Skoda Sales

[2009fsi]

You have to wonder whether/if the dealers ever look at owners' forums. A smart company would certainly monitor them to be aware of what is going on out there in the real world. If VAG were really serious they could justify such a small budget to monitor and react to our input.

One has to be first interested in getting feedback, including criticism where warranted, then doing something about it Albervin. I do not detect that to be the case with VWAG when it comes to their Skoda products.
A terrible shame really, because I'm sure there is a market for Superb in Australia if it was marketed properly. There is space between Falcadores & the larger BMW, Mercedes & other Euro makes, including some of VWG own products. One wonders if the problem VWAG foresees is better product placement & promotion might undermine Passat sales at the lower end & threaten the value for money of what I reckon are overpriced Audis.

Originally Posted by Aware: How can Skoda expect to grow? - if I went to the dealer to look at an Octavia or Superb and there wasn't anything there to look at I'd probably strike them from the list straight away.

If there is one thing you try before you buy, it is a car. And if you are like me & don't care so much about colour, you want to know what they have in stock & pick one for quickest delivery. When want to buy, I want to buy then; not give them a free loan of my dough on a never never promise. My sister bought an Octavia 77TDI 7DSG sedan. There were only two in Australia, both up on the Sunshine coast. She picked the Arctic Green & it took them hree weeks to get it to Sydney, register & add a couple of extras. If they'd have said they'd have to order & it might be here in 6 months, she'd probably be driving another Nissan now.

Originally Posted by Rooboy: I wonder how many cars were taken and registered for Tour Downunder and where they are now...

That's what I've got Rooboy, a MY10 Superb Elegance V6 sedan which was brought out here as a vip vehicle for 2010 TDU. It was registered 3mths to the TDU entity, used for 3200kms & then put in storage by Skoda/VWAG for 12 months. (There were 3-4 near identical Superb sedans, but a couple of them had been manufactured earlier & they were the ones the Motoring hacks flogged when Superb was released.) In late 2011, mine was reregistered, distributed to a dealer & advertised as a demo at around $46k on carsales then dropped to 42k early 2012 & designated "used" cars still under warranty. A Skoda manager had the one I have for a couple of months, running up to 8200kms. I was going to buy one held in Newcastle, but they'd run a heap of Ks on it, so I made an offer for the one sitting in Skoda Wollongong & they took it. As it turned out it was 6 months younger manufacture than the others & with far less ks on it. Basically half price, virtually new vehicle as far as I was concerned. I continue to be as impressed with it as a car as I was when I went looking for them.

[loz1304]

We have a short memory - for those of us who have previously owned VW products, this tale of Skoda woe is no different from VAG's work over the past 20 years. I have owned a 1994 Golf and a 1998 Passat. Both were niche, over-priced vehicles, sold by a network of dealers that, although well-meaning, had little or no support from VAG. Much of that changed for VW in the past decade - the most significant strategic decision being the appointment of Jutta Dierks as MD of VAG. I recall that one of her first decisions was to chop around $5K off the list price of a Passat. Similarly all VW products were re-priced and re-positioned. Branding was made consistent across the country. Salespeople were trained. Strategies for engaging business people as buyers were executed.
Skoda arrives, and it is like VW in the year 2000. Very good products, over-priced, looking for buyers. Until someone at Skoda HQ gets it into their head that they do not have a marketing plan, simply a couple of clever tactics, Skoda will lanquish. If they are scared of cannibalism of VW sales, they need to remember that a Skoda sale is a VWG sale, just like a VW. But also note that I was never going to by a (previous generation) Passat - it was a Superb or another manufacturer.