Hi from Spain. Has anyone else with an Octavia Scout had difficulty with insurance companies not understanding what model this is, and quoting insurance policies on something Skoda or something Octavia combi, but NOT exactly the Skoda Octavia combi Scout?

Here in Spain I've just purchased a 2020 model year (came off the assembly line in April 2020, so I guess it's the introduced-in-2019 variant) Octavia combi Scout (4x4, 2.0TDI motor, 7-speed DSG automatic transmission, 135kW/184HP) and I'm looking for insurance for ths car.

One of the most responsive and better priced companies ("Verti", a part of FREMAP) doesn't have a Skoda Octavia combi Scout model in their system. They have something they call a Skoda Scout (last manufactured 2017), and they have various Octavia combis; limiting it to 4x4 versions, the closest they come is an Octavia combi RS 4x4 ("DS4" they call it). But my Octavia Scout 2.0TDI DSG-7 is NOT an "RS" (sport) model...

Do I just have the stupid luck to find the best price quote from a company that actually doesn't know this model?

.. or is this a somewhat common occurrence with the somewhat less common "Scout" version of the Octavia combi?

thanks for your thoughts,

Jay

Supplied and registered from new in Spain or an import?

Edited 16 October, 20205 yr by J.R.

Hi J.R.,

The history of this vehicle is a bit of a mystery to me. By chance, we had rented an Octavia combi (not-Scout) and really liked it, so we went looking for the Scout model .. and were told by several Skoda dealers here in Spain that none were available. Looking used, there were just a few (mostly quite old). Then, one lightly used Scout - but without the drive profile select that we wanted - appeared at a Skoda dealer lots near Barcelona; we tested it and found it lacking only in features .. so we Hail Mary'd by asking the new-cars section of that dealer if they couldn't, please, really, look for one of these cars for us ..  and - the salesman himself was very surprised - he found ONE, showing new, in inventory, at a dealer several hundred Km away. He contacted the dealer and we learned that the car had been specially acquired by that dealer for a customer who (like us) had requested a specfic car. We were unable to get any details on the provenance of the vehicle. In the end, that other dealer's deal fell through, and the car was transerred to the dealer near us from whom we now have purchased it.

So, as far as we know, it was a Spain market car, and it's first registry with any driving office was here in Spain. But, that's just as far as we know.

As of when I last looked (a couple of weeks ago) the 2021 Octavia Scout wagon was not yet for sale in Spain. (One Skoda dealer had called me to say that the model was beginning to become available, but only as the front-wheel-drive version so far). But our car was manufactured in April 2020, and we got it on a last-year's-model stock clearance deal, so it can't be a 2021. Unless Skoda simply did not sell the 2019 design 2020 model year Octavia combi Scout 4x4 7-speed DSG 2.0TDI 184HP motor in Spain, I just don't understand why it causes a large insurance company such difficulties in exactly identifying the car. 

So, this leaves me with the academic question of "What the F---?!" and the real question of "Despite the insurance company's willingness to sell me a policy on a _similar_ vehicle (they've quoted my insurance on Octavia Scout RS 4x4 2.0TDI DSG - although I think they may be calling it Octavia Scout RS 2.0TDI DS4), am I at risk that, should I ever need to make a substantial claim on the insurance policy, they'd give me difficulty for having bought a policy "on the wrong car model"!?

many thanks.

 

It sounds like a grey import of a model that was not sold in Spain at that time, as such the insurers wont have it on their database.

 

Is it registered in Spain and if so what does the registration document say that it is? Hopefully that will coincide with what the insurers are quoting for, in my country they use the registration number for the details like engine size, power, emissions etc.

 

I brought over a UK registered RHD Yeti and reregistered it in France, when I came to insure it they were calling it a different model that had a 5 and not 6 speed gearbox, slightly more power & I dont know what other equipment differences as it was not a model sold in the UK just as my car was never sold in France.

 

When I looked at my carte grise (registration document) I saw that they had registered it as the closest model sold in France.

 

Regarding your question of insurance, I would say that if its insured as the same vehicle as it is registered as then you have done everything right and they probably wouldn't even notice, it was not an issue to me as I only have the minimum insurance protecting 3rd parties, I could never claim for my own losses or damage so I really dont care.

 

The incorrect emissions rating cost me a little more to register it and my insurance is a little more but dirt cheap anyway, it really is not worth me stirring up a hornets nest.

 

If I were in your shoes and they were telling me what the vehicle is from the registration number I would just agree, many owners would only know the colour of their vehicle!!!

Edited 16 October, 20205 yr by J.R.

Sounds like a good theory, @J.R.

I wonder, how can I determine, from the VIN number, the original country for which this vehicle was manufactured?

cheers,

 

1 hour ago, JayLibove said:

I wonder, how can I determine, from the VIN number, the original country for which this vehicle was manufactured?

cheers,

You can't, the VIN number doesn't depend on the country where a vehicle is being delivered to.

Hi @PetrolDave, thanks, Erm, hm, well, ok, how could I find out, via some other data or vía?

(Where's that head-scratching emoji when I need it?!)

cheers,

I only discovered that my Octavia had been imported from Greece when I got a full breakdown of the factory build PR codes and one of them said something like "Special Equipment for Cyprus" - it wasn't Greece, I was having a senior moment

 

And the senior moment continues as I cannot for the life of me recall how or where I got the full PR code breakdown, ErwinSkoda perhaps?

Edited 17 October, 20205 yr by J.R.

15 hours ago, JayLibove said:

Hi @PetrolDave, thanks, Erm, hm, well, ok, how could I find out, via some other data or vía?

I *think* the V5 shows whether the vehicle was new when first registered in the UK

Please forgive my ignorance; what is the V5?

 

Just now, JayLibove said:

Please forgive my ignorance; what is the V5?

 

Registration document/owner or registered keeper of the vehicle. Now known as the V5C.

The UK regsistration document, ignore it as its of no relevance to you and it would not show the country of origin were it imported in any case/

28 minutes ago, J.R. said:

The UK regsistration document, ignore it as its of no relevance to you and it would not show the country of origin were it imported in any case/

My bad - I didn't spot that OP is in Spain

   

thanks all.

I've sent an email to the delivering dealer asking if he can find out.