Skoda Brand In Thailand

[VanillaSky123]

Definitely a rather 'niche' brand here in Thailand, although already pretty well established, trusted and tested in Europe.

Being since nearly 2 decades under the VW umbrella they have put out some really nice efforts at always good prices.

I am actually considering to go for one here in Thailand, either the Fabia RS or the Octavia 1.8 TSI.

The Fabia RS is a little smaller than a Golf GTI, but being tuned to 200hp by MTM (the distributor in Thailand) it nearly can hold its pace with the GTI. (Priced at 1.49m)

Than there is the Octavia, not in the model range here in Thailand anymore, but apparently they still have a couple, which they alreayd tuned (power up to 200hp, sport springs and MTM alloys) and should be at a price around 1.6-1.7m (did not get a confirmation on the pricing yet though)

Both cars should be decent "Bang for the buck", as the 1.8 TSI with MTM tuning goes to 200hp and is proven to be a good engine....not sure how sporty the whole Octavia package is...I am considering it, as the Fabia just is pretty dreadful interior design wise.

Than there is the Superb, which is surely a great car and anybody looking for a Camry, Accord or Teana should have a look at this Superb....different class in my opinion....does nearly compare with a E-Class Benz (surely in size and quality is not far behind either)....just too big for me. 1.9m

Anbody has any experience with any of those 3 cars and could give me some input.

Going to Bangkok next 3 weeks to at least test drive the Fabia RS, but some valuable insight before would be appreciated.

Once thing is clear: Fabia and Octavia will probably not win any Beauty contest!

Any chance somebody could compare a Octavia or a Superb to the Volvo S60 T4 in terms of driving pleasure, speed, handling?

Cheers

[sparebox2]

The show room is in Siam Paragon. While you are at it, maybe ask if you could test drive the Black Lamboghini park next it it.

[thaicbr]

1.5 million baht for a Skoda. ok then.

[VanillaSky123]

1.5 million baht for a Skoda. ok then.

I see, but 2.5m for a Golf GTI makes so much more sense, right? We all know car prices don't make sense, no need to state the obvious...and anybody who follows a bit of the car scene can tell you that Skoda is one of the most reliable brands nowadays in Europe.

Just look at the Superb and that I would ask 1.5m Baht for this Camry? I take the Skoda everyday.

Biggest and only issues for me are: Design and Resale!

[thaicbr]

1.5 million baht for a Skoda. ok then.

I see, but 2.5m for a Golf GTI makes so much more sense, right? We all know car prices don't make sense, no need to state the obvious...and anybody who follows a bit of the car scene can tell you that Skoda is one of the most reliable brands nowadays in Europe.

Just look at the Superb and that I would ask 1.5m Baht for this Camry? I take the Skoda everyday.

Biggest and only issues for me are: Design and Resale!

I agree daft prices. you have already answered your own question though. resale would be good ONLY if you can find someone with the same passion for Skodas. Or if not then resale value may NOT be a problem but just selling it might.

each to their own. if you get the car then enjoy.

[steveromagnino]

nice little car and MTM I see that badge on a smart looking (guessing here) Audi A1 where i work from time to time.

As Thaicbr notes, the issue is resale, which is already what led me away from the Scirocco and Golf a little and towards the Mini; you don't want to be stuck with a great car that you can't sell because you are the only one that thinks it is great. Skoda vs. Vw vs. Audi....it's definitely down the Seat end of the brand chain here in Thailand with lack of distribution and brand awareness. Not to say that won't change....but could be a while.

When you consider it is 5/8 the price or thereabouts of a Mini or Golf (ok might be 9/16 or 17/32) it makes the little Skoda quite an appealing sort of a machine....then again take a look at a 2010/2011 Golf low mileage DSG ABT/APR tuned....these can be found for 1.8-1.9m but have an issue of sorts with resale (hence the depreciation) so the Skoda could be worse again.....

Did MTM have any of the A1s on show or is the one I see a one off...now that is a sweet little ride. no doubt dwarfs the price of the Skoda RS though. S3 quite a nice little ride too....but again you get back to the issue that Audi, like Skoda, simply doesn't have the market presence here and with that means you get a bit stuck for service, resale, the works.

