
• Bluetooth +
• Carton Sound System
• Winter Pack

 

According to the online configurator, list price is approx £27k. The photos it displayed are below.

 

 

Off to my local dealer next week for a test drive - all being well, I will buy on the spot. Even though I have the cash, the 0% PCP is a good deal with its 3yrs free servicing so that's likely the route I will take as I'll never earn the same in interest with today's rates.

 

Any tips/advice on how to get the best deal? I know the PCP will limit the margins I can eat into somewhat but keen to hear any success stories like build to order options are a better bargaining tool than cash discounts.

 

Thanks all.

 

 

Think the keyless entry might be a bit pointless, reading about it in the manual you still have to press buttons to lock and unlock it, I may be wrong though....

Think the keyless entry might be a bit pointless, reading about it in the manual you still have to press buttons to lock and unlock it, I may be wrong though....

I have KESSY and probably wouldn't have bothered if I had realised that you had to press a (movement-free) contact on the front door handle to lock it - or use the key fob.  I assumed that walking away beyond a short radius would make it lock, like my wife's current shape Megane.  Unlocking is straight forward - as soon as your fingers go behind the door handle, it unlocks.  The locking contact doesn't work that well when it is wet.  The only real advantage is keeping the key in your pocket.

OK, you've convinced me its not worth it. Its gone from the list.

 

Been mulling the Columbus SatNAV.... for £1300, its totally not worth it in my opinion (I think my iPhone 5 makes for a better SatNAV) but it does look good on the dash.

Well you have saved yourself £300 by dropping KESSY, so the Columbus only costs £1000. 

Columbus was an extra £800 on my Elegance (company car) but I wanted the 12GB of music storage while keeping the 2 SD card slots free, and the 8" screen is lovely.  I am not denying that is was an extravagance... 

Those configurator pictures with the black pack look good  

Thanks all.

Whilst I'm not new to other VAG cars, I'm new to Skoda. I'm planning on keeping my would be vRS for 10 years. Based on other owner's history with their cars, any reason why an Octy 3 vRS wouldn't make it to its 10th birthday?

None, unless you drive it like a total bell end! It'll last a decade easily.

From experience, you can get between 4-5% off as well as the 0% pcp.

Also, if you are in London, there's probably only one dealer worth going with. Preston Motors have an active presence on the forums and great feedback from several members.

Personally love the Columbus. I had it as a factory fit option on my Mk2.5 and if I go the Mk3 route I'll almost certainly have it again.

I assumed Keyless was similar to others I'd seen - keys in the pocket and automatic locking/unlocking/ability to start & drive - now I've seen the description above I probably wouldn't bother.

Really? Isn't that called remote central locking?

Here you can see what is KESSY :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxM-fN0xLAE

Trunk? Compudur? Where is this guy bloke from ?

Edited 31 August, 201312 yr by soapywetdish

If you are planning on buying the car for a 10 year purchase, then get what you want on it!!!  Tick everything possible!

 

no idea what teh Columbus is like on the mk3, but  upgraded from the Bolero to the Columbus on the older vRS and its great, better quality screen, good sat nav etc it just looks more classy.

 

You say you could buy outright if you wanted, you are presumbaly aware that if you can buy outright bigger discounts are possible?

Yes, you're absolutely right. I came the exist same conclusion last night. Columbus is now on the list. This now makes the car £27.6k before negotiation.

 

I'm still in two minds of how to purchase it. I only found out yesterday the 3 years free servicing was part of the PCP 0% deal and isn't included with a cash purchase. Without delving into lots of maths, here's the bottom line as I see it:

 

PCP 0%

£27,600 - £700 (servicing) - £1,380 (up to 5% off) = £25,520

More money stays in my bank account for longer (earning tiny interest) but someone else owns my car for up to 4 years until I pay the final balloon payment.

 

 

or

 

 

Cash purchase

£27,600 - £2,760 (10% off) = £24,840

I own my car outright, pocket a bit of extra cash over 4 years but the car fund is depleted.

 

 

Difference = £680

 

 

Obviously I've made the assumption I'd get 5% off with the PCP deal and 10% off for Cash.

