Goodbye Skoda and thanks for twenty years of happy motoring: Toyota here we come!

[Jim2015]

Although our Octy Mk4 has been the best car we've driven, because of long delivery times I was hoping to order a new iV estate for delivery before the warranty runs out in May 2023. When I visited the dealer, I was informed that the Octavia and Superb are currently not being made owing to materials shortage. I was offered a look at an Enyaq, but I don't like it: it's too chunky, too expensive and I don't want a car which cannot be refuelled in a few minutes. None of the other conventional cars in the present Skoda range are suitable, nor are the PHEVS offered by Kia, Citroen and Peugeot: all are too chunky and bland. I had a final check with Skoda Customer Services and they confirmed that it's unlikely an Octavia would be available next year. So after twenty years and six Skodas, we have placed an order for a Toyota Corolla Hybrid estate. It was a great test drive with some clever technology because, despite the two litre engine, over a seven mile journey on a mix of 30mph and unrestricted roads, the car averaged 65mpg with 74% of the time using the battery. I hadn't driven a car with CVT since the dreadful DAF55 many years ago, but it was faultless, although the different engine noise under acceleration will take a little time to get used to. The delivery time is about five months, but as second hand car prices are strong at present I don't mind changing early. Because of the software issues with our Octy for the first year, I'd never keep it (or any PHEV for that matter) beyond the three year warranty as a warranty extension is quite expensive and I'm wary of more expensive software or hardware faults developing.. Also, as long as the Toyota is serviced by a Toyota dealer, the warranty extends after three years by a year per service up to ten years and the battery is guaranteed for fifteen years. I am very sorry to move on from Skoda: until now, the cars have been reliable (except the Octy for its first few months) and our dealer for the last 12 years, Derek Slack Motors, have been excellent. Unfortunately, Skoda has lost the plot as far as I'm concerned and is moving too upmarket as regards pricing, whilst dropping its most suitable cars: the wonderful Yeti (we had two) and the Octy (we also had two). I just hope we don't regret the change and that Toyota's reputation for reliability, as vouched for by Which? magazine, proves to be the case for us. So it's good bye Briskoda and thanks for all the interesting posts and helpful advice since I joined.

Edited 17 May, 2023 by Jim2015

[Chrisg2021]

See ya!

 

 

[threadbear]

Can see my next car being a Toyota too. 10 year warranty is a game changer really. For me anyway.

[Gerrycan]

If the Toyota hybrid estate that you are buying was available in Australia then I would have bought it by now...but it is not 😞 .

 

Toyota hybrids are in high demand and the wait times for the SUVs they insist on foisting on us are out to two years for many models.

 

A couple of years a go my wife and I rented a Corolla hybrid sedan on a holiday in the Northern Territory, it only had the 1.8L engine but easily cruised at the 130kph speed limits that exist on some roads there. Amazed at the economy at those speeds on flat roads where the hybrid system was not supposed to contribute much.

 

Only criticisms I had were that the road noise from the tyres on their coarse tarmac roads ( worse than our Octavia) and I thought the active cruise control placed the vehicle too close to the vehicle in front, even on maximum distance setting.

The CVT was a brilliant thing and offered an enormous range of gears. On a slight decline at 130kph the revs dropped to about 1500 to minimise consumption while maintaining thrust for the set speed.

The aircondtioning system was extremely good in the tropical climate as well and being powered by the battery would run for a reasonable time even with the engine off.

 

I'd be interested in reading your opinions of the car when you have had some experience with it and time to post a review in the review section  

 

 

[mitchec]

I agree with you reguarding the pricing. You can get a specked up Audi A3 or an Audi A4  for not much more than a than the equivalant Octavia or a Superb. Good look with your new car.  

[FatWolfie]

Got to say I find myself baffled by this post. I don’t know if the OP is after a hatch or estate, but there are currently 207 brand new Octavia available, according to the Skoda Uk website. Haven’t filtered for Superbs. There are 7 PHEV Octavia listed.
 

https://cars.skoda-auto.com/210/en-gb/carSearch?CarType=N&Model=BIAD&Model=BIAR&Sort=DATE_OFFER&SortDirection=DESC&_gl=1*1n4sb3j*GA4_ga*ZmFhNGUzMjEtNDA1Yy00OWE2LWE3YTEtM2NlNWJhNDUwNWU1*GA4_ga_MS0YW0TWZD*MTY4NDU3MjkwNy4zLjEuMTY4NDU3MjkyOC4wLjAuMA..

