My dealer has told me the order book for the vRS 230 TSI is closed until further notice due to the shortage of petrol engines as everybody is changing from diesel. Some customers who have ordered have been given their deposit back. It was the same when I ordered last time do Skoda never learn.

Edited 9 February, 20188 yr by MATT1

To be fair, there has been a rapid increase in demand for petrols and a decline in Diesel. I think it's surprised quite a few manufacturers, not just Skoda, who didn't expect to see such a sudden swing. Looking at used MK3 VRS' Diesels still outnumber Petrols around 4.5 to 1. It would be interesting to see what the Ratio is for new orders.

 

Edited 9 February, 20188 yr by ahenners

It does seem a strange way of going on....they were using the same excuse for potentially extended lead times when I ordered my VRS last June... you'd think they could reconfigure towards petrol production in that length of time.

 

Mind you they were blaming an Alcantara shortage for 245 supply problems recently, so it's probably all BS.

39 minutes ago, juan27 said:

It does seem a strange way of going on....they were using the same excuse for potentially extended lead times when I ordered my VRS last June... you'd think they could reconfigure towards petrol production in that length of time.

 

Mind you they were blaming an Alcantara shortage for 245 supply problems recently, so it's probably all BS.

 

Thing is, if it’s a sweeping change in the industry then their supply chain will be overwhelmed by requests from many many marques. It won’t be as simple as switching out some diesel engines for petrol ones on the production line. 

 

We as consumers don’t really care about that though. And why should we, when you think about it. 

I’ve just had an appointment at my local dealer during their ‘platinum event’. Currently got a TDI VRS and was thinking of changing to a 230. Seems like lots of people are doing the same thing! I booked before the production stopped, so I’m sticking with the TDI for now.

 

Anyway, they said there aren’t many left in stock, but they have heard rumours that when orders open again over the summer the standard VRS will have a 248bhp engine, and the performance one will have 270bhp. 

 

Apparenty Seat are splitting Cupra off as a seperate brand like Citroen did with DS and Skoda will be able to use the more powerful engines. Someone in Milton Keynes has apparently said ‘when the 300bhp engine goes in the Octavia VRS it will be awesome’.

 

Not sure how much truth there is to any of this!

Another thing I can’t understand. Splitting Cupra off as a sub brand.  I mean, has that even been remotely successful for DS or Abarth?  Nobody will say “Oh yeah, I have a Cupra Leon”. 

37 minutes ago, SimonD316 said:

Anyway, they said there aren’t many left in stock, but they have heard rumours that when orders open again over the summer the standard VRS will have a 248bhp engine, and the performance one will have 270bhp. 

 

Apparenty Seat are splitting Cupra off as a seperate brand like Citroen did with DS and Skoda will be able to use the more powerful engines. Someone in Milton Keynes has apparently said ‘when the 300bhp engine goes in the Octavia VRS it will be awesome’.

 

Not sure how much truth there is to any of this!

 

Seems an odd/unlikely move unless VW are doing similar with the Golf GTI. I can't imagine VW allowing the Octavia VRS to have better figures than both the standard and performance variants of the GTI.

 

28 minutes ago, ahenners said:

 

Seems an odd/unlikely move unless VW are doing similar with the Golf GTI. I can't imagine VW allowing the Octavia VRS to have better figures than both the standard and performance variants of the GTI.

 

 

They have. It’s called the Golf R. 

Just now, SC03OTT said:

 

They have. It’s called the Golf R. 

 

Eh? What has that got to do with the VRS Vs GTI power figures?

Just now, ahenners said:

 

Eh? What has that got to do with the VRS Vs GTI power figures?

 

You said unless VW do the same with the GTI, up it’s power. But they already have, it’s called the Golf R. If Škoda were allowed use of the higher powered 2.0T, just call it the vRS R or something. That stops it competing with the GTI. 

25 minutes ago, SC03OTT said:

 

You said unless VW do the same with the GTI, up it’s power. But they already have, it’s called the Golf R. If Škoda were allowed use of the higher powered 2.0T, just call it the vRS R or something. That stops it competing with the GTI. 

 

So they haven't then with the GTI, because the R is a different product that is a step up in performance and price.

 

The post I was replying to mentioned the VRS becoming 248 and 270bhp respectively. The VRS is in the same bracket as the GTI, not the R, and has always had either the same power or slightly less than the GTI in all its incarnations, but never more.

 

It would be odd if the VRS became 248 and 270 and the GTI was left at 230 and 245 

 

It could of course be possible that both VRS and GTI get the increases, and so does the R to further distance it from the GTI and maintain the gap.

Edited 10 February, 20188 yr by ahenners

Simples.

