Skoda, the leading name in the automobile market is seriously thinking of its return to Australia. The Czech Republican automaker was treated as a big joke in the automotive world but with the disciplined management and marketing strategy, the company emerged as a big brand in the highly competitive market. Skoda is a subsidiary of Volkswagen, the German auto giant. Skoda with in short time grabbed the Teutonic know-how, engineering and quality standards with the help of which it reached today’s position.

The distribution part of Skoda vehicles is done by Volkswagen Group Australia after its debut at the Sydney Motor Show. Skoda is planning to launch the mid-size front-wheel-drive Octavia sedan and wagon plus the funky-looking five-door-wagon-cum-people mover called the Roomster in the Aussies land. Both of these models come from Skoda’s new plant at Mlada Boleslav near Prague.

The Octavia RS that will be launched in Australia assures high performance with its 147 kW, 2 liter FSI turbocharged engine. Volkswagen also has thoughts of bringing out VW Polo-sized Fabia by next year. The VW Polo-sized Fabia has received wide applause at the Geneva Motor Show. Volkswagen also may add the fleet with a new generation version of its long-wheelbase Superb sedan in 2009.

Skoda is always conscious of the price factor and will be following the same strategy in Australia also The price of Skoda Fabia may start from $16,000 for the Fabia, while Superb will start from mid $40,000. In spite of using VW engine parts for manufacturing, the Skoda cars 5 to 8 percent cheaper that its equivalent Volkswagen models production costs much lower in Eastern Europe. Skoda had plans of its Australian launching for the past one year or more, but the plan got delayed due to the pricing and local identity issues.

Octavia and Roomster will be the first two brands that will be rolled on to the Australian roads. Skoda also have assured of after-sales services with the well developed network and highly trained technicians. It is after 25 years that Skoda is coming back to Australia and it is confident of its second innings.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 9:35 am and is filed under Luxury Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.