If all else fails get an exige ;-)

[VanillaSky123]

nice little car and MTM I see that badge on a smart looking (guessing here) Audi A1 where i work from time to time.

As Thaicbr notes, the issue is resale, which is already what led me away from the Scirocco and Golf a little and towards the Mini; you don't want to be stuck with a great car that you can't sell because you are the only one that thinks it is great. Skoda vs. Vw vs. Audi....it's definitely down the Seat end of the brand chain here in Thailand with lack of distribution and brand awareness. Not to say that won't change....but could be a while.

When you consider it is 5/8 the price or thereabouts of a Mini or Golf (ok might be 9/16 or 17/32) it makes the little Skoda quite an appealing sort of a machine....then again take a look at a 2010/2011 Golf low mileage DSG ABT/APR tuned....these can be found for 1.8-1.9m but have an issue of sorts with resale (hence the depreciation) so the Skoda could be worse again.....

Did MTM have any of the A1s on show or is the one I see a one off...now that is a sweet little ride. no doubt dwarfs the price of the Skoda RS though. S3 quite a nice little ride too....but again you get back to the issue that Audi, like Skoda, simply doesn't have the market presence here and with that means you get a bit stuck for service, resale, the works.

If all else fails get an exige ;-)

The A1 is about 2m Baht and only has a 122hp engine which is tuned to about 155hp or something around those lines, unfortunately it is not the 185hp engine (same as the Polo GTI or Fabia RS) otherwise under 2m this what i would like to get.

Going grey market you have the warranty issue, same

as with buying second hand. Skoda gives 5 years on the Fabia RS, all incl....not too shabby.

My thoughts are, if I would get a new (with warranty) GTI at 2.5m Baht, i am pretty sure that after 4 years it would only be worth around 1.5m. So here is the calculation with the Fabia RS, bought new at 1.49m, after 4 years, maybe I could get 0.5-0.7m for it? So I am also loosing around 0.8-1m Baht, same as with the GTI! It looses more %, but as it is cheaper it comes out pretty close....at least from my maybe wrong thoughts....

My missus does not want to go second hand...so not much choices for under 2m.

[caphant]

I remember when the skoda was a big laugh in the 80s, they even made light of it in their print adverts. Now days they are actually great cars. Id take a skoda superb awd over any fwd d segment car (such as accord, cam or teana). A shame there isnt any support for them in thailand so wouldnt be tempted to buy one along with vw and audi no matter the price.

[WarpSpeed]

I remember when the skoda was a big laugh in the 80s, they even made light of it in their print adverts. Now days they are actually great cars. Id take a skoda superb awd over any fwd d segment car (such as accord, cam or teana). A shame there isnt any support for them in thailand so wouldnt be tempted to buy one along with vw and audi no matter the price.

The VW/Audi network is making a come back, here in Bangkok anyways there's quite a few major dealers to service them and a fair few second tier garages that specialize..

[caphant]

Thanks, thats good to know. Im not living in Bangkok but i remember seeing all the service spots for audi and vw in HK/new territories and lamenting the lack of garages with diagnostics. Id own european as i do outside of thailand if i knew i could get affordable and proper support especially down in patters

[steveromagnino]

No idea on the depreciation on the Skoda, there's not enough of them to really know.

Your numbers on the GTI aren't far off though; first 4 years most of these import cars drop around 40% or so, with Mini and Benz from what I could tell doing marginally better, and a few brands like Volvo seeming to do worse.

You get a bigger hit if its a replaced model (so buying a 3 series or Golf or R56 Mini today and selling 4 years from now will be worse than 40%/average) than an existing model later in its run from what I could discern. Especially if the new model is a big improvement as will be the case in the 3, and possibly the Golf which is changing substantially (supposedly).

Ex Demo GTI I think you can run better than 2.4; one with about 5-8,000km should be doable for around 2.2m or so; they drop around 15% for an ex demo which only has test miles on it around 5k. Direct from Thai Yarnyon and you get a new 'run in' car...it's worth checking out. Be ruthless, VW can cut some decent deals unlike some other brands that just smile and say, cannot lah.

I will get a Golf or Audi soon enough to satisfy SHMBO but will likely wait for the Mark VII which i predict is end of next year.

