I know most manufacturers start to discount thier genuine parts when a car reaches 10 years old, but it would seem Skoda do not tend to do that.  As an example, take the MK1 Octavia VRS. With many of these cars now worth £1000 or less, who in their right mind would spend nearly that getting a full genuine exhaust and cat? Surely Skoda would look at stock that is just not shifting and start to discount to clear it?

 

Anyone have any insight on Skoda's policy?

No insight, but the MkI VRS is still a highly sought vehicle, especially places such as Briskoda.

If people are after the cars, presumably they'll be after the parts and Škoda will see that stock is still shifting, so won't yet slit the throat and sacrifice that particular cash cow.

1 hour ago, a1topdog said:

I know most manufacturers start to discount thier genuine parts when a car reaches 10 years old,

 

 

Know or believe?

 

My knowledge of manufacturer parts only distributors is that they are always sold for retail price less the clients discount structure, the stock is revalued each year during the stocktake to the new retail price, when demand falls they will not re-order for stock, it becomes a VOR order. Periodically whole lots of parts are sold at auction but they manufacturers never reduce the retail price.

 

On some older stuff there will be an exchange program, an example being the instrument binnacle that I bought for a fire damaged 3 year old Galaxy, it was a new part I recieved but I had to surrender the old one which would have gone into the exchange programme (trouble was it was melted!!!) I think that was less than MRP.

And it wont be Skodas policy but that of VAG, unless the main dealer is also a trade parts distributor like the Ford one I dealt with then all their parts will have come to them via TPS, the dealers hold very little stock, just the filters etc that they need for services etc in their workshops, TPS holds all the stock & any orders for the workshop will be with the dealer within the hour.

Edited 2 March, 20215 yr by J.R.

10 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Know or believe?

Over the years I've experienced both, eg the prices being reduced on the new spares (not across the board, just selected items) ,. and dealers offering some discount incentive schemes on older cars, similar to what Porsche Classic are currently doing. 

10 minutes ago, J.R. said:

And it wont be Skodas policy but that of VAG, unless the main dealer is also a trade parts distributor like the Ford one I dealt with then all their parts will have come to them via TPS, the dealers hold very little stock, just the filters etc that they need for services etc in their workshops, TPS holds all the stock & any orders for the workshop will be with the dealer within the hour.

Agree , it's VAG policy. Even with the likes of TPS the discounts vary wildly by car model.  I had a B7 RS4 and the trade discount varied between 0 and 5pct if I was lucky.  They knew clients would have to pay it

48 minutes ago, Ttaskmaster said:

No insight, but the MkI VRS is still a highly sought vehicle, especially places such as Briskoda.

If people are after the cars, presumably they'll be after the parts and Škoda will see that stock is still shifting, so won't yet slit the throat and sacrifice that particular cash cow.

I think that is why so many VRS get scrapped.  

 

Imagine if you had a lovely example, but it's only worth £2k

 

MOT says you need tyres and brakes all round, an exhaust section, and just for good measure the cambelt and water pump are due.  The cost of that lot could easily far outweigh the value of the car especially if you cant do any of the work yourself.

 

Obviously in this example most parts are available aftermarket, so you could save there, and that's even more reason why i don't see why genuine parts are so much more expensive. Sometimes easily 4-5 times the price of aftermarket. 

3 minutes ago, a1topdog said:

MOT says you need tyres and brakes all round, an exhaust section

That would suggest that you'd been neglecting the normal maintenance requirements of the car.

I think people are too eager to jump ship and buy a new motor. Better the devil you know and all that, rather than buying an unknown used vehicle.

 

42 minutes ago, a1topdog said:

especially if you cant do any of the work yourself.

That is the key. If you can do it yourself, older cars make a lot of sense. If you are paying labour rates, then it car quickly spirals up to a 'beyond economical repair' situation.

 

It's a shame VAG dont support the older cars more so. It's only in recent years that Skoda UK have paid more attention to the history of the brand. I guess they didn't want to remember the rear engined cars.

21 hours ago, a1topdog said:

Imagine if you had a lovely example, but it's only worth £2k

MOT says you need tyres and brakes all round, an exhaust section, and just for good measure the cambelt and water pump are due. 

 

If it's a lovely example, those tend to be kept. I suspect it's more the "It's a VRS, innit" crowd that rag it to feck and knacker it to the point where it's no longer a lovely example.

My own Octy is worth maybe £500-1,000 in current condition, but it's treasured and so it gets parts bought for it.

 

OEM parts pricing often makes no sense anyway. For example, Yamaha charge £15 for a left wing mirror but £78 for the right one, which is more confusing when neither are the ones with reverse threading. They also charge way more for Vmax indicators, even though they're the exact same part numbers as those used on other bikes.