New Scout

[K1W1]

The Skoda dealers in Melbourne I have asked about the new Scout are still playing dumb about availability, pricing and specs. The best I can get is first quarter 2015.
Does anybody else have any more info?

BTW. I saw this review on Drive iT! on TV this afternoon. The new Scout looks pretty good to me.

Link here

[Antiplastix]

There is a review in one of the Pommie car mags. seen it at the Newsagency, but all pics. were left hand drive. Comes with the RS TDI motor (135kw).

[K1W1]

I think there is a petrol and two diesel options in Europe but the initial stores at release said there would likely only be one engine/gearbox combo in Australia (Diesel/Auto presumably). I'm interested in which diesel they go with mainly. You would assume that the trim will be mid level at least. If dealers can't give me info soon I may just have to look at a Passat Allroad instead.

[Bob51]

In the UK there is is choice of 110kw TDI with manual gearbox or 135kw with DSG.

http://www.skoda.co.uk/models/octavia-scout/default

If Skoda Australia continues its policy of withdrawing Australian buyers access to manual transmissions, we will see only the latter. If this happens my current Scout will be my last as I won't buy automatics.

[K1W1]

Manual trans is my preference but it's not the end of the world to me. If the Aus model has the 135kW engine it puts it up there with the vRS and Passat so it will be interesting to see what happens.

One of the "helpful" dealers I spoke to said that they had no info at all but if I cared to place a deposit on one it would force Skoda Australia to release info to them so they could tell me what I was buying. Another told me that he doesn't keep up with new model releases and that often customers tell him things before Skoda Australia do because they are enthusiasts and find out information. I see the quality of Skoda sales staff has not improved in the last 4 years or so.

[woofy]

One of the "helpful" dealers I spoke to said that they had no info at all but if I cared to place a deposit on one it would force Skoda Australia to release info to them so they could tell me what I was buying. Another told me that he doesn't keep up with new model releases and that often customers tell him things before Skoda Australia do because they are enthusiasts and find out information. I see the quality of Skoda sales staff has not improved in the last 4 years or so.

It's not like their job is to be enthusiastic about what they are selling or anything. I remember a pretty good long term Mazda salesperson once not knowing the answer to something pretty common and saying well I sell 4 models so hard to keep up and wasn't even interested in looking into it. I ripped into him, saying I sell 2500 products and I'm expected to know the ins and outs of all of them, and also technical troubleshooting, I think with 4 cars you could bother to know what you are selling to some degree.

One thing that has really irked me is that Skoda HQ and dealers seem to have a pretty distant tense relationship, I have been told more than once by the dealer that it would be best to contact Skoda directly as they don't get back to them about anything. And then of course Skoda HQ say the dealer is best to answer that and if they don't they should be contacting us themselves. It's like being in a bad family breakup.

Richmond SKoda had no staff in the showroom I have ever seen before a few weeks back, not even Tolga anymore and he was the one who said it's the training ground now before moving onto higher end brands.