To indtrouce this thread, I might need to go a bit wide in the story :)

 

Im 20 yo and I got my first own car in oktober 2015. When you have an own car, you automatically pay attention to how many other cars of your brand are around. I started to realized how many Skodas are driving around in Germany. The brand is selling more and more cars each year in Europe and around the world and they are pretty sucessfull. I mean, why wouldnt they. They take 5% Skoda Design, 5% Skoda Technology and 90% VW Technology and sell it for way less then what an equal VW would be.

 

I scrolled around the forum and read some topics about police cars today. And then I had a brainwave and wanted to know how the newest Skoda car would as a police car.

 

 

Yes, my photoshop abilities are absolutly terrible and I basically didnt put any afford in in^^ And its not even the point. I would like to know your infos about Skoda around the world. Are they seen in other contries (like U.S.?). They barely sell them outside of Europe and Asia I guess so I am exited for any answers.

 

 

And in general, what do you think about these cars? At least designwise, going into technical details would be kind of pointless ^^

 

(This is the car I own, not this one, but the model and Edition (Skoda Fabia III Edition)

 

(Skoda Kodiaq)

 

(Skoda Octavia)

 

 

 

I have never seen a Skoda in the United States. I would say that the most common foreign-imported vehicles we have are from Japan and Germany. Toyota, Honda, Nissan/Infinity, Volkswagen, BMW, etc. The cars don't look too bad either. I wouldn't have any issue purchasing one as a personal vehicle.

Edited January 29, 20179 yr by TheDivineHustle

Yeah, its expectable. I mean, they sell about 100.000 cars combined to all countries that are not China or european. So I guess its a pretty rare thing.

 

However, you do see american cars in germany from time to time.

Very cool to hear from someone who owns a Skoda! I've always liked them (Czech heritage!). I would take an Octavia sedan in a heartbeat. Nothing special, just a nice clean looking car. They make for nice looking patrol cars.

 

 

    

 

 

Your photoshop of the Kodiac didn't show for me, but I could imagine that being much cooler looking than the FPIU. As for your Fabia, one would think it would have huge potential in the US, but there's lots of competition. It's better looking than a lot of our smaller cars. Do they still make new Skoda vehicles in the Czech Republic or is it all out of VW plants?

The picture probably god deleted because its so super ugly ;)

http://www.pic-upload.de/view-32592840/KodiqPolice.jpg.html

 

As far as I know, Skoda itself still has 11 own plants in 8 countries. They still produce a lot of cars in the Czech Republik and other parts of eastern europe, but they also started producing in India, Russia and China.

 

I have attached a picture to this post.

 

But now I am a bit curious, u said there is a lot of competition. Do you know what the eastimated price for a comparable car to mine would be in the US?

 

Some technical details:

- 90 HP gasoline engine, 5 speed manual transmission, start/stop automatic, 106 mph max speed, 51 mpg consume

- Basic: 5 doors

- Specials (everything that is included but not required for a regular car): LED day driving lights, front radar for collision avoiding, automatic light control, automatic wiper control, driver drowsiness detection, seat belt detection for all seats, Hill start assist, fog lights, rear parking sensors, digital radio, automatic air conditioning system

 

I dig the Kodiaq. That would make a cool squad.

 

As for your car... Well for starters, not many consistently hit that 50mpg mark without being a hybrid, which means more expensive. But a comparable car would be the Golf of course, being same parent company and all.  A VW Golf with similar options would be around $19,000-20,000 USD, but they only have an estimate of 35mpg. 

 

Just some averages of cars in similar size/options I saw quick from my dealership group and nearby dealers (mpg's are EPA highway estimate):

-Toyota Yaris:  38mpg, $17,000

-Ford Fiesta: Unreliable, 40 mpg = $16,000

-Chevy Sonic: $18,000  

-Honda Fit: $18,000  (38 mpg)

-Mitsubishi Mirage: $15,000 (41mpg)      (Ugly, look and feel cheap, actually drove one of these once)

 

Your Fabia looks better than all of these too, in my opinion. It must be some kind of EPA/emissions garbage preventing those from being sold here, because especially after doing this, I think it would do well here. But what do I know, I daily drive a land yacht. 

It took me about 10 minutes to figure our that a higher mpg is better... You and your weird units....

 

Those 51 mpg are a of course the "perfect" value Skoda likes to advertise. My average over the past 6 months is about 6 l/100 km (~ 40 mpg).

 

But actually the cars you listet there are all comparable to the Fabia, I think its currently about 16.000$

 

And about the emmissions... you really think its related with that? I mean they use VW engines and technology and VWs are clearly sold in the US. Skoda is also fine when it comes to that.

Haha, yeah, we're weird. And yeah emissions and crash testing tend to be reasons given. They would pass, just as they did for all the tests in their home markets. However, VW already has the Golf, Passat, and Tiguan to cover the Octavia/Fabia/Kodiaq markets. So they probably don't see the value of spending the time and money on getting the Skoda brand approved. That's the usual reason I get when I cry to Ford corporate (I work at a dealership) about not having the Falcon here, lol!

 

HOWEVER, after the whole VW "dieselgate" thing, now might not be a bad idea to rebrand! 

There are alot of memes here about that whole topic. I dont get it anyways. The US isnt known for their great rules about economic stfuff and yet everyone looses their mind. VW did fuck up with their manipulation but I personally think the rest of the car industry is like "Oh look at VW, those bad guys did some manipulations on their tests and stuff. Thats so horrible. Oh, and please dont look closer into our stuff. Please. Dont. We do everything correctly. We promise!!!"

 

But yeah, you are right, maybe they just replace all of their VWs with Skoda :D And then its like the situation here, you can decide if you buy a VW or buy a WV with Skoda logo and save 20% ^^

 

Besides that, if I would ever be asked if I want an american car, I would choose this:

 

Its not even that super-expensive as an import into germany for what its specs promise, but the costs for fuel are the real problem I guess^^

The new Chargers are pretty cool!  This is a generation older, buy maybe you could ask your neighbors to the East to sell this to you when they are done with it, haha.

 

 

But yeah... They suck gas!

 

If I could have any car not found in the USA... That would the the hardest decision I've ever made. 

400 kilometers from where I live to the city with this car. But I didnt knew that this is a thing...

 

btw: I just checked some US car importers, the Charger is sold for 93.000€ (~101,000$) in germany.

Oh wow, that's... a lot of money, haha.  Well if you drive 400km and get into some trouble, you might get a ride in a Charger!