Demographics of Skoda Buyers

[BlackOctaviaRS]

We seem to be seeing a lot of reviews at the moment comparing Golf's to Octavia's. As we've seen in Australia, these reviews are typically biased towards the Golf's (the whole motoring "journalist" fraternity around the world appear to be in love with the Mk6 Golf). These comparisons don't always look fair, and don't necessarily reflect why people are buying the Skoda's.

I thought I'd start a thread to get an idea of why people are buying their Skoda's, and what age etc they are?

I'm in my late 20's, and, with a family coming in the next few years, the Octavia wagon was perfect for what we need - space, economy, build quality. We looked at the Mazda 6 wagon, Mondeo wagon, Commodore Sportwagon, and none of them came close to the Skoda.

[bobski]

I'm in my late 20's, and, with a family coming in the next few years, the Octavia wagon was perfect for what we need - space, economy, build quality. We looked at the Mazda 6 wagon, Mondeo wagon, Commodore Sportwagon, and none of them came close to the Skoda.

Similar boat... 32, family in the next few years, captain of my local cricket club so I get to carry around cricket kits... Wagon is perfect...

[Graybags]

Same boat here as well. Baby due in five weeks replacing a wrx
We couldn't find anything that had the space, power, sportiness(word?) refinement and even the looks of the rs for less than 50k.

[zach]

32...replaced Mazda 6 sedan wanted a bigger more accessible boot due to new baby. everyting else in wagon form was much more expensive and didn't have right blend of performance and fuel economy.

Wanted RS but had to settle for 1.8TSI though very happy with it!

[Inego]

45, recently purchased an Octy Scout. Two boys, 7 and 2.

I enjoy gravek roads (but don't get to drive the often enough, and the Octy is roomy enough at the moment, and less ugly inside and out than an Outback (which the Scout replaced)

[spellbound]

58, needed a wagon ,had a liberty spec b wagon 3.0r , wanted a gti but rear space too tight had a mk4 gti before liberty and loved it .

summary wanted lots of go in a wagon , love the rs tfsi .

[woofy]

32, with a 2 yr old, bought a Mazda 6 (I own it) as a work car in mid 2006 after having an Outback (worked owned) for a few months, saw there wasn't much difference in boot size between the Mazda 6 wagon and hatch, but the wagon was auto only. Got that but really wanted the diesel which was delayed at the time. Most of the time its just me in the car for work, but this time of year and when conferences are on, I need to fit a lot of stuff in.We do have an instrument in a large case that fits perfectly in both cars. In fact for my demo of the RS I drove it straight to work, lugged the thing down the stairs and tried putting it in the boot!

Had our Daughter in early 2008 and spied the RSs and also knew about Skoda from Top gear. Did some research and decided to change over cars a bit earlier in 2009. After the GFC the price for them plummeted after they were left with heaps of startup stock. I was wanting to still wait for the proper update (was never told about the interior change a month away which annoyed me though), but found it would be too late in 2009, so sold our 323 special edition to Skoda and changed over in Nov 2008 so we now had my wifes car being a mid sized hatch as well and having it much earlier, so changeover will be with a newer car next time.

Other cars I was contemplating was the XR5 Mondeo, the XR5 Focus, the MPS 3, the 147 Jetta and the new Mazda 6. The 6 I had driven from the week of launch as the local Mazda dealer gave them out as courtesy cars, it was nice, but wanted something different and it wasn't much over the original 6. I couldn't get past the Ford thing, having owned a Falcon at one point, and even though the Mondeo looked nice, all reports said they weren't set up as nicely here as in Europe. It also chewed through a lot more petrol than the RS would. To be honest I considered the Gti Golf for about half a day, but it's just too small, same in the end with the Focus and MPS 3. Actually the WRX hatch was in there as well, but again same size issue. The Jetta I had read and heard from people having some issues with being made in Mexico, and the boot opening was too small when I checked them out. I did look at the just released Tiguan, but again space was tiny really and the price tag for dealer delivery etc and any options was a rort. The sales manager was also an arrogant guy who took down my details for the soon to be released petrol Tiguan and I had not heard from in for months after launch of it. Also briefly considered the Forester XT.

