On my second Skoda right now and as good as the first one (Octavia 2) was, beginning to realise the second one (Octavia 3) was perhaps a case of miss-placed brand loyalty. Octavia 4 is a nice looking thing but has not reversed any of the downgrades brought in with the Octavia 3 - It has even added a few more.  Starting too think about what else is out there, Ford Focus is the 'obvious' alternative for me but don't want a 1 litre, don't want a hybrid of any variety and the ST is Just a bit much . Had a look in Volvo's direction (despite suspecting they would be too expensive) - almost immediately stumbled across this add. Now it may well be that this would appeal to many but it's like someone specifically set out do produce an add steer me clear of their product - "Like your smartphone But Bigger" - Well my phone is just a phone, not a smart phone, I don't even want my phone to be like a smart phone.  For a car I can not think of anything less appealing than being like a big smart phone.

 

 

Like a smartphone?...does that mean its made in China?

56 minutes ago, xman said:

Like a smartphone?...does that mean its made in China?

It means it’ll go faulty after the first update and the battery will die. 

3 hours ago, Octy0GG said:

For a car I can not think of anything less appealing than being like a big smart phone.

It weighs a ton, burns "fuel" like it's going out of fashion, and doesn't do what you want?

Oh well, at least it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one that is not persuaded by the "Like your smartphone But Bigger" sales pitch. 

My wife is in her second Ford. Had an S Max for just over 8 years from new, and never had a single issue with it. She is now in a Focus St 250 estate, and apart from a faulty steering rack (faulty from factory when new) it has been utterly reliable as well. Drives well, handles well, has a great usable boot and is way more adapt at controlling road surface imperfections than most people would expect. 

Unfortunately plenty of people want a car that is full of 'features' and don't really care that it's not very good as a car.

It occurs to me that the average Skoda driver / Briskoda member may not be exactly the target audience that Volvo are aiming at.

Priced much the same if not less than Kodiaq vRS, and less than the most expensive Enyaq, so that will be the customers at the more expensive price point rather than the average.

8 hours ago, Aspman said:

Unfortunately plenty of people want a car that is full of 'features' and don't really care that it's not very good as a car.

Aye - that's the depressing thing. I guess these are the folk this add is aimed at.

This advert is not unique, can't remember the brands and models but quite a lot of the car adverts on TV seem to focus on infotainment systems. Not sure but was it a Seat where you were supposed to zoom around while the car took fun photographs that it would then send to your mates.

 

To restore some sanity - A proper car advert from back in the day.

 

 

Skoda concentrate on just the cars and the simply clever stuff and do not go with gimmicks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 April, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Making a car work as a car is hard and expensive.

 

Adding electronic features via a touch screen is cheap and easy since after all it's just software and you can outsource that to India.

Even better just put ina  cheap screen, make it compatible with Google and Apple and then your customers bring the features for you via their phones.

 

 

main issue with it... most people in the "target Customer group" cant connect their smartphones to the straight forward, as standard, bluetooth in oh so many soft roaders and mpvs as it is*. so the odds of them managing to do it in complicated infotainment systems and actually use the wonderful features is... well, not great.

 

*purely anecdotal, based on my many yrs experience of watching the target customers on the school runs with phones in hand.... who tf are all talking to all the time anyway???

Software is so easy that VW thought they could have it done in-house.  They were so wrong.

They should get back the people that designed their Emissions Cheat to sort out the mess they have got themselves in.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/484705-kphmph/page/18

 

http://insideevs.com/news/451790/vw-id3-multiple-bugs-mind-the-explenation

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 13 April, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

3 hours ago, Aspman said:

Making a car work as a car is hard and expensive.

 

Adding electronic features via a touch screen is cheap and easy since after all it's just software and you can outsource that to India.

Even better just put ina  cheap screen, make it compatible with Google and Apple and then your customers bring the features for you via their phones.

 

 

Indeed. A motoring press that was interested in cars rather than infotainment systems could help educate more consumers about this con  - but not much chance of that.

Like your smartphone but even more of a chocolate teapot!

3 hours ago, mac11irl said:

main issue with it... most people in the "target Customer group" cant connect their smartphones to the straight forward, as standard, bluetooth in oh so many soft roaders and mpvs as it is*. so the odds of them managing to do it in complicated infotainment systems and actually use the wonderful features is... well, not great.

 

*purely anecdotal, based on my many yrs experience of watching the target customers on the school runs with phones in hand.... who tf are all talking to all the time anyway???

 

I've worked in IT professionally for nearly 25yr and I still find dealing with car ICE tech a total ballache.

 

Million pound high assurance critial systems...nae bother. Updating the maps on the car...nearly impossible*

 

(*RaRo map update needs a 33Gb download, 2x accounts created to access the download, the download needs to use a windows client and a 64Gb min USB stick,

The USB stick needs to be formatted in FAT32, a non standard and non-supported filesystem in Win10).

Edited 13 April, 20215 yr by Aspman

2 hours ago, Aspman said:

 

I've worked in IT professionally for nearly 25yr and I still find dealing with car ICE tech a total ballache.

 

Million pound high assurance critial systems...nae bother. Updating the maps on the car...nearly impossible*

 

(*RaRo map update needs a 33Gb download, 2x accounts created to access the download, the download needs to use a windows client and a 64Gb min USB stick,

The USB stick needs to be formatted in FAT32, a non standard and non-supported filesystem in Win10).

Aye.

 

If it were as easy as it ought to be / is claimed to be -  How about this Skoda. 

Forget about the 'complimentary' car wash with a service how about a complimentary satnav update instead?

My BMW used to update over the air. The car had an eSIM and talked home to Baviara. As long as the map subscription was in date it would updated itself and BMW paid for the data.

22 minutes ago, Aspman said:

the map subscription was in date it would updated itself and BMW paid for the data.

Er, doesn't that mean you were paying BMW for the data rather than, say, Vodkafone?

37 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Er, doesn't that mean you were paying BMW for the data rather than, say, Vodkafone?

 

The data was 'free at the point of delivery' I guess.

 

The car was doing other things over the air as well I wasn't paying for.

This is more "Like your smartphone only bigger" 

Lol that's the walkie Talkie isn't it?

 

The building that melts cars and starts fires. So yes just like some mobile phones.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675

 

Well if the “XC60 is like a smart phone only bigger” that’ll mean the XC60 will be knackered in 3 years with no battery life, like most smart phones. These Volvos won’t be like the Volvos of old lasting forever. 

 

Personally I think Volvo have lost the plot. 

I think Geely are pure geniuses.   I loved Volvo,s of old but let's be honest when Ford were involved there were issues.  If you had a Volvo at 12 years old when the steering lock / ignition decided it was time to self destruct or the alarm siren decided it would die and lock you out and disabled the car and locks it was a bit of a PITA.     This is going to be the new Normal with many Manufacturers long before a lifetime which seems to be 8 years.  With some it can be a week after the warranty expires.

Edited 28 April, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot