[deetjohn]

The Fabia Monte Carlo is stunning. And nice stall as well.

Can the Rough-use cladding skirt on the Fabia Scout be bought after market?

It makes a lot of sense to have something like that in your everyday hatchback in a city like Bangalore. And it doesn't look bad at all.

[v.anand]

What a shame, Scout won't be offered in the 1.6 guise.

Completely agree with @shankar.balan and @ACM, Skoda at the moment look like offering cars half-heartedly with a lot of features skimping and must be given a free hand by parent VW to adopt its own strategies freely than trying and acting big brother.

The present Skoda range consisting of Fabia, Laura and Superb offer much better interior ambience, fit, finish, thought and material quality compared to same platform offerings of Polo, Jetta and Passat by VW. Just compare the interiors of Rapid which very well matches to Polo and Vento with Fabia. Soft touch dash, flush and tight door pads, even the sun visor all look much better in Fabia, similar in quality to Laura and much more special compared to VW's.

I am pretty sure the after sales of Skoda is going to improve in the long run, mostly due to the tremendous influx of investment brought in by VW keeping its world domination targets in mind and in view of the same one must accept the dilution of premium feel one associated with Brand Skoda of yore (completely in the Indian sense that is).

[drchernish]

Does anyone have some more pictures of Yeti taken at Skoda stall at Auto expo,looks great in white n black combination.

[shankar.balan]

Skoda's offerings overall are better finished than VW's comparable offerings which are priced higher.
I dont see why VW deserves a premium for that!
I think that the VW boys should allow Skoda a better level of freedom definitely.
All manufacturers who bring in their group brands, should allow freedom to them and hence, enhance the overall offerings to consumers as well as the overall consumer choice/ experience like they do abroad.

Originally Posted by v.anand

Skoda at the moment look like offering cars half-heartedly with a lot of features skimping and must be given a free hand by parent VW to adopt its own strategies freely than trying and acting big brother.

The present Skoda range consisting of Fabia, Laura and Superb offer much better interior ambience, fit, finish, thought and material quality compared to same platform offerings of Polo, Jetta and Passat by VW. Just compare the interiors of Rapid which very well matches to Polo and Vento with Fabia. Soft touch dash, flush and tight door pads, even the sun visor all look much better in Fabia, similar in quality to Laura and much more special compared to VW's.

I am pretty sure the after sales of Skoda is going to improve in the long run, mostly due to the tremendous influx of investment brought in by VW keeping its world domination targets in mind and in view of the same one must accept the dilution of premium feel one associated with Brand Skoda of yore (completely in the Indian sense that is).

[fi.robin]

Originally Posted by v.anand

The present Skoda range consisting of Fabia, Laura and Superb offer much better interior ambience, fit, finish, thought and material quality compared to same platform offerings of Polo, Jetta and Passat by VW. Just compare the interiors of Rapid which very well matches to Polo and Vento with Fabia. Soft touch dash, flush and tight door pads, even the sun visor all look much better in Fabia, similar in quality to Laura and much more special compared to VW's.

I test drove the Rapid last month. While I was impressed with the engine (the TDI was quieter than my 1.2 HTP) the overall quality didn't feel upto Skoda. Bad plastic on the seats, glove box had trouble closing in one of the show car, wipers.. My wife who drives the Fabia rejected it. She doesn't care about whats under the hood. Her words "If I am to pay more for a new car then it should have better quality than my existing car". Sounds fair for a lady

[Dr.Vikas]

I remember one thing here, which I had read somewhere before.. Though I can't recollect it completely, but the stand/ approach of VW towards Skoda is something like the 'Cindrella story'!
Skoda is getting the consumer response of its own, that mostly based on the fit & finish, sturdiness, comfort, luxury feeling offered with its every car & due to the brand value also.. The cost-cutting phenomenon has become a common thing by now with every other brand. But IMHO, they should never forget to come up with their respective 'Fully-loaded' versions also. A common customer, no doubt, looks for some choice based on VFM products, but the CLASS that believes in the high end/ feature ready versions, is the one who is capable of making the brand name more 'PRECIOUS'..
'Cos I think, being POPULAR doesn't always mean to be PRECIOUS! This is something like the Quality & Quantity issue, not always so easy to attain the 'status of equilibrium' on both these levels..
I strongly believe, we'll see more +ve response for the Skodas in the near future.. Their service has already been improved significantly & more importantly they seem to be much serious nowadays about this Indian market..

