Is VW killing Skoda?

[hooba]

Slowly by the looks of this article.

Volkswagen’s Reprisals: The Derefinement Of Skoda Begins

Instead of knobbling Skoda, wouldn't it be better to learn something from them and try to make VWs more competitive?

[Jake02]

I can't see why they would kill Skoda, if anything they should kill Seat! Skoda is doing fabulously in terms of sales worldwide and Seat is doing reasonably badly with substandard products. Skoda's excellence would be reason for VW to make their cars even better to justify the extra cost. The article said that one process of de-whatever was removing things as standard that you'd have to option but you can still option them, meaning Skoda Aus would give us more.

It also said that Fabia quality is better than Polo, which I really doubt (the softness of the plastics etc, not how well it's built). To me, it sounds like a Skoda fanboy article. Yes I'd write such a thing too, but it seems a little farfetched to me. I'll still buy the Skoda offering though!

[K1W1]

The only thing I agree with in that essay is;

Quickly, driving a Skoda became a sign of superb intellect

Seriously when you cut through the b/s all they are saying is that in the EU Skodas will be like every other German car, the base model will be base and everything will be an extra. It's not substantially different now anyway. In the UK for the vRS things like the Maxidot display and even the spare wheel are extras already and have been for a number of years.
How quickly Skoda Australia decide to follow that philosophy will be the question. I have no doubt that they will but I'm picking at least another 3-5 years before they are in a strong enough position to have dealers who carry a reasonable amount of stock and the brand profile has been developed sufficiently for them to take on the attitude that other German based manufacturers exhibit in their sales process. Until then because probably 90%+ of sales are effectively build to order products they have no need or reason to change the model they are currently using.

[CanberravRS]

Guess it was good timing to buy the flagship Superb...

It does not surprise me one bit that VW may be starting to do this, but it makes more sense to me and probably to most that getting more cars in the market place across all VAG would make more sense.

[hooba]

Some history on this.

The Skoda Conundrum | The Truth About Cars

[CanberravRS]

I've always been amused by the US market and how they comment when they cant get a brand they want... I've read them both and all the comments below..
Seems people don't care much for the articles, rather are upset that Skoda aren't being sold in the US.

[goodfella]

I read today that VW will annouce its intentions with the Suzuki buy-in next year..

Possible VAG strategy...


Ultra Premium brands (we all know them) Bugatti - Lambo - Porsche etc
Maintain/increase Audi promotion as the to premium luxury ( now that it is successfully competing head to head with BMW/Merc in sales)
Lift VW up closer to Audi (but not close enough to canabalise sales)
Sell Skoda as a "performing well" product (having increased value from purchase)
Increase Suzuki Joint Venture to supplement the micro-mini range and capitalise on asian markets

Spot the Master's of Business student!!

[PassatB6]

Got to give VW credit for their marketing of Skoda (at least OS if not in Australia). How happy would VW bosses be to see buyers fighting over which VAG brand is best. They must be laughing all the way to the bank. Skoda pulls more buyers from brands other than VW.

VAG cars are now covering almost every vehicle choice in the market.

[sh|tbmxrider]

My thoughts:

Leave Skoda alone, kill Seat... the experiment has surely failed?

Then.....

Buy Alfa Romeo as per what has been mooted in the press.

Im Alfisti to the core, its the best thing that could happen to AR. Italian Design & Flair (ie: what the wogs are good at) + German Q.C processes, R&D & funds... (ie: what the square heads are good at)

Its currently working for the last Italian brand they bought...

Run Alfa's against BMW's (more sport than lux) and Audi's against M-Benz (more lux than sport).

At the moment you have Audi trying to cover the two very different areas & philosophies of BMW & MB

Just my 2c

[woofy]

We don't see the price difference they are mentioning there. I know my counterparts in Germany pay a lot less overall for Skodas than we do. If they start dropping standard features here, then the price should drop as well.

If they start messing with components, such as cheaper plastics, taking more shortcuts etc as well, then we should also see a drop here as well. At the moment Skoda and VW are too close in price here, for the issues they mention in that article, I'd go as far as saying they probably make more on an Octavia than a Golf. I can't see them ever selling SKoda in the US when VW pricing is very cheap there.

I hope if anything it means the first one, and not the second, but from the VW bosses comments a while back about Superb stealing Passat sales and cutting down the quality, I think the second is in the plans as well. Especially when the Fabia can no longer have Xenons, that's gonna peeve Skoda Oz if they try and launch them.