I need to change my 2016 Skoda Superb, playing the BIK game the only decent enough option available to me without paying through the nose in BIK is a 1.5TSI SE Tech in estate form,  which i can add various options to.

 

I could go for a SEL version, however the standard kit on the SEL does cross/ not offer a great deal more with a SE Tech spec ie, the SEL gets LED headlights half leather seats, folding mirrors, 17inch wheels, privacy glass,  but does not get no adaptive cruise, no front parking sensors,  however the money saved by not going to a SEL could be used for many options on the SE Tech model.

 

So i guess the question is - would you go for a SEL at stock spec'ed, (with a towbar) or would you go for a SE Tech model with the following options to make it a bit more interesting... Alaris 18inch wheels, Virtual cockpit, net partition, reversing camera, upgraded sport steering wheel, privacy glass, folding mirrors.......

 

The SE Tech works out at approx £62 a month cheaper with all the above options v the stock SEL...  -- its just... its got cloth seats, no led headlights,

 

Are the seats in the SE Tech and SEL the same but just finished in a different material ?   (as i do like the seats in my superb.)

 

And dont say get a vrs... the BIK and puc this time is sky high.

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

Edited 11 September, 20196 yr by RickTT

Tbh the seats and lights are lovely but they aren’t £62 per month’s worth of nice and the options you’ve added to the SE Tech would make me go for that, despite the lights and seats. I don’t recommend 18’s on torsion beam cars if you want it to ride well so I’d probably go 17’s or even stay 16 and spend the cash on the power bootlid

The SE tech is a no brainer at £62 a month cheaper.

 

Forget the 18" wheels that's a terrible combination with a torsion beam Octavia.

 

A much better option would be the winter pack if they still do it.  (Heated Screen, Heated Seats, Heated washer jets)

21 minutes ago, SashaGrace said:

Tbh the seats and lights are lovely but they aren’t £62 per month’s worth of nice and the options you’ve added to the SE Tech would make me go for that, despite the lights and seats. I don’t recommend 18’s on torsion beam cars if you want it to ride well so I’d probably go 17’s or even stay 16 and spend the cash on the power bootlid

 

Thank you, dropping it down to 17's saves another £8.50 a month, so will check out some of the other options - thanks

12 minutes ago, logiclee said:

The SE tech is a no brainer at £62 a month cheaper.

 

Forget the 18" wheels that's a terrible combination with a torsion beam Octavia.

 

A much better option would be the winter pack if they still do it.  (Heated Screen, Heated Seats, Heated washer jets)

 

yeah, did look at the winter pack, but at £512 as an added extra its a bit steep -

 

thanks for your reply.

Next task is the most subjective... what colour !

 

Had Business Grey for 4 years, Corrida Red in a Spaceback SE Sport for 3 years, (wifes) whos currently got a grey Qashqai now, previous car was a 3 series in grey.... before than audi a4 in blue

 

Im thinking Moon White, on the basis had black also before which show up any element of water marks, cant go blue really as i only like that on a vrs... silver.... meh.. white - different....

 

 

I've got a 2019 SE Tech car and have had a 2013 Elegance (SEL) in the past, to be honest I honestly have no complaints about the SE Tech standard spec, seats seem much the same as the earlier Elegance model but with different fabric on them, car seems actually quieter and more refined than the earlier car too. Only options that I added to mine were heated seats, metallic paint and variable floor as I have an Estate car and this makes it easier for carrying things and gives some useful space for storing odds and ends under the main section. Colour choice is going to be pretty limited now I'd imagine as you will probably be looking at stock cars given that there is a Mark 4 model on the way. Business Grey is definitely not available on any recent Octavia's as I was thinking of choosing that colour myself but ended up with Race Blue instead, which even though my car is definitely not a Vrs model actually looks alright. There is another blue colour called Denim Blue which is maybe worth a look at too, silver is fairly decent too, metallic red is nice but kind of expensive unless they give you a really good deal. I've had a few letters recently from the dealer that I got mine from, Henrys Skoda in Glasgow, they seem to have a few well discounted brand new Octavia's still available.

27 minutes ago, AllanDJ said:

I've got a 2019 SE Tech car and have had a 2013 Elegance (SEL) in the past, to be honest I honestly have no complaints about the SE Tech standard spec, seats seem much the same as the earlier Elegance model but with different fabric on them, car seems actually quieter and more refined than the earlier car too. Only options that I added to mine were heated seats, metallic paint and variable floor as I have an Estate car and this makes it easier for carrying things and gives some useful space for storing odds and ends under the main section. Colour choice is going to be pretty limited now I'd imagine as you will probably be looking at stock cars given that there is a Mark 4 model on the way. Business Grey is definitely not available on any recent Octavia's as I was thinking of choosing that colour myself but ended up with Race Blue instead, which even though my car is definitely not a Vrs model actually looks alright. There is another blue colour called Denim Blue which is maybe worth a look at too, silver is fairly decent too, metallic red is nice but kind of expensive unless they give you a really good deal. I've had a few letters recently from the dealer that I got mine from, Henrys Skoda in Glasgow, they seem to have a few well discounted brand new Octavia's still available.

 

Thanks - my A4 was in fact Denim blue -

 

In regards to factory shutdown for new model, ive been advised they are still accepting orders at present for factory build car as the MK4 has not even been showcased and will not be until the 8th Gen VW gold has been, expecting at the earliest December, with the order books opening Feb onwards, however thats all the rumours ive red online.

