Skoda Fabia RS

[bobski]

KIWI, I think NZ also has more relaxed import/safety laws - which may make it easier to get vehicles in and makes acceptance of non-core brands higher (my 86 year old grand-father-in-law owns an FTO lol).

RSwag, the cycling community/audience is minuscule compared to the footy community. I see something to do with the giants quite regularly in NSW and most of us don't really like AFL. AFL makes news even in the off season and in season, its all many people talk about in VIC, SA and WA.

In australia, millions spent on AFL is going to get far more exposure than millions spent on cycling. I think its a good move as long as Skoda leverage the wave of interest that will be generated as the giants start up. And I think they will.

I suppose we should resurrect this thread in a year and see how they went

[RSwag]

RSwag, the cycling community/audience is minuscule compared to the footy community. I see something to do with the giants quite regularly in NSW and most of us don't really like AFL. AFL makes news even in the off season and in season, its all many people talk about in VIC, SA and WA.

In australia, millions spent on AFL is going to get far more exposure than millions spent on cycling. I think its a good move as long as Skoda leverage the wave of interest that will be generated as the giants start up. And I think they will.

I suppose we should resurrect this thread in a year and see how they went

I should clarify, if people knew the product and identified with it they would be drawn to such exposure but if i saw a logo on their jersey and didn't know it i would ignore it. That type of branding only finds success when people can easily identify with the brand, it is more brand reinforcement than it is brand building.

Maybe thats the plan, the 2012 start date gives them this year to build more brand recognition to which the GWS deal will strengthen?!

I suppose we should resurrect this thread in a year and see how they went

With any luck i will be proven very very wrong

P.S. Looked at the Skoda Oz website today and it appears the Yeti launch is imminent, all i can complain about now is the Fabia ;-P

[K1W1]

KIWI, I think NZ also has more relaxed import/safety laws - which may make it easier to get vehicles in and makes acceptance of non-core brands higher (my 86 year old grand-father-in-law owns an FTO lol).

With regards to used cars certainly. Virtually every hire car in NZ is a used Japanese import and Toyota, Nissan and Subaru delareships all carry Japanese model parts manuals so they can supply spare parts.

As far as new cars are concerned I think the regulations in NZ are essentially that if the vehicle is right and drive (naturally) and it meets either the US or the European or ADR safety standards it's allowed. There are no NZ specific standards in the way that Australian motoring is stangled by ADR and really important things like having to have ADR stamps on seat belt buckles for goodness sake.

BTW: I have mentioned this before but in the early 1980's one of my customers in NZ was actually the largest Skoda wrecker in the world (which wasn't hard when you think about it). He used to regularly ship Skoda parts from NZ back to all parts of Europe.