Car security.

[Yorkie]

Regarding Skoda; Bron and I intend to buy a new Skoda Fabia next year when we change our car in fact we visited the Skoda dealer a couple of days ago and we were most impressed.

Kind regards, Col.

Firstly, in a jocular vein, the best Skoda joke I heard was that the police were considering buying 16 valve Skodas until the discovered that eight of the valves were in the radio!

Actually, I think the joke is on people who buy Audis and VWs, when 40% of Skoda parts are identcal and share thee same parts bins. (Octavia/Audi TT, Fabia/Golf and so on). I've just ordered a Skoda Fabia 1.6 Diesel, but there's a 3 - 4 months wait. All Skodas are VAT free this month, so I guess that's why the showroom was busy. My wife and I both had a test drive. Great car - handles well, quiet (especially for a diesel), roomy, comfy, lots of features.

The JD Power customer satisfaction survey ranks the Fabia is 31st on the list of models - the Fiesta is 73rd. (The survey isn't based on hype by motoring journalists who are often 'got at' by marketing departments offering 'freebies' and taken on 'jollies' to write hyped up reviews - it's based on owners who've had their cars on average for three years).

The JD Power Survey is very comprehensive - it measures customer satisfaction with the vehicle and dealer service, based on evaluation of 66 attributes grouped in four key measures. In order of importance, they are: vehicle appeal (31%), which includes performance, design, comfort and features; vehicle quality and reliability (22%); ownership costs (25%), which includes fuel consumption, insurance and costs of service/repair; and dealer service satisfaction (22%). The 2013 UK Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study (VOSS) is based on the evaluations of over 16,000 online interviews from UK car owners after an average of up to three years of ownership.

The study was fielded in December 2012 and January 2013. 116 car models from 28 brands were included in the survey, the average age of the owner was 50-years, with 58% male and 42% women. The survey respondents collectively drove 340 million miles. The Skoda Superb posting the top score for customer satisfaction, followed closely by the Skoda Yeti in second place. You can see the Survey in full by make and model of car here:

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/jd-power...lts/265893

In terms of features and benefits, there's little to diferentiate most cars in similar price ranges, and for so called 'prestige' cars such as BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi etc. much of the price paid is for the brand image - it has little to do with the car itself. There's no way an Audi TT owner wouild ever consider buying a Skoda Octavia, even though most of his car is just that, and there's no way an Octavia buyer would consider an Audi.

If Colin is considering buying a Fabia next year, there's a new model (or at least a facelift), due in June.