 

I appreciate that taking any of these vehicles may involve a compromise on spec (which is what I did and got my car immediately)* but if you want a new Octavia they are certainly out there.

 

conversely of course the guy might have just fancied a Toyota or something non Skoda, which is absolutely fair play, but availability and being critical of VAG/Skoda seems a bit disingenuous 

 

* the car was literally sat in the showroom, it took 10 days from when I saw the car and did the deal on the spot to getting the car, because I was on holiday. Could have had it in a couple of days.

Edited 20 May, 2023 by FatWolfie

[DavidY]

4 hours ago, FatWolfie said:

Got to say I find myself baffled by this post. I don’t know if the OP is after a hatch or estate, but there are currently 207 brand new Octavia available, according to the Skoda Uk website. Haven’t filtered for Superbs. There are 7 PHEV Octavia listed.
 

https://cars.skoda-auto.com/210/en-gb/carSearch?CarType=N&Model=BIAD&Model=BIAR&Sort=DATE_OFFER&SortDirection=DESC&_gl=1*1n4sb3j*GA4_ga*ZmFhNGUzMjEtNDA1Yy00OWE2LWE3YTEtM2NlNWJhNDUwNWU1*GA4_ga_MS0YW0TWZD*MTY4NDU3MjkwNy4zLjEuMTY4NDU3MjkyOC4wLjAuMA..

 

I appreciate that taking any of these vehicles may involve a compromise on spec (which is what I did and got my car immediately)* but if you want a new Octavia they are certainly out there.

 

conversely of course the guy might have just fancied a Toyota or something non Skoda, which is absolutely fair play, but availability and being critical of VAG/Skoda seems a bit disingenuous 

 

* the car was literally sat in the showroom, it took 10 days from when I saw the car and did the deal on the spot to getting the car, because I was on holiday. Could have had it in a couple of days.

 

As the OP currently has a hybrid estate and has ordered a hybrid estate, I assume he was looking at Skoda hybrid estates, which (in the UK at least) are no longer available for order, with only 6 (2 Octavias & 4 Superbs) on that site.

I'm not sure when Skoda stopped taking orders but the Octavia IVs had disappeared by the October 2022 UK brochure.

 

So those 2 new Octavia IV estates left in the country shown on that site are unlikely to be replenished in any great numbers any time soon (maybe the odd cancelled order), and with the way supply and demand works, I can't believe the dealers who have them are offering much in the way of a discount, so I imagine you'd be looking at the retail price of 38K give or take a few quid.

It looks like there are also 4 Superb IV estates on that site, but the prices seem to start at 45K and go up to 51.7K, and I assume the situation will be similar for discounts.

Meanwhile What Car's site suggests you can get even the most expensive trim of Corolla Hybrid Estate for a target price a little over 35K (after a £2.7K discount), and that would be with full choice of options and colours etc.

 

Skoda have got a good reputation for estate cars - well deserved from my experience up to now - but if you want a hybrid estate car right now or in the next few months, the points on poor availability and pricing of Skodas seem pretty valid to me.

I don't think this is entirely Skoda's fault, but they have ended up in a position which isn't great in terms of the range they can offer.

[DavidY]

I also hope the OP will come back in a year or so, after he has had the Toyota hybrid for a while, and report how well the non-plugin-hybrid compares with the IV.

[SouthernComfort]

When I read all of this and explore what's happening out of curiosity, I'm finding the UK market for these cars very confusing. Skoda UK have all the Octavia IV Estate's listed, including hybrid, and the brochures for them. Nothing to suggest discontinuation. So what happens when you approach a dealer, do they tell you they're no longer available to order?? If so, then why in the UK I wonder? We can order new ones in Aus. (petrol though, hybrid's haven't been marketed here) even though wait times are fairly protracted.

[DavidY]

19 hours ago, SouthernComfort said:

When I read all of this and explore what's happening out of curiosity, I'm finding the UK market for these cars very confusing. Skoda UK have all the Octavia IV Estate's listed, including hybrid, and the brochures for them. Nothing to suggest discontinuation. So what happens when you approach a dealer, do they tell you they're no longer available to order?? If so, then why in the UK I wonder? We can order new ones in Aus. (petrol though, hybrid's haven't been marketed here) even though wait times are fairly protracted.

Where are you seeing the IV models listed?
The last UK brochure I have for Octavias is from April 2023, and the IV (hybrid) models have been deleted from the Octavia price list in that brochure as far as I can tell. Those IV power unit options for Octavias have also disappeared from the UK car configurator.