 

Any thoughts? Am I missing anything?

Keyless entry is marvellous I love it.

 

I would say unless you do loads of miles then don't bother with the Sat Nav, it's very expensive for what it is and if it goes wrong, it's expensive & quite time consuming to replace, also when you want to update it, you need a decent sized memory card and a very good broadband connection. 

 

My dealer told me the last update was somewhere in the region of 15Gb in size! So that would probably tie up your internet for a good day or so, unless of course you're on a FTTP/ high speed cable connection.

 

Also there's the constant update cost, you'll have to buy maps every so often to keep it up to date, also how often are you going to drive all over the EU? You can buy a top of the range Garmin, with Traffic & lifetime map updates for just 20% of the price of the Columbus! You can also put speed camera locations on a Garmin or Tom Tom; Or alternatively just use a smartphone which has google maps on it. 

 

Just remember to mount your device on a bean bag mount, it's easier to hide it & it doesn't leave the tell tale rings on the windscreen

 

Which neatly brings me onto...

 

The fact, that for some reason, as yet unknown that you cannot have the heated windscreen on a petrol engined vRS! I wanted it, but was told "Sorry you can't have it", which I never noticed in the brochure. 

 

Change the Adaptive CC to a standard one, surely you're more than capable of initiating & cancelling the cruise control, it'll save you £££'s.

 

Get the Parking Assistant, it's truly excellent, it will get you into spaces you wouldn't normally think about and it's funny watching people as the car (more or less) parks itself. 

 

Bluetooth +, is only really of much use if you have an older phone and if you buy a cheapo 12v socket doubler you can just leave your phone on charge whilst on Bluetooth & use the portable Sat Nav or Google maps on your phone.

Edited 31 August, 201312 yr by TheWanderer

I'd go finance! As to me there is no point locking cash to that volume in a car unless wildly rich.

If its in ur bank you can get easy instant access should you need it. If all tied in a car makes that more tricky

I would say unless you do loads of miles then don't bother with the Sat Nav, it's very expensive for what it is and if it goes wrong, it's expensive & quite time consuming to replace, also when you want to update it, you need a decent sized memory card and a very good broadband connection. 

 

My dealer told me the last update was somewhere in the region of 15Gb in size! So that would probably tie up your internet for a good day or so, unless of course you're on a FTTP/ high speed cable connection.

 

Also there's the constant update cost, you'll have to buy maps every so often to keep it up to date, also how often are you going to drive all over the EU? You can buy a top of the range Garmin, with Traffic & lifetime map updates for just 20% of the price of the Columbus! You can also put speed camera locations on a Garmin or Tom Tom; Or alternatively just use a smartphone which has google maps on it. 

 

Just remember to mount your device on a bean bag mount, it's easier to hide it & it doesn't leave the tell tale rings on the windscreen

 

The fact you've always got a fully charged Sat-Nav ready to go that doesn't require you to unplug it and hide it away whenever you park up (no matter how short the stay) makes the built-in Sat-Nav worth it.

Updates are not that often - which may or may not be considered a major issue, however new roads are also not built that often.

I've only twice had an issue with the built-in Nav attempting to send me somewhere I couldn't actually go.

Updates are purchased from the dealer and come on DVD. Insert DVD, install them to the HD. No internet bandwidth used.

If however you do want to download them (if you can) a 15GB file would only take around 4hrs on an 8mb line - which is considered slow these days.

Thanks everyone, your input has been extremely valuable. 

 

I'm all set to go to my dealer tomorrow for a test drive - all being well I'm going to sit down and talk figures. With all the options we want,  £28,000 is a lot to spend on a Skoda IMO but having shopped around for equivalent cars, the Octavia vRS with the options we want is very good value and its a cracking car to boot.

I have read on here of others going PCP route getting the free servicing and then paying it off virtually straight away and they have kept service plan. Depends on what the discount value would be if you opt for PCP.

I bought 2 x nearly new Skoda's recently(not brand new) and got like literally a few thousand £'s off for cash deals on both.

