I have been searching the best place for one of the above and there are a number of online portals which seem to offer very good prices, Carwow being a typical example, has anyone used one of these and can give an opinion, i am looking for a new 245 in possibly the estate version, with some extras of course, no rush in terms of when but within the next 6-12 months so i am starting to look now as i guess that lead times can be somewhat hit and miss. Thanks

This doesn't specifically help with your question but you may not be able to buy one (ordered to spec at least) in 6 to 12 months as there is a chance it will be discontinued by then, with Skoda just trying to clear pre-reg stock cars before the Mk4 is introduced (expected to debut at Frankfurt in September, so would expect the first of the normal range of cars to be available before the end of the year with the vRS following in Spring/Summer 2020 would be my guess).

I have used Carwow - easily gave the best discount. If there weee new VRS about I would use them again. 

I bought mine via 'Buy A New Car Online' and was very happy with the price and the experience. 

2 hours ago, Sweephand said:

I bought mine via 'Buy A New Car Online' and was very happy with the price and the experience. 

think you've dodged a bullet there

buyanewcaronline have just went into liquidation  😭

wonder how many people have lost out  😂

I used Drive the Deal and found the experience painless. 

My local dealer would not match the Drive the Deal price at the time but are now price matching. So check your local dealer when you have your best price.

Thanks for that, i agree the dealers will not be happy with such portals but they either match it or lose it, the going bust side of things is a tad worrying as i am not sure who you pay your monies etc too. I did not think about the Mk4 and how this could change things. Thanks

The Mk3's have been listed by Skoda as "Stock Only" for at least a month.

So if the portals are listing them, they will be "as is" - so no adding or removing options. It also gives you very little room for negotiation, it's not as if you can just go anywhere and order the exact car you want.

If you want full choice, then you're going to have to wait for the Mk4 - but as the Mk4 vRS hasn't even been announced yet, your 12 month limit could well be breached.

Edited 1 July, 20196 yr by Stoofa

2 hours ago, Hudson1 said:

Thanks for that, i agree the dealers will not be happy with such portals but they either match it or lose it, the going bust side of things is a tad worrying as i am not sure who you pay your monies etc too. I did not think about the Mk4 and how this could change things. Thanks

No need to worry, as you pay the dealer.

The websites are paid a commission by the dealer, I believe. 

2 hours ago, Hudson1 said:

Thanks for that, i agree the dealers will not be happy with such portals but they either match it or lose it, the going bust side of things is a tad worrying as i am not sure who you pay your monies etc too. I did not think about the Mk4 and how this could change things. Thanks

I have a vRS on order from "discounted new cars".I've used them before and found their service excellent and their prices are up there with the best.

There is always an element of trust needed when using a broker.They have my £500 deposit and when the car is ready for delivery I will pay them the balance a few days before.I'm OK with that,some may not be and so will pay a lot more if they use their local dealer.

My car is a week 32 build,September delivery and did experience a delay.I doubt that there will be any more new factory orders now,perhaps just a few restricted ones,due to the new model.

However,a couple of weeks ago,due to my order delay,I did look into the possibility of taking a pre order car from a list they had access to and there were about 30 vRS 245 dsg estates they had access to,either on ship even at the UK port,but in the end I decided to stick to my order because there was nothing that matched or very nearly matched the spec I had chosen.

On the other hand,if I had been happy with a basic car in white with just a spare wheel then there were 10 of those!

There were also cars with quite a few options,although not the ones I wanted.

If you have any interest in the above I should have a quick look at their website and give them a call.I'm getting about 25% off list,which seems like a good deal to me.

 

7 hours ago, JD52 said:

I used Drive the Deal and found the experience painless. 

My local dealer would not match the Drive the Deal price at the time but are now price matching. So check your local dealer when you have your best price.

 

Another one with a very positive experience of DriveTheDeal, but anyone who keeps tabs of these things will have noticed quite a number of marks which have disappeared from their website in recent months.

 

For what it's worth, you shouldn't pay these brokers directly, what happens is they put you in touch with a dealership somewhere in the country and you pay them as normal. I assume the dealer then settles any arrangement fees with the broker. So if a broker did go in to administrationnit shouldn't be any loss to you.

 

As I say, the dealership may well be some distance away. It's a subject that's been discussed before ( you can search for it on the forum) but there can be disadvantages buying from distance. Basically you may need to return to the supplying dealership if things go tits up.  Been there, seen it, done it. My advise would not to buy from anywhere you're not prepared to return to.

