anyone gone from a BMW to a Skoda and regretted it ?

It does look nice Renton – I might have to ‘compromise’ with a 220 if Mr feet sales says “Too Mucho dinero amigo!” But I’m told they’re well priced on BCH>

I wish they would do an Octavia estate with the 300 ish ponies of the Golf R and Leon but with 4×4 and DSG.

I’m even tempted by the 4×4 Diesel VRS with DSG.

I’m not paying BIK on £40k.

BIK is not all about list price though, its about emissions.

And if it’s company lease I bet there is not much in it in lease cost.

Renton is your car really 2 different colours ? 😯

Taxi drivers use Skodas for very good reasons, the same reasons that the Police and paramedics use them;

Perhaps a better question is why so few of them use Vauxhall or Ford considering their fleet prices are about half RRP for the likes of the big rental companies.

I work for the Fire Service and our fleet cars have changed this week from Vauxhall to Ford. Before that we had Skoda. It seems the van/mini bus fleet is also changing to Ford. We get pretty much the cheapest deal available.

We have a Yeti and an M135i at the min… Skoda seats are much more comfortable than BMW sport seats. I love my BM and have had 2 skodas and 2 BMWs over the last 8 years but the sports seats are not that great on long journeys. Drove my Skoda for 13 hours back from SW france and much better than just 4 hours in the BM..

I wish they would do an Octavia estate with the 300 ish ponies of the Golf R and Leon but with 4×4 and DSG.

I’m even tempted by the 4×4 Diesel VRS with DSG.

Why not get a Golf R estate? Same size boot as the Octavia, and I think only offered with DSG.

FunkyDunc – Member

I’m not paying BIK on £40k.

BIK is not all about list price though, its about emissions.

It’s both, as far as HMRC is concerned if you get a £40k car you should pay more than if you get a £20k car, which is logical.

But of course you don’t get to keep it – the value to the driver is the depreciation of it between getting it and giving it back which is also the cost to the employer – but the rules is the rules and no amount of moaning about it on a cycling forum is going to get them to change their mind – it’s annoying though, I pay BIK on a list price of £28, but we bought my car S/h for half that, I still pay the same as if it was new though.

Boring stuff about Company Car Tax

Why not get a Golf R estate? Same size boot as the Octavia, and I think only offered with DSG.

I didn’t realise they were the same size on the estate, will certainly be looking when the renewal time comes around. The golf does demand a bit of a premium though!

OP: I just wanted to put a shout-out for reducing motoring costs.

Six months ago I swapped my 370hp car for a 150hp family-friendly Golf SV.

It’s a brand new car – and so obviously not Bangernomics – but still represents a big saving over what I had been running immediately before and, indeed, compared 15 years of various performance cars.

It gives me loads more time and money to focus on the most important things in my life: family, cycling and house.

Renton is your car really 2 different colours ?

Don’t know what you mean ? It’s quartz metallic grey and has a bit of flip in the paint.

A simple remap from REVO on my Octavia would take it to around 308bhp and save me around 7k over the Golf r estate.

The golf does demand a bit of a premium though!

I’m not sure it actually does command that much of a premium – when you compare like with like the VAG cars seem fairly similar – one might be a bit pricier but with a better finance deal, or – what really gives the appearance of the pecking order – certain brands get more powerful engines, DSG as standard etc.

One of my riding buddies wend from ’08 plate 325d M-Sport touring to an Octavia VRS ’10 plate, as he wanted a bigger car (the 3 series touring is tiny!).

I was interested to see his thoughts on it, as we were looking for a new estate at the time too. As a passenger, I would say it felt noticeably cheaper inside than the 3 series. He really didn’t get on with it and it was gone in 6 months & replaced with a ’10 plate A6 Le Mans, which was much nicer (dash looks a bit dated in it though?).

Anyway, all relevant to me, as I was toying with all 3 of the above & an F11 5 series estate.

Ended up with the 5 series – It felt better than all of the above, by a big margin. The boot for sure isn’t as big as the Octavia, but it’s a much nicer place to be.

I think my wife’s old 56 plate A3 feels better screwed together than the Octavia that was half its age 😕

10 plate is a mk2 Octavia.

The mk3 is a big step up in quality.

Ended up with the 5 series – It felt better than all of the above, by a big margin. The boot for sure isn’t as big as the Octavia, but it’s a much nicer place to be.

I think my wife’s old 56 plate A3 feels better screwed together than the Octavia that was half its age

When it boils down to it, I doubt there’s much tangible between an Octavia and a Superb – ones bigger, ones smaller – I would bet if you bought the right/wrong one you could have a ‘plusher’ Octavia and a more ‘utilitarian’ Superb.

Sorry to keep banging on about it. You need to compare the interior of the Superb not the Octavia to a BMW for the OP. They really are quite different. A five year old Octavia would be the previous model anyway

I should have mentioned – I did look at the Superb, but it was a bit to (please don’t take offence) ‘old man’ for me.

The current one looks better inside, but the 2012 cars I was looking at was pretty hideous.

renton – Member

Renton is your car really 2 different colours ?

Don’t know what you mean ? It’s quartz metallic grey and has a bit of flip in the paint.

A simple remap from REVO on my Octavia would take it to around 308bhp and save me around 7k over the Golf r estate.

I think they were referring to the first pic, it’s a trick of the light but it looks like the middle of your bonnet and the roof is almost purple.

