Paul Wakeling Skoda Campbelltown Gone !!!

[Antiplastix]

Just got a letter from Paul Wakeling Motors, where I bought my RS Wagon stating that they "had to undertake a fresh look at the return this buisiness was bringing to ours. Unfortunatly we were unable to see a way foward on current sales levels......and amicably go our seperate ways" (With Skoda)Unsuprisingly they still are offering to service the vehicle but not to do any warranty work.
Hmm......where does this leave me if the other dealers decide the same and I end up having to drive to Melbourne or something to get a warranty issue fixed.

[Bayford Skoda]

Just got a letter from Paul Wakeling Motors, where I bought my RS Wagon stating that they "had to undertake a fresh look at the return this buisiness was bringing to ours. Unfortunatly we were unable to see a way foward on current sales levels......and amicably go our seperate ways" (With Skoda)Unsuprisingly they still are offering to service the vehicle but not to do any warranty work.
Hmm......where does this leave me if the other dealers decide the same and I end up having to drive to Melbourne or something to get a warranty issue fixed.

There are a number of VW dealers who will be able to carry out your servicing... I have an MS Excel spreadsheet with the nationwide service centres. Send me an email heustace@bayford.com.au and ill happily forward it to you.

Please dont lose faith in the brand because a dealer has handed back their franchise. There are big things to come from this brand and our dealer is 110% behind it.

[Jake02]

Just got a letter from Paul Wakeling Motors, where I bought my RS Wagon stating that they "had to undertake a fresh look at the return this buisiness was bringing to ours. Unfortunatly we were unable to see a way foward on current sales levels......and amicably go our seperate ways" (With Skoda)Unsuprisingly they still are offering to service the vehicle but not to do any warranty work.
Hmm......where does this leave me if the other dealers decide the same and I end up having to drive to Melbourne or something to get a warranty issue fixed.

I would like to see just where people on this forum bought their Skodas from, I haven't heard many from Campbelltown. And tbh (and I'm trying to not sound arrogant) but I doubt that the average Skoda buyer lives in Campbelltown anyway! I'm not so sure how they could expect so-called high sales and also, interestingly, Paul Wakeling has been a Skoda dealer for a few years and Skoda sales are at their highest atm. I'm not saying they're selling millions but it does seem a bit weird to me that they give up now. Anyways there is a new dealer in Blacktown run by Trivett (whom I consider to be the king of car dealers in Australia) and I think they'll do somewhat well!

[Antiplastix]

I live in the Northern Suburbs of Wollongong and Campbeltown is only a 20 min. drive away. Paul Wakeling motors actualy did their best to sell me the car I wanted and negotiated. The local Illawarra dealer, Southern Classic Cars, pffft........ I walked around the lot on 3 seperate occasions before having to search out a salesman,that informed me they had no stock and then practicaly insulted me with the trade-in offer on my VW.

[brad]

There are a number of VW dealers who will be able to carry out your servicing... I have an MS Excel spreadsheet with the nationwide service centres. Send me an email heustace@bayford.com.au and ill happily forward it to you.

Please dont lose faith in the brand because a dealer has handed back their franchise. There are big things to come from this brand and our dealer is 110% behind it.

Wakelings is also a VW dealer. They got Skoda & 3-6 months later got VW. I always thought Skoda was just a way of getting the VW dealership.

Wakelings refusal to do warranty work seems at odds with VW Australias comments that "where there is no Skoda dealership conveniently available, a VW or Audi dealership will be able to attend to any repair or warranty needs" (or words to that effect).

Edit: And I haven't even received a letter from Wakelings.

[brad]

I would like to see just where people on this forum bought their Skodas from, I haven't heard many from Campbelltown. And tbh (and I'm trying to not sound arrogant) but I doubt that the average Skoda buyer lives in Campbelltown anyway! I'm not so sure how they could expect so-called high sales and also, interestingly, Paul Wakeling has been a Skoda dealer for a few years and Skoda sales are at their highest atm. I'm not saying they're selling millions but it does seem a bit weird to me that they give up now. Anyways there is a new dealer in Blacktown run by Trivett (whom I consider to be the king of car dealers in Australia) and I think they'll do somewhat well!

I bought my Skoda from Wakelings in July 2008 (I work in the area but live in Sydney South where there are no Skoda dealerships). Wakelings were never overly committed to Skoda & when they got the VW franchise right next door to Skoda, they soon turned the Skoda dealership into a used car area & the VW area was 3x bigger than the Skoda area. One of my mates bought his Skoda from there too.

Campbelltown is a bit of a weird demographic. Sure there a plenty of stereotypical westy bogan housing commission types but there are plenty of affluent folk out that way too (Mount Annan, Harrington Park, etc). The people are more cashed up as well because the houses are heaps cheaper (eg: my house would be half the price in a good suburb of Campbelltown). As for whether they like Skodas.... Well the Holden & Ford dealers do pretty well out there

[pwcar]

I bought mine from Bayford Skoda Preston (from Heath) and the Bayford Volkswagen service centre in Doncaster were very happy to do warranty work on it.
I thought that was a good thing that the Audi and VW dealers were available if a Skoda dealer wasn't close.