[SouthernComfort]

33 minutes ago, DavidY said:

Where are you seeing the IV models listed?
The last UK brochure I have for Octavias is from April 2023, and the IV (hybrid) models have been deleted from the Octavia price list in that brochure as far as I can tell. Those IV power unit options for Octavias have also disappeared from the UK car configurator.

 

On the Skoda.co.uk website under 'New Cars', includes downloadable brochures and pricelists. Pretty poor if the site hasn't been updated, wouldn't it be their primary marketing tool?

[MiniNinjaRob]

I’ve had 3 Toyotas before my Octy IV and I won’t have another. Their hybrid system is pretty good but the quality of the cars is poor compared to 15 years ago, the styling is old fashioned and the dealers terrible. I won’t have another one and when I chose a new work car it was between the Corolla hybrid (the more powerful one) and my Octy and the Skoda was miles ahead. 
 

Doubt I’ll ever have a Toyota again, at least not a new one. 

[SkOmk4]

On 21/05/2023 at 23:55, DavidY said:

the IV (hybrid) models have been deleted from the Octavia price list in that brochure as far as I can tell. Those IV power unit options for Octavias have also disappeared from the UK car configurator

This weekend at a car show I was discussing with a Cupra country sales manager. Among other stuff I was asking why the PHEV's (of the VAG group in general) seem to be discontinued in Romania (e.g Octavia PHEV, Formentor PHEV, Golf GTE). He told me those were removed from the car-Configurators and orders were suspended for now, simply because there's an important components shortage for hybrids (not mild-hybrids, but the real ones). On a rather optimistic note, he was saying that they have high hopes they'll be able to accept PHEV orders before the end of this year.

[DavidY]

4 hours ago, SkOmk4 said:

This weekend at a car show I was discussing with a Cupra country sales manager. Among other stuff I was asking why the PHEV's (of the VAG group in general) seem to be discontinued in Romania (e.g Octavia PHEV, Formentor PHEV, Golf GTE). He told me those were removed from the car-Configurators and orders were suspended for now, simply because there's an important components shortage for hybrids (not mild-hybrids, but the real ones). On a rather optimistic note, he was saying that they have high hopes they'll be able to accept PHEV orders before the end of this year.

 

Thanks for this - it's interesting information.

 

I'm not sure where the VW/Seat equivalents are in their model cycle, but there were spyshots last year of a face-lifted Octavia. Originally I think it was due to appear in 2023 but I assume 2024 is more likely now.

 

But I wonder if they will keep the PHEV/IV Octavias until the face-lifted version is announced.

 

[Chrisg2021]

On 22/05/2023 at 08:39, MiniNinjaRob said:

I’ve had 3 Toyotas before my Octy IV and I won’t have another. Their hybrid system is pretty good but the quality of the cars is poor compared to 15 years ago, the styling is old fashioned and the dealers terrible. I won’t have another one and when I chose a new work car it was between the Corolla hybrid (the more powerful one) and my Octy and the Skoda was miles ahead. 
 

Doubt I’ll ever have a Toyota again, at least not a new one. 

The OP is most welcome to make what ever decision he needs to do, I find it weird going from a Vag car to a Toyota, my guess is budget is the main reason, I looked at Toyotas when I was choosing my Company car, I took the Corolla Estate Hybrid for a 15 min test drive, that's all it took to turn it around and say no, it was slow, very very slow (compared to the Octy IV Hybrid, interior was basic and well Japanese. However good luck the OP as I get his pain with faults with the Skoda and cant blame him for moving on, I would of went BWM personally or Tesla (we have model Y and love it)

[MiniNinjaRob]

7 minutes ago, Chrisg2021 said:

The OP is most welcome to make what ever decision he needs to do, I find it weird going from a Vag car to a Toyota, my guess is budget is the main reason, I looked at Toyotas when I was choosing my Company car, I took the Corolla Estate Hybrid for a 15 min test drive, that's all it took to turn it around and say no, it was slow, very very slow (compared to the Octy IV Hybrid, interior was basic and well Japanese. However good luck the OP as I get his pain with faults with the Skoda and cant blame him for moving on, I would of went BWM personally or Tesla (we have model Y and love it)

Yes the lower powered version is pretty slow, I had an Auris with that power train. I test the newer more powerful version and it was pretty quick but not quite as quick as my Octy I reckon. The electric to petrol transition in the Skoda is ok but the Toyota system is amazing, I’ll give them that.