Ask an expert

I am interested in getting a European vehicle. I realise that European vehicles depreciate more than a Japanese so not planning to buy a new vehicle. Would a demonstrator be a better buy than to buy one a year or two old? In terms of cost and reliability.

I recently read that the Skoda is the most reliable car in NZ. I was looking at a Skoda Superb, it has quite a few positive reviews around it. What is the vehicle like compared to its big brother, the Pasaat as they are both almost identical inside. Not sure what it is like under the bonnet and technology wise.

I was contemplating between a petrol and a diesel vehicle. For European vehicles, the diesels have better spec than petrol models. I don't do much mileage in a year (probably about 10k). Would the savings in fuel consumption make up for the higher overall cost of a diesel vehicle.

I also do realise that the maintenance cost of a diesel is higher than a petrol. The Skoda requires services between 30,000km or 2 years once. Would that compensate for a more frequent service interval of most Japanese vehicles or a petrol vehicle, in your opinion?

Thanks and sorry for rambling all over.

The Skoda Superb is a very good car to drive, has plenty of space, and is comfortable and safe. Overall, it's a great car.
I'm not sure where you read that it was the most reliable car in New Zealand or how anyone could determine this for certain, but it does often score well in customer satisfaction surveys (eg; JD Power etc).
Basically, Skoda is owned by Volkswagen and most components are shared between the two brands (as well as Audi).
A few years ago, diesel was considered the preference, but this is swinging back towards petrol these days. Modern petrol engines are extremely fuel-efficient and the overall running cost of a petrol vehicle has a slight advantage, although diesel remains the preference for large SUVs and vehicles that will be towing, due to the added torque.
Certainly, savings can definitely be had in buying demonstrator vehicles, with the advantace of buying a demonstrator over a car that's a year or two old being that essentially you are the first private owner with a demonstrator, which probably has some slight benefit when you come to trade the vehicle in at a later date.
We have always found the Superb to be a great car and have no hesitation in recommending it.

Thanks for the response.

My mistake, not realibility but customer satisfaction. It was a Consumer survey that had the Skoda as number 1 but ironically the VW Passat at the other end of the scale.

One more question, if you don't mind. All European cars petrol and diesel seem to have turbos while the Japanese equivalents don't seem to have turbos. Is that something one needs to be concerned about down the road. In terms of maintenance and breakdowns?

Thanks again.

Customer satisfaction surveys can be interesting. Basically, there's no good reason why Skoda and Volkswagen should score differently on a level playing field, as they are basically the same car.
As the consumer satisfaction really comes down to what the average owner finds acceptable and perhaps what their expectations were, could it be that a Volkswagen buyer perceives their purchase to be an upmarket product that should never go wrong, while a Skoda owner has more realistic expectations? Something to ponder..
As strict emission regulations must be met by vehicle manufacturers, with Europe seemingly leading the way, turbocharging engines is a way for manufacturers to extract more power from smaller, lower emission powerplants.
Virtually all manufacturers use turbos on their diesel engines regardless of where they come from, as diesels can be very sluggish without turbos, but the forced induction of petrol engines is something that we're seeing more and more, as emission regulations ramp up globally.
The jury is still out on the long-term reliability of squeezing more power out of smaller engines, so while we have no hard data on the question, like you, we wonder how reliable these cars may be in 10 - 15 years time. Having said that, so many manufacturers are adopting the technology that in a few year's time, we may have no option.