[thommo]

I'm like Antiplastix's and live in Wollongong and got a better deal from Waklings. Though I never planned on taking it back there for services. Southern classic cars in Wollongong will be far easier. I got a letter through the week. It also said that I would get something from Skoda Australia about it.

[RSwag]

There are a number of VW dealers who will be able to carry out your servicing... I have an MS Excel spreadsheet with the nationwide service centres. Send me an email heustace@bayford.com.au and ill happily forward it to you.

Please dont lose faith in the brand because a dealer has handed back their franchise. There are big things to come from this brand and our dealer is 110% behind it.

Correct me if i am wrong though Heath but Skoda Australia have gone from 24 dealers national at the end of 2009 to 20 dealers as of today.

This coupled with the fact that you are on track to do less volume (calculated annually), in fact at 450-500 units at the end of June you are about 20-30% down, even the most committed dealers would be second guessing whether the franchise makes good business sense.

It i a sad time for the brand

[Brycem]

RSwag lets stick to the facts. You didn't have the courage to buy a Skoda even though it was a suprior vehicle and obviously now regret your decision. Move on (preferably to the Golf wagon forum) as your obvious delight in bringing this brand down is clear for all to see and rather unattractive.

As a reminder here are the figures for May and ytd to end of May. These do not accord with your suppositions but reflect fact as they were obtained directly from Vfacts:

VFACTS Figures for MAY 2010:

Octavia sold 65 units compared with 52 in May 2009. YTD 322 versus 2009 YTD 273.

Scout sold 10 compared with 7. YTD 47 versus 28.

Superb sold 43 compared with 15. YTD 86 versus 17 (note Superb went on sale in April?)

Roomster 1 compared with 6. YTD 4 versus 29.

Overall sales figures for May 2010 were 119 compared with 80 for May 2009. YTD 459 versus 347.

Monthly figures are up 48.8% and the yearly total 32.3%.

[dsgfh]

Why let the facts get in the way of a good story Brycem? Would be good to update the vfacts thread with these.

[Inego]

Tour de France started yesterday - Skoda.cz is a sponsor of the tour itself, and Skoda Oz are going large with advertising here. The seem to have decided that cyclists and gourmet travelers are their target market. Will be interesting to see the next couple of month's sales!

That said, 4 dealers covering 4 million plus population......

[Jake02]

Correct me if i am wrong though Heath but Skoda Australia have gone from 24 dealers national at the end of 2009 to 20 dealers as of today.

This coupled with the fact that you are on track to do less volume (calculated annually), in fact at 450-500 units at the end of June you are about 20-30% down, even the most committed dealers would be second guessing whether the franchise makes good business sense.

It i a sad time for the brand

I'm sorry, but I don't know where you get these supposed facts from. A lot of people here have proven that Skoda is selling more cars at this point than this time last year. Only if Skoda sales do not pick up will they end up the same or less than less than last year (that's why so many were sold last year, there was a bigger push towards the end of the year). I'd also like to know where you get this negativity from, do you happen to have an inside link to Skoda Australia? Skoda have said that they are happy in their sales, a milestone (3000 cars sold here) is going to be passed this month. The supposed MY11 equipment changes will only add more interest into the brand (I wish they'd let people know that though - its a good form of advertising).

As someone said before and I hinted, go and join the Golf owners club. We don't put s#!t on you for buying a Golf or mention it's flaws (which I could go on about believe me!) so why the hell are you putting S#!t on us because our superior cars are selling at a slow (albeit improving) rate. You know perfectly well that Skodas are new, hence why they're not selling as many as they should, and that it takes more than 5 years to fully establish a new brand into a market. You were prepared for all of this, hence almost buying your username, an RS wagon and yet now, on the VW side you've completely changed positions and everything with the brand is a problem! I'd also add that dealers change car brands all the time, but things aren't made a fuss of then!

[sh|tbmxrider]

Correct me if i am wrong though Heath but Skoda Australia have gone from 24 dealers national at the end of 2009 to 20 dealers as of today.

This coupled with the fact that you are on track to do less volume (calculated annually), in fact at 450-500 units at the end of June you are about 20-30% down, even the most committed dealers would be second guessing whether the franchise makes good business sense.

It i a sad time for the brand

The scene... Tis a beautiful day, sun is shining, birds are a-tweeting...

Mr RSwag looks out his window, sips his cup of tea and decides that he wont go for a stroll outside in the glorious weather, the chance of getting skin cancer are too high.



In short, lay off the negativity pills sunshine, doom and gloom is most unbecoming of you.

[brad]

I forgot to mention that next door to Wakelings Skoda Showroom there was a yard that sold Renault, Fiat & Ssang Yong (?? the ones that make the Rexton). It was there when i bought my car (I actually cross-shopped both Fiat & Renault too) and a VW showroom 3 months later. All three of those marques seem to be soldiering on despite not having a presence in Campbelltown.