Deals being done?

[woofy]

Yep as I said, 20+% is at least the minimum and that is usually before dealer delivery which for most jap imports into Melb around $250 cost. I've noticed VAG have a habit of charging huge amounts.

We were looking into the Tiguan, and despite it starting lower than a Forester it became a lot more expensive once DD was added. I like how everything has to be driveaway as its stopped that kind of hidden markups going on.

[gregozedobe]

If you actually cared about the Skoda product and its future here in OZ you would be best to keep your PERSONAL comments on pricing off the site.

I have just purchased a 1.8tsi DSG wagon Octy, i really dont need to contend with people using this forum to destroy pricing and bring my resale value down.

Also if everyone who wants one starts pushing dealers to slash pricing they will inevitably want to give up the franchise because it makes no sense to have work shops, showrooms, admin and staff to service all this when you are selling maybe a hand full of cars a month and making nothing on each.

I think we should all support it until its on its feet rather than digging it an early grave, dont you????

Sorry Skoda Convert, I'm going disagree (politely) with you on almost everything you say. Here are some of my contrasting opinions:

If you wanted to buy a new car that would have good resale value in the future you should have purchased a long established brand with a good reputation for reliability (eg Toyota). Buying a Skoda was not a particularly inspired choice, being a relatively unkown (in Oz) brand.

A secondhand car is only worth as much as what someone else is willing to pay for it at the time of sale, and the opinions of a very small number of dedicated enthusiasts on a relatively obscure car forum (ie here) isn't going to have much of an impact either way.

I intend to keep my Oct for long enough that resale values are not very important (and I love it, so that won't be too arduous).

I have no sympathy for dealers on pricing of new cars - if they don't want to sell at a particular price then they don't have to. They are professional sales people, it is their job to get a smuch money as possible for each new car sale.

As for those deeply discounted prices on offer for pre-FL Octys, you can be sure the Skoda Oz are supporting that pricing. Much of the real profit in new cars is in the long term servicing and spare parts anyway.

I'm happy that memebers of this forum can use the info they get here to get a better deal on their new cars, we all like to get useful info for free - and I'm sure you have too.

And yes, I supported Skoda Oz by paying a not very discounted price for a well optioned vRS Octy wagon, so I put my money where my mouth was.

[woofy]

^ ditto....I keep cars for about 6-8yrs over their lifetime, by rotating my work car as our personal car every 3-4 yrs. Seeing as Skoda was new I factored it will either make or break in that time, but either way won't matter too much. At this stage I figure its doing ok seeing as there has been a GFC and they are still selling well.

[Skoda Convert]

Heres the challenege............

Let's go down the path of "put your money where your mouth is" i will give anyone on this site $1,000 cash who can prove to me that dealers make more than 4% per unit on average new model or run out. The only catch is you will have to pay me $10,000 cash if you can't.

[Skoda Convert]

If the dealer wasn't making money then they wouldn't sell the car.

Look at the maths on this. Even if they were selling "at cost" then $8346 on top of $32990 is 25.3% mark-up if they expect people to pay RRP. Maybe they would sell more cars & have to stuff around less with haggling if they had a consistent 15% markup & no deals (like buying groceries).

Fleet deals are discounted higher than the retail clients. They are mutually exclusive, dealers are able to give higher discounts to factory approved fleet clients becaue the factory give more money to facilitate this discount. The dealer is a medium for this purchase. They are guidelines set out by the franchiser, the manufacturer and have nothing to do with franchisee the dealer. The dealer can only discount by their standard margin unless they are accessing money for fleet or a run out program.

As for the 25% mark up if you take out the factory bonus on end of model life, which i can tell you is 13-16%, you are inevitably left with the 9% i talked about originally.

I am no dealership advocate, get what you think is fair and reasonable out of them but i would hate to think we are arming people with info that would be setting them up for a frustrating and horrible experience buying their new car because they are ill informed.

[Skoda Convert]

Holden might have had 9%, but that is BS in most other cases. I know one company starting with M that I know for fact what their margins are and it was more than double that. Not to say that Skoda don't have a lower one, but seeing as they are higher priced here compared to VW as in other countries, I'd say they do alright.

So lets take a mazda 6 for example seeming though you brought the M product into the equation. Lets say you wanted to buy the Luxury, which retails for around $43,000, which would therefor give us a high profit margin of $6,000 for example (not reality but bare with me) According to the all on this site you should be paying 20-30% less so therefore the selling dealer should lose between $1600-5,300 per unit.
It probably exacerbates the poor experience people have when going into dealerships because they go in with unrealistic expectations thinking you have armed them with reliable information and end up hating the sales person for telling them the reality.

You really do not understand the impact you are having with such ill informed posts

[gregozedobe]

You really don't know what you are talking about

Wow, way to go if you want to win friends and influence people !

If you come into a community forum like this one as a newbie and immediately start throwing your weight around without establishing some credibility first you could be perceived as a rude interloper, and then you may find the group dynamic of a forum can be quite cruel and ruthless (like all the chooks in a flock pecking at a weak chook until it dies).

Now we'll all think about posting some made up some lies about what huge discounts we got on all our new Skodas just to annoy you

[Skoda Convert]

Wow, way to go if you want to win friends and influence people !

If you come into a community forum like this one as a newbie and immediately start throwing your weight around without establishing some credibility first you could be perceived as a rude interloper, and then you may find the group dynamic of a forum can be quite cruel and ruthless (like all the chooks in a flock pecking at a weak chook until it dies).