Edited 1 July, 20196 yr by Guest

19 hours ago, 310golfr said:

think you've dodged a bullet there

buyanewcaronline have just went into liquidation  😭

wonder how many people have lost out  😂

 oh dear, that's a bit of a shock to say the least. I checked the company out and saw that they had been in business for around 15 years, with many good reviews over a long period of time. From what I can find online they are optimistic that the supplying dealers will honour the orders so customers don't lose out. From what I now know they were different from other on-line brokers in that the full balance for the car was paid to them just prior to delivery, not to the supplying dealer. All worked well for about 7000 buyers over the years apparently. I hope people get their cars, or at least their deposit back. The company strongly advised customers to pay their deposit by credit card, so the card company is equally responsible, so should refund that, and should refund up to £30k if the full payment has been made and no car is delivered.

22 hours ago, Kenai said:

This doesn't specifically help with your question but you may not be able to buy one (ordered to spec at least) in 6 to 12 months as there is a chance it will be discontinued by then, with Skoda just trying to clear pre-reg stock cars before the Mk4 is introduced (expected to debut at Frankfurt in September, so would expect the first of the normal range of cars to be available before the end of the year with the vRS following in Spring/Summer 2020 would be my guess).

 

 

Early 2021 for the vRS my dealer said.

20 minutes ago, Sweephand said:

 oh dear, that's a bit of a shock to say the least. I checked the company out and saw that they had been in business for around 15 years, with many good reviews over a long period of time. From what I can find online they are optimistic that the supplying dealers will honour the orders so customers don't lose out. From what I now know they were different from other on-line brokers in that the full balance for the car was paid to them just prior to delivery, not to the supplying dealer. All worked well for about 7000 buyers over the years apparently. I hope people get their cars, or at least their deposit back. The company strongly advised customers to pay their deposit by credit card, so the card company is equally responsible, so should refund that, and should refund up to £30k if the full payment has been made and no car is delivered.

It is a shame. I was very happy with the price (20% off list at the time, now about 25%), service and car that I received from them four years ago. The car was supplied on a trailer from Simpons in Preston. I would have used them again.

Edited 1 July, 20196 yr by Rodge

18 minutes ago, Rodge said:

It is a shame. I was very happy with the price (20% off list at the time, now about 25%), service and car that I received from them four years ago. The car was supplied on a trailer from Simpons in Preston. I would have used them again.

 

I would have gone back to them too - mine came from Rainworth, Mansfield - on a trailer at no extra cost. 

10 hours ago, *JP* said:

I have a vRS on order from "discounted new cars".I've used them before and found their service excellent and their prices are up there with the best.

There is always an element of trust needed when using a broker.They have my £500 deposit and when the car is ready for delivery I will pay them the balance a few days before.I'm OK with that,some may not be and so will pay a lot more if they use their local dealer.

My car is a week 32 build,September delivery and did experience a delay.I doubt that there will be any more new factory orders now,perhaps just a few restricted ones,due to the new model.

However,a couple of weeks ago,due to my order delay,I did look into the possibility of taking a pre order car from a list they had access to and there were about 30 vRS 245 dsg estates they had access to,either on ship even at the UK port,but in the end I decided to stick to my order because there was nothing that matched or very nearly matched the spec I had chosen.

On the other hand,if I had been happy with a basic car in white with just a spare wheel then there were 10 of those!

There were also cars with quite a few options,although not the ones I wanted.

If you have any interest in the above I should have a quick look at their website and give them a call.I'm getting about 25% off list,which seems like a good deal to me.

 

Agree that at present the discount is around the 25% mark for this car which i think is really good, and your right about the options most of the ones i am seeing are simply the basic car which i do not want, i have a decent list of extras i want so it really has to be a factory order, cheers for the info.

I used Coast2Coast who found me a stock car which was delivered on a trailer for about 33% off.

 

I wouldn't necessarily agree that all stock cars have no options. Which options are you looking for?

Used drivethedeal.com who were very helpful and professional. Paid £1000 deposit to them. Three days later dealer rang to confirm price etc and that they had the £1k from the broker. The deposit paid on CC so if they went bust it was covered anyways. vRS Challenge estate due in September ordered in May. 

Lead times for factory orders have been bad and now you won't get a freshly built Mk3 anymore. Unless you can find one in dealer stock that has the spec you like. New or low mileage. 

I will have one of the last Mk3 to be made, its been built but it's still on the wrong side of the water. 

Edited 2 July, 20196 yr by TDIum

2 hours ago, SunsetZed said:

I used Coast2Coast who found me a stock car which was delivered on a trailer for about 33% off.

 

I wouldn't necessarily agree that all stock cars have no options. Which options are you looking for?

