Quick question, when VAG put out tender for design for Bentley Continental GT correct me if I am wrong but was it not found in Skoda design studios???

The then chief designer at Skoda (Dirk van Braeckel sp?) who penned the Octavia1 and the Fabia was moved to the same post at Bentley where he designed the Continental.

Skoda also built some of the first prototype cars for Bentley

Volkswagen is slashing its model range in the UK , I read today in my local papers motoring supplement. One of the models they are doing away with is the 130 PD Polo sport...killed off by being far too expensive compared to the Furby vRS , no doubt! In total 9 Polo models are going , 7 Golfs , and they are dropping all but 2 of the short wheelbase Phaetons. They say 'this is necessary to simplify the choice for our customers' ...what it means in reality is somewhat different I reckon!

vw need to sell bugatti .... they built the ultimate car at a loss of somewhere near

Well whatever they may/maynot do with the Skoda arm...just be thankful it's not part of the GM group...worldwide they are losing

I had a choice of company car, I COULD have gone for a Passat with a nice shiny VW badge on it's nose but it would have been a 105 TDI in SE spec.

I chose the Octavia with a 140TDI engine in Elegance spec which is more or less at the top of the range and I was able to throw some more goodies on it as well.

This is becoming a very common thing where people shun a VW in favour of the Skoda brand, you didn't see this 10 or even 5 years ago and that is something that VW top brass have picked up on.

Savvy people know Skodas are stuck together better than the average VW is nowadays and being a Skoda driver the most common thing I hear is "it's a Volkswagen underneath anyway".

If VW want to hit Skoda both in terms of cost cutting and sales all they will do is limit the level of technology that Skoda can access from the VAG group.

And everyone in the VAG group will benfit from the design of the Veyron. Many technological difficulties were overcome and resulted in better engineering know-how and techniques which will filter down to all VAG models in years to come which will ultimately save money.

Just think of all the money they could save across the entire group by not delivering dented panels, broken windscreens, high value items picked as something of lower value and even the correct number of items.