Now we'll all think about posting some made up some lies about what huge discounts we got on all our new Skodas just to annoy you

I didn't necessarily come into this forum to make friends, just to get some real world info.

Admittedly my execution is nothing short of blunt and somewhat unecessary given the original tone of the responses but if this forums administrators would give me an online version of being pecked to death then so be it. It just proves they would prefer people on there site sprouting things that are misleading ad unhelpful.

As for posting made up lies about huge discounts you get on Skoda's, it won't really bother me as much as you think, the unfortunate thing is that someone will log on here to get what they perceive to be realistic 'real world' info only to find they go out to buy their new car and smash heads with every consultant they deal with and inevitbaley have a horrible buying experience and probably get fed up and buy another product

All that rubbish aside i will pull my head in and post on thing that won't get me so unecessarily upset........................

Cheers

[Golf Loon]

Play nice you guys, I dont want to have to edit the first thread in the Skoda forum

Differing opinions are fine, please dont criticize others or their opinionss, they are entitled to them.

I personally like the Skodas a lot and a Yellow Octy Wagon will be in my Garage someday. I like many others am waiting to see what happens with Skoda and a lot of that outcome is dictated by the dealers and how they treat customers, not just at time of purchase, but how knowledgeable and helpful they are afterwards.

It would be nice to have contact with people with Skoda who are knowledgeable about the product and are helpful, but that is not always the case. This is one issue which Skoda need to address if they are to have a longterm place in the marketplace.

We have seen it before with SEAT, who were badly marketed and managed and so imports were stopped after 6 years. I now end up with most of the SEATs in Sydney for wrecking or restoration as no-one else wants to know. I hope the same thing does not happen to Skoda.

You blokes are pioneers and the important thing is not resale or what you paid for it, but how much you like the car.

Peace.
Matt

[gldgti]

Well said Matt.

I'd just offer that i cant speak for Skoda, but on the whole discount thing - why shouldnt a dealer sell a vehicle for at cost given some of the rediculous warranties offered today?

there are some very different kettles of fish in the new car market, and i'd say as a rule of thumb that the better quality vehicles are sold with seemingly crap warranties (like VW).

Think about another M brand, selling cars with "10 year powertrain warranty", or "unlimited km". This means they are almost guaranteed huge revenue in the future for every customer (epecially fleet customers) that buys a car from them. if you have to replace the entire engine for a 380, its gonna be cheap considering you get that customer back for so many $300 services.

[Skoda Convert]

Apologize if i offended

I admit my posts were out of line but i'm sorry guys i will have to agree to disagree. As i said there seems to be a lot of misleading information being thrown about in relation to warranties, gross profit etc and there also seems to be a disconnection between the fact that dealers and manufacturers are 2 completely separate entities. The warranty is a factory item and has nothing to do with a dealer other than the dealer being the facilitator of that warranty work to be completed and honored.

All i'm saying is that Skoda, the product we apparently admire and want to see succeed is very very low volume and as was stated earlier we are the PIONEERS of the product and it's future in this country. Based on peoples perceptions on how they should be screwing the very companies who have put there money into supporting the product, i can't foresee this being a very bright future.

Fingers crossed my posts are just dribble and the volume picks up soon and all this will become null and void

Also Golf Loon and gidgti, thanks for your posts and thanks for not taking what i type so seriously, behind all my BS i'm actually quite knowledgable about the brand (VW Group) and would hate to see something with so much potential not being supported by a forum set up for its enthusiasts

[gldgti]

But the dealer still gets some of the service revenue right? (asking, not pressing point )

[brad]

But the dealer still gets some of the service revenue right? (asking, not pressing point )

Yes they do.

from my experience, Warranty work is a loss-maker for most dealerships unless you have a really good warranty clerke.

[woofy]

To keep it simple Skoda convert, I know exactly what the margins are on a new 6. I've known for years, and when I bought one in 2006 (which I still have) I can tell you I didn't get any runaround by the dealer, they just asked me what my offer was for it, and the deal was done.

I won't tell you why or how, because that's none of your business. I don't know what it is exactly on a VAG car, but in general terms, I have a better than average idea. Your scenerio below isn't fiction by the way, I've seen it many times with the exact car you mentioned. I don't know anyone who has paid RRP except for on limited run Ferraris.

I really don't know why you are so upset, you seem to be obsessed with a perceived drop in the value of a car by every post someone makes. If you are worried about values, buy a house, not a car. And especially not a new brand.

So lets take a mazda 6 for example seeming though you brought the M product into the equation. Lets say you wanted to buy the Luxury, which retails for around $43,000, which would therefor give us a high profit margin of $6,000 for example (not reality but bare with me) According to the all knowledgeable ones on this site you should be paying 20-30% less so therefore the selling dealer should lose between $1600-5,300 per unit.

You do not know what you are talking about and making generalized statements about one off scenario's does not do anyone any good. It probably exacerbates the poor experience people have when going into dealerships because they go in with unrealistic expectations thinking you have armed them with reliable information and end up hating the sales person for telling them the reality.

You really do not understand the impact you are having with such ill informed posts

[brad]

I really don't know why you are so upset, you seem to be obsessed with a perceived drop in the value of a car by every post someone makes. If you are worried about values, buy a house, not a car. And especially not a new brand.

Yep, I thought I got a good deal on my Octy but it has dropped $7500 in 12 months. Thank goodness it's great to drive