Cash still does work very well but on a brand new car think they have fairly tight rules/margins but always make an offer then start to walk away if he says no! Worked a treat for me

...

Also there's the constant update cost, you'll have to buy maps every so often to keep it up to date, also how often are you going to drive all over the EU? You can buy a top of the range Garmin, with Traffic & lifetime map updates for just 20% of the price of the Columbus! You can also put speed camera locations on a Garmin or Tom Tom; Or alternatively just use a smartphone which has google maps on it. 

...

Map updates are said to be free for 3 years according to the brochure, but there seems to be no restriction on the download site, so if you DIY, I can't see why they wouldn't be free for 10 years.

And you CAN have speed camera locations on the built-in SatNav, as explained by erniem in May. I am a member of PocketGPSWorld, but I haven't got around to following this process. 

Edited 2 September, 201312 yr by Juniperz

I don't do that many long trips anyway, so in the short term it's not worth it & I'll rely on my trusty Garmin, which hasn't let me down once yet, now with fresh map updates as well.

 

I can't help wondering what it would cost to retrofit a Sat-Nav like the one in the Mk3 later on.

 

Oh JYFI, I had a phone call this morning from Skoda CS, regarding the lack of heated windscreen on a petrol engined vRS.

 

The reason is to do with the alternator and emissions.

 

The petrol engined car has a less powerful alternator to keep the emissions levels in a lower tax band & because of the lower output of the alternator, it means that you cannot have the heated windscreen with the heated seats et al, because it will inevitably draw too much current.

Thanks for that, I suspected it would be something to do with electrics, but it's good to have a proper explanation.

Thanks everyone for all your opinions and insights. Its really helped us navigate through deciding what was best for us.

 

Went down to my local dealer today and had a 3 hour test drive in a Race Blue vRS estate petrol manual. The Wife and I loved it and it was everything we thought it was would be so we sat down, haggled and bought one. 12 weeks to wait. Demo car was a standard spec vRS so we weren't able to try out all of the options. Here's the options we went for:

 

• vRS Estate Petrol Manual
• Black Magic with Red stitching
• 18" Gemini anthracites
• Black Pack
• Adaptive Cruise Control
• Bluetooth +
• Canton Sound upgrade
• Columbus SatNAV
• Heated washers (no heated seats or heats windscreen as correctly stated above, they are not available on the petrol)
• Parking assist
• Simply Clever accessories
• KESSY system
• Sunset Glass
• AutoGlym treatment

 

Some things I learned today that I thought others might be interested in:

• Despite what the online Configurator says, they confirmed the Winter pack is not available on the Petrol for the reasons listed above.
• The brochure says that Sunset glass isn't available on the vRS estate (only vRS hatch or S/SE/Elegance estate). Even the dealer's ordering system says its not available on the vRS estate. After pointing out their Demo car had it, a quick call confirmed it is available on the vRS estate.
• There is a 3rd ICE/SatNAV option that isn't listed. Its a Kenwood 8" touchscreen SatNAV that is about £1000. Its removable and apparently 'very good'....but I stuck with the Columbus as I wanted an integrated solution.

 

Dead excited - now the wait starts. I guess I can start reading the Online manual.

Heated Seats are available! The heated seats are a £200 option!

 

It's just the heated windscreen that's not! 

 

Call them tomorrow ASAP they may be able to amend the order before it's locked down! 

Edited 2 September, 201312 yr by TheWanderer

Sorry, I mis-typed. Yes, you're correct. Heated seats yes, heated windscreen no.

It's the latter we wanted.

 

Oh JYFI, I had a phone call this morning from Skoda CS, regarding the lack of heated windscreen on a petrol engined vRS.

 

The reason is to do with the alternator and emissions.

 

The petrol engined car has a less powerful alternator to keep the emissions levels in a lower tax band & because of the lower output of the alternator, it means that you cannot have the heated windscreen with the heated seats et al, because it will inevitably draw too much current.

 

That's strange because VRS in other countries are available with heated front and rear seats, windshield. Seems Skoda UK is finding soem excuses.

 

Usually there are few different batteries and alternators mounted acc. to power needs like start-stop, auxiliary heating etc.