They are going to have to start selling vehicles in the not distant future that did not have the old dodgy test results and instead have the new dodgy testing.

 

So this is why I only get 23mpg (5-1/2k miles avg.) outta my slightly tuned 245 is it ?

Edited 10 February, 20188 yr by themanwithnoaim

Probably not, likely another driver could drive your car even swiftly and better the MPG you get.

Unless that Tuning box is crap. 

Do you really use the 250ps on your blasting about, all the throttle to the floor all the time, or could someone follow you in a Octavia with 150 ps on the same route just as quick and yet use less fuel?

Edited 10 February, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

16 hours ago, AwaoffSki said:

 

Do you really use the 250ps on your blasting about, all the throttle to the floor all the time, or could someone follow you in a Octavia with 150 ps on the same route just as quick and yet use less fuel?

But where's the fun in that ?

40 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

But where's the fun in that ?

 

Until you crash :(

1 hour ago, themanwithnoaim said:

But where's the fun in that ?

 

I'd love to have the roads you do. 

My car history is full of Cosworth's, Turbo Technics specials and Special Edition Impreza's in the 90's and string of large capacity 6 cylinder saloons in the 00's.

Now 95% of my driving is done sat in traffic, on 40/50mph average speed camera'd roads or on smart motorways with 50/60 boards flashing. Even talk of activating the cameras at 70mph permanently.

 

I got to the stage where I thought what's the point of all the fuel and insurance when I get home at the same time if I have the works 75bhp Citroen Berlingo.

 

Maybe it's an age thing.

 

Lee 

Edited 11 February, 20188 yr by logiclee

On 09/02/2018 at 20:49, ahenners said:

To be fair, there has been a rapid increase in demand for petrols and a decline in Diesel. I think it's surprised quite a few manufacturers, not just Skoda, who didn't expect to see such a sudden swing. Looking at used MK3 VRS' Diesels still outnumber Petrols around 4.5 to 1. It would be interesting to see what the Ratio is for new orders.

 

 

That ratio is unsold used cars, not ratio of those coming on market.

4.5 diesels that haven’t yet found a buyer for every petrol one.

 

Spoke to a dealer and he said they hold a waiting list of petrol Octavia customers looking for used, but no one ever asks to be notified if a diesel becomes available.  

 

Dont know what figures for this model, but latest UK sales figures (Jan) are 58.6% petrol, 35.9% diesel, 5.5% hybrid & electric.

So currently new is 5 petrols for every 3 diesels

59 minutes ago, SurreyJohn said:

 

That ratio is unsold used cars, not ratio of those coming on market.

4.5 diesels that haven’t yet found a buyer for every petrol one.

 

Spoke to a dealer and he said they hold a waiting list of petrol Octavia customers looking for used, but no one ever asks to be notified if a diesel becomes available.  

 

Dont know what figures for this model, but latest UK sales figures (Jan) are 58.6% petrol, 35.9% diesel, 5.5% hybrid & electric.

So currently new is 5 petrols for every 3 diesels

 

Good point about them being unsold, but i believe the diesel did outsell the petrol VRS which does account for a proportion of the more diesel models available to buy used.

 

There will be a waiting list because more people now want petrols but less were sold previously. It's going to take some time for that to filter down to used models with lower buyer's budgets, given the shift has only been quite recently. I suspect dealers are also taking advantage of the fact that they can sell a used Petrol VRS a few times over so will price it higher and offer less discount on forecourt price. The average used petrol went up in value by 9% in the last year, allegedly.

 

Took me a while of searching and waiting to find the perfect used petrol VRS. Made a 9 hour round trip to go and buy it. Had I been after diesel, I could have bought closer to home and much sooner. And this was before everybody wanted Petrols again!

Edited 11 February, 20188 yr by ahenners

Latest sales figures in Norway (jan 2018) is 26.2% petrol, 20.2% diesel, 30.4% Hybrid and 23.2% zero emission (electric and hydrogen)

12 minutes ago, norsko said:

Latest sales figures in Norway (jan 2018) is 26.2% petrol, 20.2% diesel, 30.4% Hybrid and 23.2% zero emission (electric and hydrogen)

 

I think Norway doesn’t charge VAT on electric cars which reduces price difference

They also give advantages to electric cars, such as permitted to use bus lanes which doesn’t happen in UK

Spoke to my dealer today. He said I can’t amend my existing order at all (placed 2 weeks ago) as the engine shortage means that all new orders are scrubbed.  His info was that a run of 245s would be happening in the summer so orders would open for them soon but no 230s until September?

 

My bet is that VW has a run on the GTI with the GTD (which I’ve just handed back after 2 years) falling in demand. The knock on is that Skoda gets no more 230 engines until VW has some spare..