The Citroen and Skoda are interesting enough....priced quite keenly indeed! Tough decision for you I think.....

[WarpSpeed]

Thanks, thats good to know. Im not living in Bangkok but i remember seeing all the service spots for audi and vw in HK/new territories and lamenting the lack of garages with diagnostics. Id own european as i do outside of thailand if i knew i could get affordable and proper support especially down in patters

With the exception of one older BMW when I first got here 10 years ago not realizing SEAT was here and stoopidly listening to the locals who told me that VW was dead here, parts and service expensive or not available I stayed away until a few years ago when I bought my first Vento, since then it's been like home for me, I discovered the SEAT's, Cordoba specifically and now have had owned/own 3 of them.

I do 90% of my own servicing except the more complicated stuff I don't have room for like tranny's (except new clutches and such and I have changed a couple of trannys out) but most don't do a tranny rebuild (or anything else for that matter) with the thoroughness I expect like a full bead blast and/or hot tank clean up of the housing.. Recently though I had to have one of them in for some electrical service and it had quite a few electrical faults and the technician in the second tier shop was a bit confused too but he had the diagnostic equipment to do the job, problem was my car had a one off problem and he was lost as he couldn't fully read the English program well enough to understand as it gave him faults he'd never seen before.

We worked together on it and finally solved it, I should include that the car is Lpg and as I suspected but couldn't verify without electronics diagnostics something had gone off on the LP system that was screwing up the petrol side of the system so it would not rev above 1500rpm without stalling and then they failed to clear out the old faults once several other small wiring problems cropped up and were solved so it kept having problems for several days. We finally got it all cleared up and though at first they were treating me like every other farang being dismissive and patronizing once I worked out with them that I wasn't there to be a thorn but rather to get the problem worked out and I was amply qualified to help with that they worked with me and it got solved to everyone's satisfaction in much shorter order..

Now the car is getting the LP issue resolved at another shop and having to do it all over again .. The car is not a crank or cam fire so they're lost on how to get a proper signal so no joy. We removed the auto lambda (which none of my other cars have) in favor of a manual system like all of my others have been/are but, while the LP works good were back to square one on the benzine and they somehow expected me to accept it like that but that's never gonna happen as the other 3 I've owned/own have had 0 problems like this one with all the same features..

But that brings up another point, though this is all a bit off topic, below are some pictures of a perfectly tuned LP/benzine system and also speaks to Caltex's 95 benzine as this is the inside of my SEAT's intake manifold and it is so spotless it looks like new. I timed and tuned this car myself and it shows no sign of backfire whatsoever as if it did this manifold would be black like the others I've bought in the past.. This car has nearly 300,000k on it and the blue coating you see in the picture is benzine which also shows how well it coats and lubricates, it has a very nice, slippery feel to it which lubricates the top end well, not "dry" like gasohol..

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the other intakes, I put a new flange on this one as they get old and dry and begin to suck air and make the throttle run on when you lift off the gas..

There were some mis-communications on a few other items like a new CV joint boot I wanted them to install since the car was already in there. Apparently it's a complete shock for someone to want to do "maintenance" on something that's not broken yet so they didn't clean out, inspect and replace the boot as I asked, must have been thinking what a silly man I am to want to replace a boot that's still in tact albeit dry rotted, now I have a perfectly new boot and the axle was already taken out for a new outer boot and reinstalled TiT.. The rest wasn't so bad but I still cringe whenever I have to bring a car to anyone on those rare occasions, this is only the first time since being here to be honest..

Edited February 29, 2012 by WarpSpeed

[mjj]

I once had a job testing oils for cars, which involved having the car run 24 hours a day for about 3 months. As one of the drivers i had to drive an Octavia for one of the 8 hour shifts, everyday. I found the Octavia to be a great car. Good comfort for motorways, nice sucure and progressive handling through the twisties and felt strong and durable. None of the Octavias on test missed a beat on rhe test - unlike the Pug 406 and VW Passats.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Skoda, the joke history is long gone.

If you do buy on and sell it in 4 years at those kinda prices, i might be interested in having it off you. ;-)

As for Seat's, I had a Leon Cupra R a few years ago. Loved it, bright yellow it was too.........hmmmmm.

Edited February 29, 2012 by mjj