Next Gen Superb - 17/2/15

[tigger73]

Agree but just remember only year or so ago Skoda were still trying to clear out 3 year old "new" cars. I bet there was a fair few $ lost on these slow moving models.

[2009fsi]

A circular story, isn't it tigger: The DSG about face by the motoring gurus didn't help either.
If you don't promote a product, don't support it & tell customers they have to wait too long, they will go to the other dago.
This country has so many brands/models in every category, options abound. If they are the one with no clear strategy to take that market on & carve out your share, they'll be the losers. Forever the little niche for escaped eccentrics determined to stoically put up with anything, just to be different. I'm sure that wasn't the plan when Skoda launched..... but.

[tigger73]

Yes 100% agree. Though I'm sure the delays are only due to the Skoda factory having a hard time keeping up with demand. Likely we're only getting allocated volumes based on previous sales.

It is a pity that now there's a decent product that could sell like hotcakes that supply isn't able to keep up with demand. Even if it was a 2-3 month wait that would be acceptable to most people but 8 months is really only for the hardcore Skoda nuts.

[woofy]

The dealer I picked my Octy up from last week reckons the Zagames have been over to Skoda HQ and there are big things afoot, so much so that he is outfitting a new Skoda building (and putting mclaren in the old smaller space) as well as setting up a dedicated service just for Skoda no longer shared with Audi. That actually was supposed to be the case from the get go in their old site, but never happened. What they have been told is that partly assembled Skodas will be sent to Vietnam for final assembly and painting to help with the backlog for countries like us so far away from CZ. I can't think of anything worse, Skodas rep is based on the CZ build cars, not the Chinese, Indian and Russian builds and it sounds like where Renault made mistakes for locally supplied cars here.

[alexaescht]

Final assembly in Vietnam!? That seems like a really weird decision from Skoda. Surely quality will be affected.

[woofy]

Yep you would think so. Not a weird decision for VW group though, they build their cars all over the place and other euros do as well.

[alexaescht]

That is true. The cars in our driveway are made in South Africa (VW Polo) and Turkey (Renault Megane) so I suppose Vietnam isn't a huge stretch past that. Still, I'm not sold.

[2009fsi]

Anybody seen something like this for Australia?

Skoda Vietnam
4. Marketing strategies of Skoda Auto in Vietnam
4.1 Marketing Objectives:
The main objectives of the company are:
* To penetrate into the Vietnamese market in 2015
* To create brand awareness for local consumers and increase customer’s perception towards its brand name
* To become one of the ten biggest car brands in the market
The choice of 2015 as entry year is favorable for Skoda because Vietnam’s automotive market is growing quickly and all competitive advantages for the company including lower vehicle import tax, high demand of Vietnamese consumers etc will help company to enter the market successfully.

4.2 Segmentation, targeting, positioning strategy
Target groups for Skoda Auto’s vehicles will be based on four groups of segmentation variables such as Geographic, Psychographic, Demographic and Behavioral
In Geographic segmentation, two major regions for the company are Hanoi Capital in the North and Ho Chi Minh City in the South. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi capital are chosen in terms of numerous population, high income level and high demand of car purchase. Concerning the population scale, Ho Chi Minh stood in the first position with 7,165,000 people and the second was Hanoi with 6,472,000 people.
In Demographic segmentation, both men and woman, aged between 25-60 years are addressed. Average Vietnamese household size is about 4.1 person/household, so Skoda’s models such as Fabia, Octavia, Yeti will be the most affordable choice for the Vietnamese middle class and Superb will be suitable for the Vietnamese upper class. Based on the income level of Hanoi Capital and Ho Chi Minh City, the group with minimum annual income of $23,000 per year will be addressed for purchasing Skoda’s vehicles including senior employees, businessman, doctors and politicians.

[Alf01]

So have they got a factory build in Vietnam?
The spray painting of the cars shouldn't be an issue as they are done by robots anyway.
Assembly might be a different story. But I have got no idea of the quality work that Vietnamese can do.

[2009fsi]

Japanese make cars in Vietnam. There are several different brand factories assembling & exporting.
Quality is usually related to how good the training & pay rates are, in the third world. If everybody is happy, it works. If not, the odd screw chucked in a panel, in revenge. The Viets are as good as any, if they are happy in service.