The list that the broker gave me 3 weeks ago,of about 40 245 dsg estates,was quite varied on options apart from 10 which were sort of "fleet spec"...flat white with just a spare wheel.The rest were various colours each with several options and three or four had quite a lot of options,probably enough to suggest they were cancelled orders since I doubt if a dealer would order a car with a lot of options on the off chance...

All of these cars were described as at port of exit or at U.K. port.

The problem is that,as I quickly realised,the chance of you finding at random the car of the colour you want with the ,say,half a dozen options of your choice is negligible.Someone who remembers their probability theory can work out the odds!

So I just decided to wait it out to September for my original order.

However,if you are not too choosy on colour and flexible on options then you could be ok getting a car now...just a matter of putting out some feelers to all the brokers.

On 30/06/2019 at 22:42, Kenai said:

This doesn't specifically help with your question but you may not be able to buy one (ordered to spec at least) in 6 to 12 months as there is a chance it will be discontinued by then, with Skoda just trying to clear pre-reg stock cars before the Mk4 is introduced (expected to debut at Frankfurt in September, so would expect the first of the normal range of cars to be available before the end of the year with the vRS following in Spring/Summer 2020 would be my guess).

To answer original question. Don’t use anything other than carwow or similar. It’s the only way to guarantee not being ripped off. It is main dealers in any case.

 

I have just been in skoda dealers to query what is a 2020 model is.  It is just a slightly modified 19 model, NOT the new model.    Most versions get natty black spoilers and a few other tweaks. The big news is they are dropping. numerous engines, mainly autos,  was too much to take in but think they were: no more, 1.0 auto, 2.0 190 autos (ie all 190’s) no more 2.0 245 !!! He said all 245’s but wonder  if it’s just auto’s. 2.0 diesel autos and 1.6 d autos. There were more and im working from memory so don’t quote me.

 

So is there a 2020 model VRS at all? Or is it getting a new engine. Trouble was he only had discontinued list, not an availability list. 

 

Skoda are useless. It’s all down to the new testing rules in September. Ford have a similar problem with the just released ST Focus being delayed for approval. 

19 hours ago, Rodge said:

It is a shame. I was very happy with the price (20% off list at the time, now about 25%), service and car that I received from them four years ago. The car was supplied on a trailer from Simpons in Preston. I would have used them again.

VW finance have offered me the VRS and VRS Challenge from stock or factory order (16 weeks) 2020 spec. It is still a tweaked MK3 not a MK 4. That is what they have told me and Skoda at Middlesbrough confirmed. 

 

But they also stated no more 245 engine, so very confusing 

Edited 2 July, 20196 yr by teescom09

57 minutes ago, teescom09 said:

VW finance have offered me the VRS and VRS Challenge from stock or factory order (16 weeks) 2020 spec. It is still a tweaked MK3 not a MK 4. That is what they have told me and Skoda at Middlesbrough confirmed. 

 

But they also stated no more 245 engine, so very confusing 

 

MY20 vRS (ie one being built from August 2019 onwards, Skoda run model years from Week 31 now from memory, this is what Skoda mean when they refer to a 2020 spec car) will be the last of the Mk3 FL cars. This will be with the 245 engine, I'd be amazed if they'll introduce a new engine spec whilst they're running the current model out, would be absolute madness. I wouldn't expect these cars to be available as factory orders for much more than the next couple of months. 

 

We won't see a Mk4 vRS available to order until Spring/Summer 2020 imo and that's the very earliest I'd expect. By the time they start building and delivering, later than that, the Mk4 vRS will be well into MY21 production cycle. 

Still the discontinued 245/190’s and most autos to include especially diesel. His words reading the bulletin today were, the 245 (along with the others) will not be offered on 2020 model year  cars.  2020 model year cars are factory irders from June 1st

Well if that's true, best hope you're happy enough ordering a 2.0TDI if you want a factory order. If there is really no 245, they won't be offering a different spec 2.0TSI. They'd have to push it through WLTP for starters, which they wouldn't do on a car that's in the process of being discontinued. 

 

I suspect it's actually as per the May 2019 Price List, which showed all manual 245s as stock availability only, along with the other discontinued cars you described like the DSG 190s etc. 

 

It's all identified quite clearly in the currently published price list. 

 

https://az749841.vo.msecnd.net/sitesengb/alv1/88a469d7-0be0-4067-ab26-80cfb956f4c8/SKODA_OCTAVIA_Pricing_and_Spec_MAY19.466e1d0e6c5b38a81ef5ea13cc03f279.pdf