Roomster launched

[sharries]

Reminds me a bit of the Toyota Yaris Verso, which my parents drive.
Looks good...

[OctaviaT81]

The dash is said to be 'modular' which means different bits can be slotted in and out depending on spec. The low end models do look rather cheap but I quite like the high spec ones. Point taken on some of the plastics though, and as a certain someone pointed out to me, no cool venetian blind air vents any more

For those of you that went to Geneva, what about the exterior quality? The finish of the outside of the car (especially the light blue metallic one) looks great. I don't mean just the paint, but the overall look, very smooth

Originally Posted by Kingsley

I took a good look at the Roomster in Geneva. There were, it seemed, several model levels, with one with seats trimmed in half leather, and on the whole it's a very pretty thing, well deserving of its great Skoda heritage.
The one rather distressing thing to me was the poor plastic quality of the dashboard and the doortrims and handles. Instead of soft plastic, there was too much hard black stuff, a Climatronic with really cheap looking 'boombox' style controls, and cheap, obviously silver plastic ,doorhandles and trim around the air inlets on the dash. After the great interiors of all previous Skodas, especially the soft cossetting trim on the Octavia, it is apparent that the cost-cutting, courtesy of VAG group, has already begun, and this is bitterly tragic, just when the wonderful quality of Skoda cars is coming to be fully appreciated. So many people tell me that they will now buy a Skoda because of its perceived value and qualilty, that it is not the time to repeat the grave error that has made a mockery of the image of the once great Mercedes Benz cars. How to get the message through to Volkswagen? Also in common with MB, there starts to be too much brand dilution at VAG by introducing a huge variety of new models to fill those blasted 'niches' that can only lose marques' characters in the long run and eventually destroy the whole psychological reasoning behind customers' brand identifications with long established makes of cars. The marketing men are undoubtedly the worst thing, after crazed designers, to blight the whole car industry, and Skoda must take care not to follow suit here. The Roomster is a lovely little car, will take many sales away from competitors, but beware the creep of 'designer blight', as the 'traditional' radiator design gets distorted, and loses character. I saw some time ago a small picture of what the next Fabia may look like, following on from the Roomster, and it did resemble a Fiat Punto. OUCH! I do hope that people at Skoda are a bit more aware of customer feedback than most other companies seem to be. There is a fashion at the moment for making really ephemerally fashionable cars that will never end up as classic designs, unlike, say, the Octavia and Superb, which undoubtedly will be seen as design classics in years to come. We love our cars.

[gilesk]

That is one ugly Mother of a car/Van, i am feeling a bit queasy

[Moose]

Someone shoot the designers, please. I mean, it looks like a car with room inside, but look how much legroom the rear passengers have, may as well have no rear seats cos anyone over the age of 5 isn't getting in. The boot looks quite small too. I will admit that it does look tall. So basically, if you have kids that are 6ft tall but only have 10" long legs, then this is your car, else, look elsewhere.

[jinxy72]

so wheres the vrs option

[OctaviaT81]

Originally Posted by Moose

Someone shoot the designers, please. I mean, it looks like a car with room inside, but look how much legroom the rear passengers have, may as well have no rear seats cos anyone over the age of 5 isn't getting in. The boot looks quite small too. I will admit that it does look tall. So basically, if you have kids that are 6ft tall but only have 10" long legs, then this is your car, else, look elsewhere.

Errrmm, the legroom is greater than an Octavias and the boot is the same size. The rear seats go back and forwards too so you can increase the boot space/decrease the legroom or vice versa.

[funkyjutel]

Those of you old enough to remember him might say......"It handles like Cyril Smith in a swamp" !!

[OctaviaT81]

Originally Posted by funkyjutel

Those of you old enough to remember him might say......"It handles like Cyril Smith in a swamp" !!

Is that good?

[ChrisRs]

Will be slow due to the poor choice of engines. Suppose those that are going to buy it won’t be bothered by poor performance. Those light colours on the dash are truly awful

[ScoobyChris]

Still not a fan, but being a car enthusiast, I suspect I'm not in the target demographic for it!

Chris

[calderscot]

I'll wait till I see one first, I think you have to see it first before you can judge.
Photo's can be deceiving

[oc-quattro]

Originally Posted by Emily-Elizabeth

Why are car companies trying to make cars these silly cars? The not quite a people carrier and not exactly a hatch back type look. They end up being tall and narrow, so handle like a fat man on a skateboard, and you end up with no boot space and cramped back seats. For example the 1007 (the one with the sliding doors) - we can't give them away!

I think the most sensible car skoda could have done next is a city car to compete with aygo/c1/107. But give it a gutsy engine so it is still fun.

I imagine you can't give away the 1007 because they are **** and not good value for money.

However the Roomster, does not have cramped rear seats and is in fact quite roomy in the rear as you can adjust the rear seats quite a lot to suit you. The boot is very large, even if you have the rear seats pushed all the way back.

The roomster is't narrow, and is only slightly taller than the Octavia Estate.

I can assure you once you see the car in person and drive it, you will appreciate why they are going to sell well. You might now want one for yourself, but you will be able to think of at least one friend, family, coleague who it would suit.

Why would Skoda want to make a citycar? How many Aygo/C1/107's do you see daily? I think the best move for Skoda next would be to make a Rav4 size vehicle.

[OctaviaT81]

Originally Posted by oc-quattro

Why would Skoda want to make a citycar? How many Aygo/C1/107's do you see daily? I think the best move for Skoda next would be to make a Rav4 size vehicle.

Yeti confirmed

[oc-quattro]

The Yeti is quite small though, it is going to be Fabia sized I believe, and what I have seen of the car.

[WoodieGuthrie]

Looks quite smart IMO, but seems to be doing the same thing as the citroen c2, by having a rear window that follows NONE of the lines of the car

almost looks lke a van with plexiglass in....

[L-Y-K]

it does follow, the bottom of the rear windows come from the crease that starts at the front grill, and works its way along the headlamps and then sweeps up at the rear.

[gallego1968]

I`m going to get a test drive, i`m after the 1.6 106bhp version.

[bera]

is this a roomster?

http://www.skodaintedsapartment.net

[ric04vrs]

yes

[bera]

thanks!