[v.anand]

Part of the reason why Skodas are better finished than VWs is because they have an advantage of tweaking over an existing VW. For example, Laura (Octavia 2) was engineered on Golf 5 platform with some components thrown in from Passat (not Jetta IIRC). Hence Laura had more space at the back than previous Indian Jetta and Golf. Similar story for other cars of the same platform, with VW launching its variants before and Skoda tweaking them to come out with their variant.

This always resulted in Skoda offering better value being cheaper and better feel good factor with similar equipments but was hurting VW profitability vis-a-vis Brand VW over Brand Skoda. Logically, for all the trouble Skoda takes to build their car over a VW, they must be priced higher but VW calls it brand policy.

In the larger scheme of things it does wonders to VW group as a whole with similar cars that look different but more often than not it has been observed VW indulges in in-fighting within group companies rather than competition as has been seen now in the Indian market.

I personally like to see VW group fighting the competition with its absolute cutting edge technology engines like 1.2 TSI into the business end of the segment than one trying to suppress the other with cutting on features. IMO, 1.6 Petrol engines were unnecessary and 1.2 TSI must have been there from the beginning. Due to all this exercise, VW has established itself as a reputable brand in India but at the expense of sister Skoda than the rest of the competition. Skoda sales have seen a reduction due to constant knee-jerk reaction from the parent to establish its other brand.

[dinesha]

Everything except color is too ugly in RS2000..
It looks like a halfhearted patch-up work done at Kamla Market..
The front stance with the extended "wings" is too atrocious for the sight..
The side profile is that of a "Coffin Chariot"..

JMHO..

[YC.BALENO.CHD]

Will we get the Scout with the 1.2 and not the 1.6 litre oil burner instead? Better still, any chance of getting a 1.6 litre oil burner Polo? One economic yet hot hatch will it make.

Regards.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by thalavoy

Looks like the Scout is not a stretched version of Fabia. I was expecting it to be longer than the Fabia, and a station wagon form factor (like Palio stretched to Adventure)

Skoda does make a Station-Wagon/Estate version of the Fabia, and it's called the Combi. And the Fabia Combi is available in the 'Scout' trim. Now the Fabia Combi Scout would have been ideal for India, IMO.

Not only is it slightly longer than the Fabia hatch, it sits higher off the ground. A 4-door, spacious car with a diesel engine (preferably the 1.6), a big boot and good ground-clearance would make perfect sense.

Skoda might have missed a trick or two here.

But looking at the importance that they're giving the Rapid, I'm not sure if they'd have liked the idea of the Fabia Combi Scout tarnishing its sales. This could be the reason, perhaps?

[sarthakgupta]

No Skoda Citigo for now. Upgraded Fabia in pipeline

Rao ruled out introduction of the much-talked about small car (in the Rs 3-5 lakh bracket) in the near future.
He, however, hinted plans were afoot to introduce an upgraded version of the Fabia in the coming months.
“The Fabia has to perform much better and we have to make it much more attractive and competitive. That would be the biggest cornerstone of our growth here.” Sales of the small car tanked 68 per cent to 1,463 units in the April-June period, compared with 4,577 units sold in the corresponding period of last year.

Source:Skoda looks at localisation of parts to lower prices

[sarthakgupta]

I just checked out the Skoda uk site for the available engine options on Fabia in UK. I was surprised to see that there is no 1.2 TDI CR there. Instead all diesel engines are 1.6 TDI CR with different tunes. One is 75 PS and other is 90 PS. I think the 75 PS engine will be the one that we will get here in the upgraded fabia.

The downside is that the Fabia will no longer be a small car with 12% excise bracket. It will fall in 27% price bracket.

Source:Fabia Hatch Equipment