Hmm that came out longer than I thought, but I do tend to research a lot of things, it's in my nature.

[Mr Purple]

28, no kids on the way for a few more years yet.

Basically - was looking at second-hand performance cars including Liberty GT, Mazda 6 MPS etc, and realised I could get a brand new Skoda for around the same price.

Octavia RS previous model got down to $32k driveaway, which is the main reason I ended up with one.

[aslsw]

44, kids are all teenagers and driving themselves around (or would if they hadn't smashed their cars!).

Current car is a Commodore wagon, same before that, a mid-size wagon going back further. Now I figure that I don't need a big car as we hardly ever travel as a family of 5, plus I don't want to pay to drag all that metal around. Have a bit more money these days, so figured we would go for something with class (and gadgets, don't forget the gadgets!).

Looked at Accord Euro, but I thought the interior was too fussy. Mazda 6 seemed to combined bland with fussy (lots of switches on the steering wheel), Ford Mondeo looks great on the outside but bland family car on the inside, didn't bother with the Liberty (and I hate the new ones anyway).

Having driven a Golf R32, I started looking at the Golf but realised you can get more bang for your buck with a Skoda.

Mind you, it hasn't turned up yet so I may ending up hating it...

[K1W1]

50+
Owned more cars than I care to remember from 1960's Morris J4 vans, Holden HQ's through to Porsches. Driven literally thousands of cars and sold almost that many. Driven millions (truly) of kilometres.
The only other vehicle I actually drove this time around was a 6 Diesel but the words plastic and cheap kept rotating through my mind as I drove. Ordered the Skoda 2 days later. Why? I wanted something diesel, practical and economical that offered value for money and was a bit different from all the other tin boxes on the road.

Edit:
Do I care what the NRMA or any other motoring journalist think? Couldn't give a rats.

[backdoc]

32, wanted to take advantage of the 50% Tax rebate and planning on family in the next 12-18 months so wagon was perfect. I had a MkV R32 so wanted to keep it in the VW family and nothing came close on price and performance. Looked at the R36 and couldn't justify spending another 30k on it.

[selurs]

30, no family yet, but almost certainly before this car has done its service. Drove pretty much everything even vaguely related to the Škoda when I bought it:

• Mondeo XR5 (not the Focus - you can't get cruse control on that...go figure) - very nice, superb Volvo engine, great looks, but at $50K drive away, the value didn't stack up. Felt a bit retro on the inside.
• C30 T5 - Same engine as the Mondeo. Reasonable starting price, but options are "they've got to be joking" expensive. E.g. $1500 for metallic paint. I laughed and walked out.
• 3 MPS - Stunner in the looks department from the outside, boring on the inside. My partner hated it - she couldn't read her temp. setting on the dual zone - but I almost went with it anyway. Very, very good car.
• WRX - Heaps of power, best drive out of everything. Bland interior like you wouldn't believe, and absolutely no gadgets.
• Lancer RalliArt - Looks great. It's a Mitsubishi Lancer on the inside. Not a very inspiring drive (the WRX kills it in that department).
• Jetta 147 - Very nice, but extremely harsh ride, and with the same specs as the Octavia RS, costs over $5K more. Seat heaters (my partner's favourite piece of gadgetry) only available with full leather at almost $4K alone.
• Accord Euro - as mentioned the other day, a very competent car, was 3rd in my opinion, but the Honda dealer's in Perth don't understand the word "bargaining", and the drive away price put it well above the Octaiva without any real benefits (I'm not a sunroof person).
• BMW 120 - Very nice, good drive, not great. Well laid out, if boring interior. Options add up very fast though - you pay $5K for the badge alone, so end up with a car $10K more...and the back seats are unusable. Plus, didn't really want to be a "BMW driver".
• Golf 118TSI - Very nice, but once you add all the options, you're paying as much as the Octavia RS, sooo...why?
• Nissan Maxima - hahahahaha. Sad, Nissan, sad.

