Here where I live the local Honda dealer has a wonderful new showroom. Gives you a good impression when you walk in. And two Skoda dealers not far from me works out of an old petrol stations (one I think still is a petrol station.

I went to a local Skoda dealership. I looked was looking at a 05 reg Fabia vRS. The car was on the forecourt complete with for sale prices and so on. So the guy showed me the car and it was filthy. There was mud all over the carpets, the seats were not very clean, there was even some clear wrapping paper on the floor. The outside was also dirty. Needless to say I wasnt impressed.

The difference is though' date=' that Honda never had a 'tatty cheap and nasty' image to shed. Skoda did, and in some peoples eyes, sadly, they still do.

Unjustified granted, but dirt sticks and can't simply be washed away with a bit of VAG and VFM input.[/quote']

AFAIK' date=' GM and Ford have huge finance departments - so if they can sell expensive cars at low margins but on finance, they then make a fair bit on the finance deal. So to a certain extent they're not aiming to sell cars, it's just a device for lending people money...

[/quote']

I'd heard that too, but they're still making huge losses, so god knows what the break even price of a vehicle would actually be!

Regarding a budget model Fabia, theres talk of Skoda building the current model Fabia in Russia when the new one comes out shortly and selling it as a rival to the Dacia Logan, but thats probably just for the Russian market.

I'd heard that too, but they're still making huge losses, so god knows what the break even price of a vehicle would actually be!

Well...here are 2006Q2 results for Ford (just for the US by the looks).

"Operations" are at a loss of $48m, *but* this is then compared with profits of $936m for 2005Q2...and the net loss for the period if $128m, and at same time the company is valued at $23.6billion...so a few million losses every so often can probably be weathered...

Rob.

Going back to the "are Skoda vfm" question, there's a very good review of the Roomster in Autocar today in which one of their criticisms is that Skodas are no longer cheap. Indeed a similar engined Berlingo can be had for

Going back to the "are Skoda vfm" question, there's a very good review of the Roomster in Autocar today in which one of their criticisms is that Skodas are no longer cheap. Indeed a similar engined Berlingo can be had for

in my opinion skoda is value for money, as said in so many posts...

YES - Skoda's are getting more expensive, but the build quality is ever increasing also, i have a 5yr old Octy and very little has went wrong with it, if i owned a 5yr old Ford or Vauxhall the thing would be falling to bits right now.

i dont rate Fords or Vauxhalls at all, my last expedition with Vauxhall included an Omega and after a year or two it required an engine rebuild, a new auto gearbox and countless other issues. never again!

theres not much on the market you can really compare a Skoda to if you look outside the VW group and also as previously stated if you compare an Octavia to the likes of a Golf, the price differences are quite a bit.

if you want a cheap car, buy a Kia, if you want a less expensive good car buy a Skoda.

You get what you pay for.

YES - Skoda's are getting more expensive, but the build quality is ever increasing also, i have a 5yr old Octy and very little has went wrong with it, if i owned a 5yr old Ford or Vauxhall the thing would be falling to bits right now.

Funny I had the opposite experience

I also notice on Warranty-Direct's web site the reliability index for the Mondeo is (just!) better than the Fabia (which backs up my experience!)

Chris

Funny I had the opposite experience

I also notice on Warranty-Direct's web site the reliability index for the Mondeo is (just!) better than the Fabia (which backs up my experience!)

Chris

Yep me too, Fords are infinitely more reliable than any of the Skodas on the fleet, I have to say however that Vauxhall's have not been very reliable.

MK1 Octavias are just so basic and cheap looking with horrible interior plastics too, give the choice of a 5 year old Mondeo or 5 year old Octavia I wouldn't be driving away in the Skoda.

MK1 Octavias are just so basic and cheap looking with horrible interior plastics too, give the choice of a 5 year old Mondeo or 5 year old Octavia I wouldn't be driving away in the Skoda.

Thanks :eek:

Would a 5 year old Mondeo be the current model or the previous one?

I realise Ford's have improved a lot their interior quality but my dad had a previous generation Mondeo and that truly was cheap. It never broke down on him although stuff did start needing replacement parts before he traded it in for a Focus.

But the list price of that car was like

A good comparison would be the Octy vs the Passat.

My brother in law has the Passat and it has some refinements over the Octy as follows:-

Bonnet lifters

LCD lights on air vents (a nice touch)

Four sprung clips in drinks holder - useful for a mobile etc

I think its probably fair to compare the mark 1 octy to the old shape Passat (as this is what my brother-in-law has, 52 plate 130bhp 1.9 tdi).

List price for the Passat £17,710

List price for the Octy 1 £13,895

Okay now consider the new Octy and New Passat, again equivalent models.

List price for Passat £18,765

List price for Octy 2 £16,925

As you can clearly see, the gap has narrowed fairly significantly. So the answer is IMO that Skoda are still good value for money, but they will probably not be for much longer.

On the other hand, residuals should improve.

Yep me too, Fords are infinitely more reliable than any of the Skodas on the fleet, I have to say however that Vauxhall's have not been very reliable.

the new focus isnt all that reliable, a few people and a few mates of mine whos dads have just got a new focus has had to take it back several times because of electrical problems etc.... and what i dont understand is why are we all comparing the octavia to a vectra or a mondeo.... the octavia is a small family car there fore a different class the shouldnt you be comparing the Superb to the Mondeo....

also reading free leather with a mondeo Ghia - comparing that to a 1.9tdi elegance, the new mondeo is just around the corner and it is a old car now its been a while...they have to spec the car up to shift a few more to make room for the new one. i think the octy has only been out for a few years. still has a few more to take on before the new one is out.

but they also say the focus takes about 14hours to build where as a golf takes 55hours.... the octavia must be about the same as the golf maybe a little less.... you could put that into the picture too. maybe?

A good comparison would be the Octy vs the Passat.

Sorry but i'd have to disagree there, the Octy is a class below the passat and more comparable to the Golf/Jetta.

Would a 5 year old Mondeo be the current model or the previous one?

The Mk3 was introduced in 2000 I believe and was a big step up from the Mk2

Chris