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"New Octavia - to be launched in early 2005"

Thats what the cover of Autocar India shouts out to readers this month. Ofcourse, reading his would lead you and me to believe that the new look Octavia will be launched by March 2005. To what extent is this true?

Well, the postman that brought me this months issue of ACI also brought me the official Skoda India newsletter. Hmmm...nice coincidence if you ask me!

Glancing through the newsletter, I read an article about the new Octavia and its success in the European market. Apparently, the New octavia has been a huge success forcing Skoda to revise their projected sales figures of 40,000 car per annum (not very high IMO). Thats not the point of this thread though.

The Article went on to say that delivery of the New Octi has not yet reached all markets in the EU yet as production has still not reached capacity yet. The UK will only get this model by June 2005! Till then, they continue to sell the current Octi jsut as they do in India.

Now, I may be wrong, but if the UK will only get the new Octi in June 2005, what are the chances of that car making it into India before that? Slim to none I say.

Does ACI know that? Ofcourse they do, but it doesn't make headline news now does it? Ok, I hear you say, "whats the harm in this?"

Quite a bit actually. Once a large selling auto magazine prints wrong launch dates like this, the value of the existing model drops drastically. If I was thinking of buying a new Octi today, I would hold my purchase after reading the ACI report. Why buy a car today if its gonna be replaced within a few months right?

I experienced this same conflict when we bought our car early this year. My dad was under the impression that the new Octi would be out by December 2004! because thats what was reported in the press at the time! Its only after I showed him what the Skoda people had to say (from their website) did he decide that waiting 2 years more would be too much.

Lets hope they can be a bit more responsible when it comes to making predictions in their mags. There are a lot of people out there that base their purchse decisions on what they read in the auto magazines.

Rtech

yup
sometimes it happens .
for eg - it read that the maybach cost 2.85 crore only ..........
but most of the times its info is usually right

These mistakes shouldn't happen but, sometimes, you just can't help it. What ACI can do is check it up with Skoda and print the correct info in the next issue.

All Skoda will lose is 30 days of sales.

Regards...
Shan2nu

Rtech, According to the official Skoda UK website and Top Gear...the new Octavia very much has gone on sale on the 19th of July, 2004.

Its only the estate version thats to arrive in mid-2005. However, the notchback that we have been looking forward to has already arrived at UK retailers!

Just like we shouldnt believe everything the magazines tell us...likewise for official company publications. Maybe they conveniently missed mentioning the word "Estate"?

GTO

I agree with Rtech. Infact i thought of it as starting it as a thread myself. ACI and the rest somehow to induce sales have been giving such news, heightening up emotions and then finally you realise that the car hasnt even come yet. Case in point has been BMW.

BMW for last quite a few years has been wanting to come to India, but their dilly-dallying has meant a hay-day for people at ACI. Look at November 2001, Sept 2002 and so on. All these issues had the so-called 50 cars coming to India in a span of a year, but count the numbers that have come versus those that haven't. You'll be stunned. The magazines never explicitly state things like "launch of this car is on the cards" or "its highly probable that it'd make it here", rather blatant statements most often than not with oozing confidence like "expect it sometime in October next year". Huh? I don't think even the head honchos at the company themselves knew that they'd be launching at such and such date.

I hope these mags which give such beautiful write-ups on cars and well written test drives just stick to it rather than try and titilate us car-lovers. It won't work always.

Revv

is this the blitz we are talking about? i hear it wll be launched in aug-sept 2004. i have been postponing buying a car till it is introduced.

Hey Navin,

The "blitz" is the ridiculous name given by Skoda India for their soon to be launched 150Hp Turbo Petrol Octavia. This is one car that is worth the wait if you ask me!! Although there are rumours that it will first be launched only in the L&K variant, but who knows, it may even come with the RS package as standard...now THAT would be something alright!!

This car should be out before the end of the year.

Rtech

Another equally ridiculous name is the "Rider". I read in the Autocar that the price has shot up by almost 80 grand...with hardly any improvements over the now discontinued Ambiente.

GTO

Not 80 grand....its up by 17,000 i think. This was a typo whuch has been mentioned in today's Times Motoring too. Which is still an increase for no reason! Just an armrest and silver finish center console, which the dealers would have given free anyways with a bit of haggleing!!

And yea, "Rider" is another stupid name! I think we rival the Japanese with stupid car names...but thats for another thread which I'm about to start

Rtech

OT - Regarding the rider price,
to quote Revv from the rider thread The Ambiente was selling for 11.82 on road, individual, mumbai (from the pricelist @ the end of June 2004). So that is a Rs ~10,000/- increase for the Rider, not 17k or 80k from what i know.

cya
R

the rider version now officially makes skod the most expensive in the lower d seg .........
at this point skoda needs to cut prices desperately to give any car real competition.
its only saving grace is the diesel engine .......
most owners get the diesel engine as it is the best in its class ..........
also the l n k version is rediculously priced - 1 lak cheper than an accord ............
and still it sold 158 units...............
even the elegance ......
it doesnt even have fake wood .......
any comin back to topic ,
most of the stuff printed is a marketing gimmick but still
acis facts are more factual than that of overdrive.......
cheers
lambo