Grab a ‘VAT Free’ Skoda Octavia

I think we’re going to have to have a ‘Sign of the Times’ category soon – so many pieces refer to the current economic mess.

In yet another ‘Sign of the times’ Skoda has announced that they are now offering ‘VAT Free Octavias’ until the end of the year. No, this is not a tie-up between Alistair Darling and VW, it’s just Skoda’s way of offering a headline price decrease of a bit over 13% (less expensive to Skoda than last week for the same headline, to be fair, and there is a new model due in January!).

I’m pretty sure that there will be a raft of these ‘VAT Free’ offers floating around on everything from cars to washing machines, capitalising on the fact the VAT is in the headlines.

But if you’re looking for a new car you can do a lot worse than an Octavia, the best selling Skoda in the UK. And the offer extends to all the models in the range and the optional extras, so Skoda are playing the game to a degree. Personally, I’d wait until January and screw the same discount off the new model, but it’s a pretty sensible promo for Skoda to run.

Robert Hazelwood of Skoda said:

“The Octavia is our best seller and its popularity is evident in the fact it has found nearly 140,000 happy homes in the UK.

“As car buyers scour the market in search of great deals we are responding to their needs and covering the cost of VAT on any Octavia purchased in December”.

Tough times take serious action, and this press release will grab the headlines. But frankly, it will only work for the non-hagglers out there. Anyone prepared to haggle can probably get more than this off any new car in the UK at the moment.

I mentioned last week some of the mad discounts floating around on cars in the trade at the moment, and they’re still going on. We heard of a Mercedes S600 Pullman – brand new and unregistered – available for nearly £50k off.

The world’s gone mad.