Enquired about trading my Sept 02 Octavia RS with 9k miles for a 04 model.

Bought new for 27k euro with optional climate control (not normally standard in Irish models) and rear windscreen wiper. The Skoda dealers in Ireland (and I have rang a few) are depreciating RS's by 5k a year. While a regular 1.4 or 1.9tdi I am told depreciates 4k, as does the Fabia. So he was looking for 10k euro to change. Low mileage or the fact it was bought late in the year made no difference. My impression is that the Skoda dealers in Ireland seem to make no effort at all to attract business. It's almost like they don't want it. And if you try and haggle with them over price it's almost like you were insulting them. The whole thing makes me kind of regret I didn't buy a 2nd hand RS to begin with. I wonder what other peoples experiences have been on trading in their RS's. It seems rip off Ireland is well and truly alive in the car business.

From my (very limited) experience of the Irish car market, this news doesn't surprise me Flanno. I noticed when I was there last year that when I actually managed to "force" the prices out of the dealer on secondhand prices on the range, the smaller engined Skoda models held up better than the large petrol engine models, with the diesels holding the best value of all. Mind you, this was in Co. Donegal so location may have a bearing on this. The overall attitude of the dealer was a little "odd" to say the least - very much "take it, or leave it." This was all for my father-in-law, who was looking at an Octy. In saying this, 18% depreciation in 12 months is not out of the way.

Well I do only around 6-7k miles a year, so I reckon I will keep her for some time yet. No way am I going to get my pants pulled down on a trade in after hearing those prices. What is amazing is the same dealer told me my car would only loose about 3.5-4k a year and less if the mileage was even less. Liars the whole lot of 'em. They just want your business, will tell you anything to make a sale, and then they forget about ya. At least the service dept. was pretty good and sorted out any issues I had in the last year and a half.

If you think that was bad try trading it against another make! In September my wife suddenly developed the urge to buy a Vauxhall Zafira MPV. We were offered only a quater of the Glass Guide trade in value for the Skoda at every Vauxhall dealer we tried. When we give up and I got her to agree to a bigger Skoda (the Octavia) the Skoda dealer offered us 50% above the guide value!

in skoda dealers favour, they offered me 1k more on my car than VW or Seat or MG?! I suppose it all comes down to how much they want your business

Flanno

It always was rip-off Ireland. Buying a new car is a mugs game anyway,10% off the value as soon as you drive away from the dealer, but everybody wants a new one. Why do you want to get rid of a good 2 year old vRS for anyway?? David

All I can say is shop around. It depends on the car you want as well as your trade in, dealers tend to want the more economical and practical cars as they sell better, the Octavia VRS, as nice as it is, is a niche market car, with a petrol engine. Regardless of the fact it'll do 35-40 mpg (Dont know L/100km) people still think its a petrol gussling monster.

Matt

All I can say is shop around. It depends on the car you want as well as your trade in' date=' dealers tend to want the more economical and practical cars as they sell better, the Octavia VRS, as nice as it is, is a niche market car, with a petrol engine. Regardless of the fact it'll do 35-40 mpg (Dont know L/100km) people still think its a petrol gussling monster.

Matt[/quote']

Exactly,and it will take a lot longer to shift off a forecourt over here. David

I only got

You can blame crap trade in prices on the manufacturers, b*&%@~ds keep making to many cars, reduce prices to sell them making a used car at its true value look like abit of a rip off! It drives me mad to know that there is millions of cars just sitting in compounds and car companies are still making more, skoda is no exception.

Matt

Its also the flip-side of all of us wanting cheaper new car prices.

You can't have it both ways unfortunately. Although my dealer did give me top book price on a non-Skoda trade in, so i was more than happy

The problem is worse in Ireland as we pay VRT on new cars which is over 20-30% of the cars value. So you really feel gipped when it comes to trade in time. Furthermore manufacturers have to drop the pre-tax prices of cars into Ireland to make them viable. That is why we have one of the chepest pre-tax prices in the euro zone. Of course if eu tax harmonisation on cars comes in this year it means Ireland's pre-tax prices go up to match the rest of europe, and so does the vrt and finally the overall price. Thankfully the EU are going after the Irish gov. on the VRT ripoff. Another problem in Ireland is that in order for the maufacturer to sell the car at that price point, they often remove equipment and sell them as options. The Rs for example in Ireland is sold with 16" alloys, air con - not climate control, and a crap radio. To upgrade to the same spec as the UK is going to cost over 1000 euro extra. Another ripoff to the customer.

Indeed Flanno as I discovered when investigating purchasing a car in the Free State. One first glance they looked better value than in Northern Ireland, but as you say with all the import hassel and the different spec, I decided it was not worth it.

buying a car is a rip off , so get one you like and keep it till you die....

Correct LOL!!!! Best wishes for future m8

I would disagree with you there motormouth.

Some cars go up in value rather than down, at least in the short term. Agree car are a bad investment, but some are worse than others. My business partner bought a Volvo XC90, D5. Sold it 4 months later for 6k more than he paid for it. He's done the same with a M3 CSL as well (only made 5k on that one).

Also your assertion that keeping till you die is also flawed, after a point it becomes more expensive to keep it that to swap it, although the lowest it will drop is to about

Are you really daft enough to believe what you wrote?

Answers on a postcard please...

Battle of the trolls. Excellent! :thumb:

Battle of the trolls. Excellent! :thumb:

It could hardly be a battle of wits, one of them isn't too well armed