 

Does anyone know when the factory will stop producing the mk3 ?

 

thanks

 

I've only glanced at this thread but I have an SE Tech.

 

If I were to change my car now, I could live without things like leather seats or different wheels but having had adaptive cruise, I'd definately want it on my next car. 

 

Therefore I'd go with the SE Tech.

1 hour ago, Bouncypete said:

I've only glanced at this thread but I have an SE Tech.

 

If I were to change my car now, I could live without things like leather seats or different wheels but having had adaptive cruise, I'd definately want it on my next car. 

 

Therefore I'd go with the SE Tech.

 

yeah, i have it on my Superb at present and i do use it a lot.

On 11/09/2019 at 17:42, RickTT said:

 

Thank you, dropping it down to 17's saves another £8.50 a month, so will check out some of the other options - thanks

Depends on your age & eye sight but, those halogen lights aren't all that, I had to change the bulbs to some 4,200k ones but, it didn't extend the light range 

Slight deviation but company cars are becoming less and less good value. BIK goes up and up year by year and the whole thing is being increasingly rigged to make it so only hybrid and electric cars are going to be economic to select as company cars. 

 

Can you take a cash alternative? 

 

You might be surprised how much a company car is actually costing you if you are paying BIK tax and losing out on a cash alternative.

 

I opted out of my company car scheme and over a three year period, my 245 will cost only slightly more (I'm assuming it'll be worth about £10k at 4 years old) than if I'd got a 1.5TSI Golf R Line as a company car. We do have a mileage payment scheme that heavily favours petrol cars though, hence my selection of a 245 over a 184 TDI.

 

If you can get a cash allowance, I'd strongly recommend you download one of those take home pay calculator spreadsheets and plug in the numbers for a company car and compare it with the numbers for taking a cash allowance. You might be surprised what your monthly 'budget' for running a car actually is. There are certainly plenty of people where I work who think a company car only costs them tax and completely forget to account for the cash alternative that isn't landing in their bank account too. 

I ordered my sel 18 months ago (cash buy). At the time I was told the se tech was not for retail and as such there were no deals on it, which made the sel around 5k cheaper to buy (including a deposit contribution from the pcp deal I cancelled after car delivery).

I upgraded with tow bar and winter pack. The adaptive cruise is the one thing I think I wish I had.

24 minutes ago, AlexBlue said:

I ordered my sel 18 months ago (cash buy). At the time I was told the se tech was not for retail and as such there were no deals on it, which made the sel around 5k cheaper to buy (including a deposit contribution from the pcp deal I cancelled after car delivery).

I upgraded with tow bar and winter pack. The adaptive cruise is the one thing I think I wish I had.

 

I'm pretty sure that anyone can buy an SE Tech model but what they do is prevent you from doing this on a PCP contract, so you would need the money available via a bank loan or whatever to pay for it outright, which is why most of these models are issued on PCH deals, which then gives Skoda a constant stream of decently specified cars which will sell easily at the end of the hire periods.

2 hours ago, Kenai said:

Slight deviation but company cars are becoming less and less good value. BIK goes up and up year by year and the whole thing is being increasingly rigged to make it so only hybrid and electric cars are going to be economic to select as company cars. 

 

Can you take a cash alternative? 

 

You might be surprised how much a company car is actually costing you if you are paying BIK tax and losing out on a cash alternative.

 

I opted out of my company car scheme and over a three year period, my 245 will cost only slightly more (I'm assuming it'll be worth about £10k at 4 years old) than if I'd got a 1.5TSI Golf R Line as a company car. We do have a mileage payment scheme that heavily favours petrol cars though, hence my selection of a 245 over a 184 TDI.

 

If you can get a cash allowance, I'd strongly recommend you download one of those take home pay calculator spreadsheets and plug in the numbers for a company car and compare it with the numbers for taking a cash allowance. You might be surprised what your monthly 'budget' for running a car actually is. There are certainly plenty of people where I work who think a company car only costs them tax and completely forget to account for the cash alternative that isn't landing in their bank account too. 

 

Thanks - fully aware of the BIK position etc, no option to take the cash at this stage, i have tried to go hybrid a few times, ie, nearly ordered a Merc C300de the other week, however the PUC and lack of space in the boot does not work for us at this stage.

The Superb PHEV, Passat GTE were my first choices, but the dates dont line up with when i have to order by.

16 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Depends on your age & eye sight but, those halogen lights aren't all that, I had to change the bulbs to some 4,200k ones but, it didn't extend the light range 

The way high colour temperature bulbs usually work is by putting a blue filter on the bulb which just removes some of the yellow light, so they are actually less bright than they were to start with. You're better off just buying ordinary ultra-bright bulbs (eg Night Breaker or similar).

8 hours ago, Rodge said:

You're better off just buying ordinary ultra-bright bulbs (eg Night Breaker or similar).

I did but at 3,600-3,900k they still shone yellow, the range increase wasn't significantly noticeable & Osram's didn't do all 3 bulbs for the front end of my O3 at that time.

 

I hate it when you see a car with 2 or even 3 colour headlights, the MTEC's I ended up with were longer range than the OEM, possible the same as the night breakers but so sharp in colour, I felt safer driving at night. They also did H7, H8 & H15 so, kept my OCD happy.