I’ve driven a few Mercs & BMW’s from work, the base model Superb estate they currently have really is an absolute pleasure to drive, & be driven in.
I’d happily own one, & probably will when they come down in price a bit.

Must be just my eyes, the sides look almost Matt grey and the bonnet and roof etc metallic Royal blue

Shite phone camera is all.

All Manufactures offer large fleet discounts and would give their back teeth to provide the fleet for any of the emergency services, Skoda aren’t alone in that at all.

Perhaps a better question is why so few of them use Vauxhall or Ford considering their fleet prices are about half RRP for the likes of the big rental companies.

All depends on which manufacturer wants their business. Ford and Vauxhall are the biggest sellers in the UK, so don’t tend to make such an effort as they don’t need to. New entrants / smaller players make more effort. Skoda had a whole program for the Emergency services, big discounts, dedicated conversion service (which also put the cars back to original spec so they could be sold 2nd hand after the Police etc had finished with them).

the 3 series touring is tiny!)

I bought a 120d MSport becuase its what I could afford at the time. A week ago I parked it next to a 3 series – its only 30cm bigger than mine. The Octavia is 10cm shorter than the 3 series.

Not sure I want upgrade TBH, the not so little 120d is a cracking car!

The 1 series hatch has really grown on me, if I could justify swapping my wife’s car for a 135 i’d be all over one like a rash 🙂

Mine is a 13 plate 520d…

Isn’t that a bit of a sheep in wolf’s clothing (to quote the Madison MD when he got his)?

I think my wife’s old 56 plate A3 feels better screwed together than the Octavia that was half its age

My colleagues ’06 A3 felt full of unnecessary bells and whistles when compared to my old ’03 Octy vRS, which was far more fun to drive.

But horses for courses eh? 😉

Pimpmaster – it’s the best selling model in range and as it’s a company car it’s a no brainier tax wise. It is plenty quick for an old duffer like me 😀

I think Beemers must have massive body shells cos they are huge on the outside and small on the inside. I have a yeti it’s got more useable room than a x3 and has a much smaller footprint or seems smaller to look at anyway. I really like the look of the new superbs so will look to see what deals are on Dsgs next year. They are using new 7 sp wet clutches now that are supposed to be much more reliable. Next car will be an Auto so we’ll see what the reviews say.

I think Beemers must have massive body shells cos they are huge on the outside and small on the inside.

I took the door liner off my Passat’s driver’s door the other day. There’s another skin inside that holds the window and whatnot in, but the cosmetic one still takes up three or four inches of space. Car felt absolutely massive, and was still entirely functional. Lot of wasted space in cars like these.

Totally skimmed this thread so feel free to shot me, but…

When buying a car do you care about any of the things below, I’ll reverse the order for the stupid 😉

1, Image
2, Value
3, Comfort
4, residuals

(feel free to rearrange the above)

*, Some idiots that can’t distinguish between what they want to what they want to pay

5, the car to be a nice drive before the above

If the answer is 5 then the BMW, if it’s * then I give up, any above that then ask a forum 😉

A car has to get me safely, comfortably and reliably from A to B, I spend the minimum required to acheive that.

Buying into brands is for suckers.

Renton

A simple remap from REVO on my Octavia would take it to around 308bhp and save me around 7k over the Golf r estate.

No it doesn’t as the Golf R is 4×4. Almost as fun as RWD. I thought VRs is FWD which would be a deal breaker for me (not that I’m in the market-I’ll run my ’09 325i touring into the ground).

Hob Nob – Member
The 1 series hatch has really grown on me

Likewise. It’s basically in this shape a 3 series touring front end inside with a slightly – and only slightly – smaller boot. I’ve carried bikes around inside, driven 200 mile journeys in comfort and never got less than an indicated 55mpg also. Plus the 2.0d in this car is quite spirited in sport mode and carries a chunk of torque for mway overtakes. It’s quite underrated, I suspect becuase the MK1 was such a pup.

Our last one grew on me but it was still pretty ugly but our new current model 1 series is much better. I like the look now, it doesn’t hurt my eyes. Lovely car to drive as well.

Mikertroid is 4×4 worth 7k ? Not to me it’s not.

With 308bhp ID say it’s quite important…?

It’s basically in this shape a 3 series touring front end inside with a slightly – and only slightly – smaller boot.

A 3 series touring front end would just be a 3 series front end, and make no mistake, the 3 series isn’t massive but it is significantly bigger and more comfortable (for those of average size and above) than a 1 is. The 3 series touring in efficient dynamics spec has to be one of the most versatile and best value vehicles out there. The last one I had returned 60mpg even with old leadfoot here driving it!

@renton

It depends what you’re after but 300bhp through the front wheels sounds like misery to me!

Either get 4wd or a rear driven car then at least it’ll go where you put it!

http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/10-of-the-fastest-production-front-wheel-drive-cars-globally.html/?a=viewall

Some on here are quite close to 300bhp and they do ok without 4wd.

4×4 is likely to come to the petrol VRS as some point, but obvs it’ll be impractical to retro-fit.

The fancy diff on the 230 is what attracts me to it rather than the extra 10ps – I believe it’s similar to the one on the Sirroco R which is also 300ish PS.

Either way, FWD isn’t really a barrier these days, only followers of his holiness Clarkson should think “err front wheel drive”.

Some on here are quite close to 300bhp and they do ok without 4wd.

But I bet they are quite heavily engineered with that power in mind. Your Octy probably isn’t.