Well my mk2 vrs is 2 years old next month and I am starting to get itchy feet for a new car. My car has been faultless to be honest and i don't really need to change cars but i like a nice car and i don't really have any other vices.

 

Been considering a few cars, really need an estate for my two dogs.

 

Another diesel vrs estate diesel manual comes in at 26,455 list once metallic pain and leather are added. I know there will be a little discount to be had off this but not much.

 

Been considering also a new focus st diesel estate which is cheaper even in st3 trim as massive discounts can be had.

 

Now more surprising, I absolutely love the look of the new mercedes c class estates and in particular the interior.  Been looking at a c200 in sport spec with metallic paint. Car has plenty of spec including nav, led lights and mercs nice fake leather seats. List price is over £30k but have been offered one for £25400 via a merc main dealer. This looks great value against the octavia.

 

Yes i know its a 2 litre petrol turbo but the quoted combined mpg is 51.4 which is actually slightly better than my diesel vrs!  With petrol being cheaper this should mean even at 40mpg real world it is as cheap to fuel as my octy. Now I am sorely tempted to throw caution to the wind and treat myself to one.

 

The wife would go mental though (again).

 

I suppose back to the original question are new octavia's expensive now or are they still good value?

They are. Expensive now , buy the Merc

They are no longer the bargain they once were.

 

Merc does look a good buy

Not sure why you would ask really, a test drive of both will answer your question better than we could.

 

The interesting thing is that here in Australia the Skoda matches or possibly betters the price in the UK but the Mercedes are much more expensive.

They are more expensive, I looked around at others but for me very few cars have the boot space of the Octavia. I could pay more and get a 5 series and have less boot...The C class looks like good value, depends on your needs I guess!

£23,200 for the Octavia v's £22,300 for the ST3 estate with metallic (leather is standard on the ST3) via brokers so not a million miles apart really. Personally I'd be tempted by the ST3 estate in Deep Impact Blue - lovely looking thing now on the fl model and drives much nicer IMO. Again though, it depends what's important to you as the dogs will be slightly more cramped in the boot of the Focus. c class interior is fantastic but not my kind of car possibly.

The problem is that Skoda still have a waiting list for the vRS models at least, so why bother to discount? Even if they offered a massive discount, all they'd do is build up even more of a waiting list. Who wants to wait 6+ months for a car?

 

Personally, if space isn't a necessity, i'd be looking at the Leon, as they seem to have less of a waiting list, and therefore the discounts are better.

Get the Merc, and the bonus is the estate ditches the ugly rear end you get on the latest C Class saloon. I've had my O3 now for nearly 2 years and I'm also looking at Merc for my next car but probably nearly new E Class, £25k for a one year old E300 CDI Hybrid with less than 10k on the clock, list price over £41k, now that is a bargain!

They are very expensive now and I wouldn't (and didn't) get one when you can get something much nicer for the same money. Diesel Skoda vs a petrol turbo Merc? No choice there, as far as I'm concerned. They have priced themselves out of their spot, which has now been taken over by Dacia.

tbh you can't compare Dacia and Skoda anymore. While both are the cheapest of their respective parent company's portfolio, the options (esp safety related) you can get on the SKODA crush anything that Dacia put out..at a price of course. Also consider that SKDOA use the latest platform for their cars. I'm not sure that Dacia does the same.

 

How come Mercs are that much cheaper in the UK. When I use the configurator for the Merc estate C200 petrol 135kW I'm already 2000€ more than on the fully equipped VRS. After adding  just some of the extras I have on my VRS, the Merc is already over 10000€ more. All extras are double the Skoda price: metallic paint 450 vs 980€, pano roof 990 vs 2100€, aux heating 820 vs 1600€ and so on...

I dunno, it depends on a number of factors.

For sure the RRP of the Octavia as sure as hell increased but then there are very few cars out there of this size sector that you can buy on 0% (or very low interest) PCP with next to no money down.

