[vrswell]

Hello all

went to Mitchell Skoda today and ended up test driving two Octy vRS: 09 plate vRS LE (#46) and 09 plate 'standard' vRS - both CR engined.

The LE has just over 44k miles on the clock and is up for £13695, the standard (non-FL interior/exterior vRS has 5k on the clock and is up for £15295, both are grey as it happens.

The LE's interior was much better than the standard vRS but strangely the CR engine sounded quieter in the standard car!?! The leather seats in the LE were comfy and I prefered them to the standard car. Bolero stereo (LE) was very nice (didn't get to try the SD card though so don't know if it suffers from the slow SD response problems), rear screen wipers on both too. The power from 2nd gear onwards was just great :thumbup: - very addictive, bit ponderous in 1st however! The brakes were sharp compared to my Alfa too :thumbup: although overall I thought the car suffered from a little more road and wind noise than my current car - i'd really like to take the LE out for longer though.

Neither had rear parking sensors which is a must for me as I have got used to having them on my last few cars - dealer said £250 to fit. Both have Maxidot.

I liked the LE but am slightly put off by the high mileage (my current Alfa 159 has 24k on the clock, 58 reg). Also at the moment they are playing hard ball over P/X price - the offer at the moment was a little insulting TBH :( but we are working on that........................... ;)

Couple of questions:

1. I checked parkers for tax - there are two LE listings, one in 'F' and one in 'G' - I can't seem to see the difference - does anyone know what is may be?

2. General things to look out for when buying a 2nd hand Octy vRS?

3. General opinion of the LE vRS.

4. It is hard to get a valuation for the LE - the only one I got was from What Car and that said from a dealer the LE with that mileage and age was £13380 - what do others think about the mileage and price?

All advice welcome :)

[WaveyDaveyGravy]

1.&nbsp; Gearbox.&nbsp; DSG is dirtier.<br>

[vrswell]

Ok, thanks for that had forgotten about the DSG box - it was a manual i drove today :)

[bluevrs2]

I think they are both too expensive, what with the vat free offer at the moment on new.If you really like leather a retrim only costs £850 :thumbup:

[Delacroix]

So far as general issues for a s/h octy there should be no big worries for either of those models/year. Its a very reliable car as all the long term tests show, and of course you will have the balance of the warranty for minor things if they show up. Minor things that you just have to put up with are noisey rear wipers, road noise depending on tyres (the floor/arch insulation could be a lot better) and some wind noise from the wing mirror area, and these things affect all octy models. But in my (biased) opinion none of that detracts from the car overall when you factor its value for money with performance and cabin/booot space. Handling and brakes are excellent, as are engines (I prefer petrol myself, but the performance of the diesel vRS in a family sized car is a unique selling point) . As you say, the LE spec has everything bar rear parking sensors (something I should have had done really), and the seats are very good indeed. Essentially what you are getting with the LE model is everything that is in the newer facelift version in terms of engines/switchgear etc, the only difference is the bodyshell (front lights being the major change). It's hard to tell really what sort of premium an LE will have over a standard model in terms of s/h values, but there will no doubt be some.

I guess what you need to do is to look closely at the cost of a new vRS (vat free etc) and then see how that compares to these 18 month old models in terms of value. Certainly a petrol vRS LE was on sale in a dealer a few months ago and was actually priced at more than I had paid for my new one a year previously (also vat free), so s/h values are probably too high in terms of value for nearly new cars while the vat free offer continues.

[01372 736508]

I'd either go for a new one or the LE version.

[vrswell]

Thanks for the replies. I had thought that the VAT free offer was over - has it been extended?

I guess I would have to spec up a new vRS and factor in my P/X value and the VAT free offer and see what the price is then.

What's the list price of new vRS CR?

[PSM]

If you check out the Drive the Deal price on the car you want with the extras you want. This should give you a good guide to the price you should aim for. Then use webuyanycar.com to give you a target trade in price for your current car. Take both these prices (I printed them out to show them) into your dealer and say they need to get close or the same as that. This is what I did and got my local dealer to get within a £100 or so of the changeover price. This was close enough for me to go with them.

[vrswell]

Thanks PSM. Already did a valuation with webuyanycar and that was worse than Mitchells offered me! Best offer for mine so far is £12750 but really wanted as close to £13000 TBH.

Will check out Drive the Deal :)

[Delacroix]

vrswell, on 31 July 2010 - 10:41, said:

Thanks for the replies. I had thought that the VAT free offer was over - has it been extended?

I guess I would have to spec up a new vRS and factor in my P/X value and the VAT free offer and see what the price is then.

What's the list price of new vRS CR?

Yes, according to the Skoda Uk website the vat free offer is on (the small print says for any car delivered before December this year), and there is a July 2010 Vat free price list that you can download as a pdf - July 2010 price list As you will see it is showing a CR vRS manual at £18,139.57 on the road. My experience last year when I was haggling around the price for my new LE that was also VAT free was that the dealers line was that actually most of the VAT free discount was from them rather than Skoda so they couldn't go down much further, but I did get a little bit taken off (perhaps in your case you could get rear senors at £250 inc in the price, and maybe a deal on the autoglym lifeshine that they will try and sell you). Also, I found that their part-ex price on my old (non-skoda) car just wasn't good enough and I couldn't get that moved so I sold it privately via autotrader and even with the insertion fees etc got around £500 extra that way (£2450 rather than £1900 offered).

