Skoda Australia is not interested in base models

Skoda Australia indicate that they are prioritizing the higher specified vehicles preferred by their buyers.

The company’s CEO, Michael Irmer, said auto expert it’s trying to get more top supplies KodiaqRS because it accounts for 40-50% of the sales of that car line.

Likewise, 50-60 percent of kamq And Scala sales are premium Signature templates.

“There are other products and brands that are perfect for bargain hunters, but I think sometimes you need to decide what you stand for. You can’t be everything to everyone. Then you become nothing,” Mr. Irmer said.

This change of strategy is an evolution of the brand, he said, and it cannot be switched overnight.

“This goes back to 2015 when we analyzed what was our best-selling variant and we were really surprised, we didn’t realize it ourselves: the Octavia RS tow truck with,” said Mr. Irmer. packages are the most sold Skoda in Australia.

“When we launched [the current] Great, we said don’t drag it down with a bare-bones pedestal with cloth seats, little wheels, that sort of thing. So we just made it a nice thing only.

“What we learned is that it worked very well, the entry was up $8000 from the previous entry, but the previous entry nobody cared. It has also risen above the Passat.

“One year before the end of life, in the second year of last year, we did 2/3 to 3/4 206TSI. And the 206TSI has standard packages, we don’t bother offering them as options because people buy them anyway.”

With the latest FabiaSkoda Australia caused controversy when it decided to only launch it in its most premium form.

It came out last year in a single Monte Carlo version for $37,990 to drive away — $16,000 more than the previous-generation model’s starting price.

“When we launched Fabia, it made us braver. We said, with Fabia in this generation there is also a shortage and we know that the factory won’t have enough production and they basically have to limit the amount of Fabia we will get, about 600 pieces. ,” he said.

“Just do the Monte Carlos, the big car with everything on it, in this most price-sensitive segment.

“Well, I think we got some very interesting titles after this launch… not always good to read.

“And we weren’t 100% sure it would work, but it did.”

Mr. Irmer said the company was selling every Fabia it could buy and had never included it in a campaign. Less than half of their dealers have Fabia in stock to sell to customers.

“In the end, Fabia will be ranked lower, but we may not consider first place, we may go to middle and see how that plays out,” he said.

It’s a far cry from the strategy it used with the previous-generation Octavia, for example, Mr. Irmer said.

It launched that model in 2013 with a base price of $22,990 to drive, for a model with a manual transmission, cloth seats, wheel covers, and no cruise control or platforms. armrest.