I was looking for something with a bit of power, something a bit different. Mainstream brands don't really cut it for me, and coming from a (don't judge!) Kia, wanted something a bit nicer. The Octavia was different (same reason I bought a Kia), nice, powerful, had plenty of gadgets, and came in yellow. Sold!

[Jake02]

I'm almost 16 but both my parents are 55-60. Basically, they gave me a list of what they wanted and the budget of around $40-45k (more if the car seemed worth the extra $ for my dad) and being the car guru that I am, came back with a list of what I'd recommend.[LIST][LIST][*]We first looked at the Honda Civic Sport (it's a top-spec model with resonable sportiness and a great equipment list) but that was Thai-built :S.

• Then we looked at a Mazda3 SP23 Lux which was great but a new one was just around the corner (but not quick enough to wait for). We then looked at the Mazda6 Classic and Sports Lux hatch (no manual wagon at the time or diesel) and was put off by the suprising amount of torque steer! Interior plastics are hard and they don't seem to be high-value to me...
• Afterwards we sought after a Golf Pacific 2.0TDI or GT Sport TDI, drove them, were very impressed (and we'd driven a friend's Golf Comfortline 2.0TDI before and loved it, and they've had no problems with it) so that went on this list of possibilities. Also looked at a Passsat, but the base 103TDI isn't value. You had to even option foglights...
• We walked over to Peugeot and had a look at the 308 XSE HDi Hatchback. Drove alright, nice interior, seemed to be good value and with the panoramic roof and 17" alloys was $38k on-road, which was alright, but more than a Mazda6. A 3-month order for a manual gearbox was (B)very(B) offputting and it was even longer if we wanted some options. It was the same for the 207 Wagon (plus the 1.6HDi didn't really move it that well...and the rear legroom was non existant, especially when I'm currently 6ft and my dad is 6ft 3...
• We then looked at the other Frenchies, the Citroen C4 and Renault Megane. The Citroen diesel was auto only and very offputting so we looked at a Megane, which the diesel was a 1.9 only and if you wanted anything optional it was a huge wait, plus the new Megane had been revealed (and still isn't here despite being almost 1 1/2 years old...)
• We looked at Subarus, and after owning a MY00 Liberty for 8 years we were hugely disappointed in the Impreza and Liberty. The Impreza interior quality was much worse than our Liberty's and the engine was exactly the same. The new (at the time) Liberty was too tired.
• Almost gave up and then we went to Skoda and were heavily impressed. So impressed we ordered a 2.0TDI wagon and that was taking a while, so we went for the Octavia RS TFSI Liftback just sitting there, that had arrived straight off the boat for $37k (and then we got accessories and tint etc). Haven't looked back. Hugely impressed with the Skoda brand and what they offer. Great value for money, but they're not a Kia. They're a properly engineered car, with proper quality and a fabulous drive. Sure, it hasn't been perfect, but it's been much better than we expected (quality wise) and I would, as well as my parents would buy another one tomorrow (preferably a Superb V6 Combi, new blue Fabia or Octavia RS Combi or a Yeti 125TDI ) It's just annoying as to the lack of them on the street although this is improving, just today an FL grey Octavia 2.0TDI was in my street

[Bayford Skoda]

Im 26... I drive em because they're free... And they are great cars

[Calais]

Im 23, My vRS is my second new car, the first being a Fiat Punto Sport JTD which I loved to death, but was too small for the amount of travel I do and gear I have to carry with me for work. (mind you the fiat did 85,000km in two years, most of it with a motorcycle trailer behind it, being whipped up and down the east coast of Australia mixing it with b-doubles and sh*thouse roads, I Still miss that car)

When I was looking to replace the Fiat, I wasn't even going to look at a Skoda, until I saw one at Nepean Motor Group, they offered it to me overnight, I bought it the next day.

All I wanted in my new car was grunt, space, features and individuality. The Skoda Octavia vRS has it all.

For the ridiculously low price I paid...... I couldn't have done better.