So I guess the choice may be a highish milage (for the age) 18 month old LE for £13k or a brand new model for around £18k - and £5k is a lot of money, so it isn't such an easy choice is it! Let us know how you get on :)

[vrswell]

Just looked at DtD and specced up as follows:

Skoda Octavia vRS CR 170BHP, manual

+Maxidot
+Rear sensors
+Auto rear mirro
+Solid paint
+Full sized spare
+Mats

£16,712 :o

That is a fantastic price!

As a comparison there is a '10 plate vRS at Smith Skoda for £16295 and it has done 4k miles - it has mats and Maxidot, no rear sensors.

However seeing as I have a budget to stick to I doubt I can finance this amount of money. Even if I got close to what I wanted for mine and settled the finance and started a new finance deal it would be more than I am paying now. Ideally I want to be financing around £13500 maximum.

2nd hand it will have to be!

Delacroix you are right £5k is a lot of money, as is £3K!!!

[PSM]

You also get the 0% finance with the DtD price so does this make it more affordable?
Alfa have terrible depreciation so the £12,750 you have offered does not seem too bad to me to be honest.

[vrswell]

Yes the 0% would be better but I'd still have to get rid of mine and of course I can't sell it as it is on finance therefore P/X is the only real possibility.

The £12750 didn't come from Mitchells - they only offered me £11500. CAP price for my car is £12650 and Glass's valuation is £14200! Split the difference and we are at £13425, about what I hoped to achieve. How they can offer me lower than the CAP price is beyond me.

It seems to me they want to make £2k out of selling the vRS to me hence the low offer. I was told that once by a dealer that main dealers always want to clear £2k + on cars - don't kknow how true this is but it fits in with the offers I have had against various other cars recently. If they had offered me £12750 the deal would be tempting to me.

As for Alfas depreciation, it has got a lot better with the 159, Brera and Spider, these cars hold their value much better than models of old - I know I've had 5 Alfas!!!!

Anyway as ever the day is slipping by and the salesman never calls..................must be struggling to get a price for my car or hoping I call back in desperation ;)

[jrw]

Sell the Alfa and then pay off the finance - Use the difference to make up the deposit on the new one. Then go to drive the deal and order your brand new VRS - you know you want to. :)

Talking of P/x prices i went onto Network Q car valuer the other day and I can make £400 profit on my car after 5.5k miles! Thats without the extras I put on the car!

This post has been edited by jrw: 31 July 2010 - 15:24

[vrswell]

jrw, on 31 July 2010 - 15:21, said:

Sell the Alfa and then pay off the finance - Use the difference to make up the deposit on the new one. Then go to drive the deal and order your brand new VRS - you know you want to. :)

I'd like to but it isn't mine to sell, it belongs the finance company. I'd have to get a loan to pay off the car, sell the car, pay off the loan and use the rest to use as a deposit - phew! Might not do much for my credit rating however :(

[jrw]

Surely you can sell it then pay off the loan as in a round about way thats what the dealers will do.

[jlwah]

vrswell, on 31 July 2010 - 12:22, said:

Yes the 0% would be better but I'd still have to get rid of mine and of course I can't sell it as it is on finance therefore P/X is the only real possibility.

I've sold the last three cars I've owned privately even though they've had outstanding finance on them at the time. For the most recent one, the buyer paid off the finance company directly so they were happy it had been cleared, but previous buyers weren't so worried - must have been my honest face :giggle:

[vrswell]

jlwah, on 31 July 2010 - 16:37, said:

I've sold the last three cars I've owned privately even though they've had outstanding finance on them at the time. For the most recent one, the buyer paid off the finance company directly so they were happy it had been cleared, but previous buyers weren't so worried - must have been my honest face :giggle:

I honestly don't think I would take the chance. Maybe I am too honest :dull:

[antrich1968]

My VRS LE 2.0 CR Diesel Estate is a band G, road tax last September for it was £150.00 (band F according to the brochure is for the LE Hatchback).

I went for the LE, as personally I liked the interior. At the time it only cost about £300.00 more than a FL with metallic paint, plus the LE was sitting in the show room, therefore there was no waiting time, bit of a no brainer for me...

Have a good look at the wheels on the LE, check for damage, and have a look on here for threads about the LE wheels, as the quality of them may not be as good as the normal VRS wheel, can be prone to pot hole damage.

This post has been edited by antrich1968: 31 July 2010 - 19:59

[vrswell]

antrich1968, on 31 July 2010 - 19:22, said:

My VRS LE 2.0 CR Diesel Estate is a band G, road tax last September for it was £150.00 (band F according to the brochure is for the LE Hatchback).

I went for the LE, as personally I liked the interior. At the time it only cost about £300.00 more than a FL with metallic paint, plus the LE was sitting in the show room, therefore there was no waiting time, bit of a no brainer for me...

Have a good look at the wheels on the LE, check for damage, and have a look on here for threads about the LE wheels, as the quality of them may not be as good as the normal VRS wheel, can be prone to pot hole damage.

Thanks for the tip
The car I drove yesterday did have some kerbing of the alloys on the NSR mostly. I really did like the car; brakes, handling and power were great, spec good too, loved the leather - only wish the dealer would give me a half decent P/X figure for mine..............