UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Anyone looked through the mini-site yet?
http://www.skoda-auto.com/newoctavia/ho ... nguage=GBR

Interior almost straight out of the Golf MKV, but "nicer" somehow.

Can't wait for the vRS - that will be one desirable car. Shame they don;t sell them in Oz...

Deek.

Must say that does look like a very nice car.

They keep getting better and better

Now you see why VAG is in such trouble after all.

This is essentially a Golf, sold at lower profit margins. The thing is, by stimulating in-house competition (one of old Ferdinand Piëch's favourite games, and one that Bernd Pischetsrieder doesn't seem to be able to avoid) VW ends up with several cars competing for the same consumers. And if Skoda turns out a nicer car than VW (and Audi, admittedly)...

Skoda was supposed to be VW's answer to Volvo, but increasingly feels like the Czech answer to VW itself. The Volkswagen brand just doesn't have the strenght their marketing people believe it has, and I think much of its market lead over VAG's own brands has more to do with production volumes than actual consumer preference.

The Octavia looks VERY nice BTW.

not keen on it to be honest.

although maybe its just that horrible colour. just looks like a boring old mans car to me.

Well it's supposed to be a Volvo competitor (so maybe VAG was right after all ).

Babe RuthLess wrote: This is essentially a Golf, sold at lower profit margins. The thing is, by stimulating in-house competition (one of old Ferdinand Piëch's favourite games, and one that Bernd Pischetsrieder doesn't seem to be able to avoid) VW ends up with several cars competing for the same consumers. And if Skoda turns out a nicer car than VW (and Audi, admittedly)...

Skoda was supposed to be VW's answer to Volvo, but increasingly feels like the Czech answer to VW itself. The Volkswagen brand just doesn't have the strenght their marketing people believe it has, and I think much of its market lead over VAG's own brands has more to do with production volumes than actual consumer preference.

The Octavia has a similar profit margin to the Golf but as the labour and materials cost is less than the Golf, it is therefore cheaper to build and so they can add more equipment and still sell it cheaper.

The thing with cars competing for each other is that they still are after different customer bases who have different values.

Audi are after the BMW market and the quality of the build (in theory) and price reflects this .

VW are after the buyers that would like an Audi but cannot afford the price tag and have to settle for a Ford class car (hence the premium pricing for the segment and the massaging of the image to try to get to Audi levels even if build quality does not reflect this)

Skoda are similar to VW in that they are massaging their image, but are concentrating on the value end of the market but they are spending a lot of money on having excellent build quality (which is shown by consumer tests) as they don't want to get back to their old (although false) image.

So Skoda are(just) below Ford and VW are (just) above Ford in their pricing strategy

Which leaves SEAT: Seat are run by Audi (VW and Audi are run as two seperate companies with each owning different brands).
I suppose SEAT is run as a direct ford competitor and as a flair/sporting brand, although as most of their products are in between both Skoda and VW without the positive reputation that they now both enjoy, Seat's role is becoming increasingly blurred. (why buy a 3 door Ibiza tdi sport for £13500 when you can get a better specced 5 door Fabia vRS for £11990 ( this will also apply to the polo gt when it comes out as they will all have the same engine) and the same could be said about £18000 for a Golf GTi with the Leon Cupra R and Octavia vRS sharing the same engine and being £2500 less).

I'd put SEAT against the new crop of hot hatches, wverything they seem to produce comes out on top. The Arosa TDi, Ibiza Cupra and Leon Cupra all kick the arse of their nearest competitors.

if anyones sees a Arosa TDi for sale can they contact me asap!

KarlM wrote:I'd put SEAT against the new crop of hot hatches, wverything they seem to produce comes out on top. The Arosa TDi, Ibiza Cupra and Leon Cupra all kick the arse of their nearest competitors!

While I'd agree with the placing of the hot hatches (evn though the only one that would kick arse is the 225bhp leon cupra R as the others have similar or better compettors) that still leaves the rest of the range as in thew middle of nowhere, operating in the automotive vacuum that is selling less and less as the quality of the Seats are seen as the worst in VAG by some (although still better than Vauxhall/Opel and Ford)