As a cash buyer I conceed that sure Id much rather a 30k Merc for 25k than pay 23ish for an Octavia but Id contest that I would still struggle to get such a car on PCP with only few hundred quid down for less than £300/month and pay no interest. The Merc deals are good but then you are looking to have to put down a 10-15% deposit to get the attractive monthly cost....in which case a £320/330 a month Merc soon becomes a £420/430+ a month car and so then isnt that cheap.

I dont personally have 25-30k floating around to place into a car....and I dont think id want to on something that will just depreciate anyway unless it was to be more or less a forever purchase.

Also you could argue through a broker said 23k Octavia could probably be had for 19-20k with little effort....therefore the Octavia could still prove to be 5-6k cheaper and is alot of cash in the grand scheme of things.

So yeah...for sure the Mercs the better car but in most cases I am sure you could get yourself an even better deal on an Octavia, particularly given now that supply has now rather exceeded demand and used prices have dropped alot.

After my experience of buying from two Skoda salesmen I'm surprised more people don't use a broker.

I was told by both they would not budge a penny on a MKII Octavia Scout, as that particular model was in high demand. Went on line and bought one with a few added extras for £18600, compared to nearly £23k at the dealers.

I recently specked a MKIII Scout to just over £30k, an online broker quoted a price of about £24.5k (minus the 5 year extended warranty).

Fin

tbh you can't compare Dacia and Skoda anymore. While both are the cheapest of their respective parent company's portfolio, the options (esp safety related) you can get on the SKODA crush anything that Dacia put out..at a price of course. Also consider that SKDOA use the latest platform for their cars. I'm not sure that Dacia does the same.

I'm comparing Dacia in its current state of 'not rubbish anymore' to when Skoda was picked up by VW and did the same. Skoda have now moved on up past that and left the 'cheap, practical, no frills car' slot.

Skoda have now moved on up past that and left the 'cheap, practical, no frills car' slot.

 

Really?

 

Sure a vRS is expensive, but a base spec Octavia is like £16k, with probably a couple of k off if you deal hard. That's an awful lot of car for not a lot of money.

I bought my Mk. 2 in 2008 during the deep part of the credit crunch and got an amazing deal. But the trade in car was only about 3 years old. 

When I got my Mk. 3, the trade in car was 6 years old, so that makes it harder to compare, but there is no doubt that they are much dearer now.

Having said that, it is not the same car! Different equipment, more refined, more interior space, smaller engine but with good performance.

 

I feel that the deal ought to have cost me as much as £2K less but of course cars are now selling much better than in 2008.

I'm comparing Dacia in its current state of 'not rubbish anymore' to when Skoda was picked up by VW and did the same. Skoda have now moved on up past that and left the 'cheap, practical, no frills car' slot.

OK, dou you mean Dacia pre-Renault or since their alliance? Because even after their alliance they were still are still very reluctant to put certain safety features on their cars ESP was an extra and even not available for all versions/models. I'm pretty sure that ahs changed since, but so has their price-tag. Still unbeatable, if you only want a car though

I bought my Skoda because my E class kept breaking down....

 

and I really don't like the Ipad effect screens in the new Mercs.  I think they look like the sort of thing you could do with a stick on ebay bracket.

Yes i know its a 2 litre petrol turbo but the quoted combined mpg is 51.4 which is actually slightly better than my diesel vrs!  With petrol being cheaper this should mean even at 40mpg real world it is as cheap to fuel as my octy. Now I am sorely tempted to throw caution to the wind and treat myself to one.

I suppose back to the original question are new octavia's expensive now or are they still good value?

Be careful about quoted mpg figures, euroland has made the mpg tests so farciacal they are getting further and further away from the real world.

 

I've had 30+ cars.  Up until the Skoda I could hit about 85% of the claimed combined mpg figure.  In the Skoda it's 65%.  That's a massive difference.

 

Are they good value?  You don't get the space the Octavia provides in anything else for the same money (based on list price).

 

Given the deal you've found I'd have the Merc.

They are very expensive now and I wouldn't (and didn't) get one when you can get something much nicer for the same money.

 

'you can get something much nicer for the same money'

 

Such as?

Oh, I don't know, like the Mercedes in the first post?

