Skoda Auto Sales in Australia via vfacts

[Brycem]

Back to earth with a mighty thud. 151 sold last month. Perhaps the future is not as bright as one thought.

[woofy]

I reckon last month was a quiet one all round, they are also being cheap not offering onroads and just the 5 yr warranty...most makes offer both for runouts.

[Frufru]

370 Skodas found a new home in May. Respectable.
New Car Sales Figures May 2012 | Car Advice

There should not be any more waiting times though. Europe is getting into deep recession and sales of new cars plummeted by around 20% in several key markets.

[K1W1]

There are still discrepancies in the figures.
According to the recent interview with Matthew Wiesner Skoda sales were 3500 in 2011 (291 average per month) and are "on course to double again in 2012" which means an average of 583 per month.
I think there is a large amount of positive spin in anything that comes from Skoda Australia. Maybe they have the same "no bad news" attitude as the Hastie Group.

[Frufru]

There are still discrepancies in the figures.
According to the recent interview with Matthew Wiesner Skoda sales were 3500 in 2011 (291 average per month) and are "on course to double again in 2012" which means an average of 583 per month.
I think there is a large amount of positive spin in anything that comes from Skoda Australia. Maybe they have the same "no bad news" attitude as the Hastie Group.

They are dreaming. The doubling of sales first few months of the year is only continuation of a trend from last year. This was due to introduction of new cars to the market (Yeti and Fabia). Thats not gonna happen this year. For example they sold 600+ cars one month last tear (June or July I think) due to dealers' orders on Yeti and Fabia. They will not double that. They are doubling numbers this year so far but due to low numbers in 2011, which were still sales without Yeti and Fabia.

[brad]

Interesting article in todays Drive.

Basically, they are perplexed as to why you'd release the Fabia wagon at pretty much the same time as the Roomster when the specs are near enough identical.

Bizarre - all these niche vehicles on such low volumes.

[VAG newbie]

There are still discrepancies in the figures.
According to the recent interview with Matthew Wiesner Skoda sales were 3500 in 2011 (291 average per month) and are "on course to double again in 2012" which means an average of 583 per month.
I think there is a large amount of positive spin in anything that comes from Skoda Australia. Maybe they have the same "no bad news" attitude as the Hastie Group.

I am starting to suspect a lot of the last year's figure has been boosted up by dealers registering stock cars for demo. I walked into my local dealer yesterday and have found a much higher number of their cars got registered, and is now on sale as demos with heavily discounted prices (ranging between $4000 for a Fabia to almost $10000 for Superb wagon).

Last year I used to walk into the same dealership almost every week while waiting for the delivery of my car, they had as many cars but most weren't registered. It's the same dealer, the same manager, I don't see any reason why he would rush in to register all these cars other than getting a good incentive from Skoda AU to do so.

So now they will have many of these demos to clear out from last year, so the sales figure wouldn't be as pretty as last year. How many of the 370 are genuine sales, I am not sure, but I assume it will definitely be more than same time last year. And I believe many of the sales are demos that just didn't count.

Is it a right move by Skoda to boost the numbers? Perhaps. At least it will give the general public the confidence that Skoda is selling. As long as you can get people into the driver's seat, then they will appreciate what a good car Skoda is. (My wife is one such convert. She was very sceptical about Skoda before I buy it. Recently she drove my Superb up to Mount Tamborine, she was suprised by its performance and handling when climbing up those winding roads. Now she is happy for me to get another Skoda next time!)

[PassatB6]

Recently, I've had two strangers ask me about my Skoda. One was thinking about buying a Superb and another said he likes the look of Skodas. Both were interested in finding out how reliable they were and basically were they 'up to scratch'. I suspect the brand is becoming quite well known but many fear to make the jump into the unknown as most people don't have friends or colleagues who own one. Once that barrier is jumped then I think sales will really pick up because there are very few people who have been disappointed with them once they own one.

[brad]

Recently, I've had two strangers ask me about my Skoda. One was thinking about buying a Superb and another said he likes the look of Skodas. Both were interested in finding out how reliable they were and basically were they 'up to scratch'. I suspect the brand is becoming quite well known but many fear to make the jump into the unknown as most people don't have friends or colleagues who own one. Once that barrier is jumped then I think sales will really pick up because there are very few people who have been disappointed with them once they own one.

I don't think so. The bulk of car buyers just want the cheapest, most reliable transport they can get. As such, they doom themselves to repeat what has worked for them previously. People are too conservative.

I get lots of people ask me what car to buy because I'm a petrol head, qualified mechanic & they know I research all my purchases to the nth degree. The only people that I've convinced (to take a look & eventually buy) are a couple of petrolhead mates that probably would have made the decision without my input. Other, less car orientated friends just go & buy from the jap/korean/aussie stable over & over again.

People still don't believe me when i tell them an Audi has similar engines/chassis to VW which is similar to a Skoda (they also don't believe me when i tell them a Jag X-type is the same underneath as a Ford or SAAB 9-3 is the same as a Vectra.)

My FIL doesn't believe me when i tell him I only get my car serviced every 15,000km & it's cheaper per km than his Camry that he gets serviced every 5000km.

Look at the car sales chart - it's pretty obvious that people are like sheep & the most popular brand is Toyota & everything after that is an also-ran.

[VAG newbie]

I don't think so. The bulk of car buyers just want the cheapest, most reliable transport they can get. As such, they doom themselves to repeat what has worked for them previously.

Agree with cheapest, not sure about most reliable. As long as its cheap. people will buy it. Otherwise why would Great Wall even made it to top 20? Why would Holden and Ford be up there with the tops? Even Toyota, which supposed to be the "most reliable" car, after they had many quality control issues that resulted in several fatality, even after the CEO of Toyota confessed in front of the Congress that they Toyota DID cut corners to boost up sales, it did not hurt Toyota's sale one little bit. The tsunami did more damage to Toyota!

I think i will just quote Leonardo Decaprio from the movie "Inception". Once an idea has been implanted into someone's mind, that idea will remain forever. Toyota buyers will always be Toyota buyers. Holden buyers will always be Holden buyers (even though Holden is actually Daewoo now). No matter what Skoda does, no matter what we do, these people won't change.

But there will be a group of smart clever buyers like us, who would spent time and effort to research into cars. I am sure there are some out there that knew Skoda is good, but just too afraid to jump in. So if Skoda Aus would improve on their pricing on some of their models, educate some of their sales consultant, and do more advertisement, I think sales figure will improve. But it will never reach Toyota/Holden/Ford level (even VW struggled to do that), simply because most people are too stubborn.