The C class seems a decent deal to me but being logical a lot of that is because I perceive Merc as a premium brand, if the car doesn't match my brand perception then £25k is still expensive.  The old c class was heavily discounted to sell the last stock, Merc seem to have continued with great deals on the new car, is it not selling well?

The octy would likely be £23k ish, after deal, so still cheaper but not much. Put the badges to one side, is the Marc a better car? I've no idea, I suggest you need a test drive and think hard about what you want from the car.

What is clear is Skoda no longer target the segment they used to.  It is also clear that they are making hay while the sun shines, the car is selling well so the price keeps going up.  I have had mine 8 months, although it's now 14 months since I ordered. Prices have risen 3 times since then and that has probably added ~£2.5k or more to the price. The Skoda isn't a, cheap car, but is it still value compared to the alternatives?  It's not over priced IMHO, but it isn't keenly priced either

What is clear is Skoda no longer target the segment they used to.

I really don't get that comment.

 

A base spec Octavia is £1k more than a base spec focus or astra, yet is a far bigger car. Its 3-4k less than a base spec mondeo. Do Ford/Vauxhall offer 0% finance on their budget models? The Octavia has always been a bargain for the size.

 

The vRS i can agree isn't such a bargain, but Skoda can't even fulfill demand at the current price. If they dropped the price any more, they'd have silly waiting lists, or they'd kill the resale value by making them as common as a standard focus. A vRS is still similar almost the same money as a hot Focus or Astra, yet you get a lot more car for the price.

 

I also don't get the comparison between a vRS & a base spec Merc/BMW. Sure they may be similar money, but the reason i want a vRS is performance, looks, etc. I would be unhappy with a base spec exec, i'd have to go up a couple of specs, or hit the options list for wheels, suspension, etc. Then you start making a big gap in price again.

As I said in a previous post if your PCP'ing Skoda still offer about the best finance packages going. A 23k car with v little money down up front for less than £300/month over 42 months is quite difficult to beat unless you put down silly amounts in deposit.

Its also fair to say if you push hard enough with the right broker you can fairly easily attain a 15-20% discount on an O3 now as a cash buyer, quite a bit less with the 0% PCP but Id wager you could get a good 7/8% off even still.

Then that 25k car becomes 20k..alot cheaper than the Merc.

One of the biggest traps IMHO with the O3 is optional extras. Lots of big car options on there now that were but a dream with the O2....but you sure as hell pay for the priviledge. Many IMHO lose sight of the fact that every variant of the O3 is significantly better equipped than what came before it; I like my toys but I went for a standard car and perhaps other than the poor standard sound system I dont feel short changed really. Given how the value of the thing has rather plummeted in the course of 12 months now rather glad I opted to keep it standard.

My view, pick a vRS TDi manual estate, keep options v limited and hammer a broker for a good discount. The TDI will devalue less than the petrol, as will estate v hatch. IMHO the manual box suits the TDI better and saves you a further load of cash; perhaps use the cash saved on DSG to option up a bit.

Id wager you could get one for circa 20-21k with cash....then its a pretty cheap car.

It's an interesting discussion - I think it's all about perceived value and quality.

 

I would love to be able to buy a car from a premium brand Audi, BMW, Range Rover but I cannot afford to. Equally there are cheaper brands/cars that I don't want to buy.

 

I'm about to buy my second Skoda because I perceive and know - after 8 years of Skoda ownership - it to be a high quality, cost effective product.

 

Cheap and expensive are relative. What do I get for my hard-earned cash? I want a good value, quality product that does what I need it to. IMHO Skoda deliver exactly that.

Get the Merc, and the bonus is the estate ditches the ugly rear end you get on the latest C Class saloon. I've had my O3 now for nearly 2 years and I'm also looking at Merc for my next car but probably nearly new E Class, £25k for a one year old E300 CDI Hybrid with less than 10k on the clock, list price over £41k, now that is a bargain!

 

Where can you get such a car, there are 4 E300 Hybrid estates on the merc website in the UK under a year old, the cheapest is up for £32450 so a long way from 25k