Å KODA OCTAVIA AWARDED BEST IN CLASS IN UK - WHILE AL AHRAM JOURNALIST CLAIMS IT HAS R&D AND TECHNICAL DESIGN PROBLEMS

The Skoda brand is extremely successful in Europe’s keymarkets and many parts of the world. The Octavia, Superb and Fabia just won best-in-class at one of the respected consumer buying guide awards in the United Kingdom.

And while the different Skoda models such as the Octavia, Superb and Fabia won best-in-class in the UK, we found two �enthusiastic’ employees from the Cairo-based Al-Ahram newspaper, one of them a reporter and his brother an advertisement sales representative, claiming that their Skoda Octavia A5 Fantasia (1 year old, 30.000km) is �suffering a technical failure and wrong design in the suspension which results in a severe instability of the car while driving’.

This is surely no surprise since we regularly hear and read about many mistakes and wrong-assumptions from the Al Ahram automotive supplement advertorial writers and advertising reps, who call themselves �automotive journalists’.

But more about this disturbing blackmailing-story in a few days here on autoarabia.org !

And now back to the award, where the Skoda Octavia has retained its crown as �Best Family Car’ from respected consumer buying guide Parkers.

Expert judges from Parkers were faced with a tricky decision when working out which car deserved to be the best �Family Hatchback’in its annual awards.

After crunching the numbers in both the â€?Under ?£18,000’andâ€??£18,000-?£25,000’price brackets, one of the two category winners would claim the overall title. It was an easy decision to make for the judges, however, as the ? KODA Octavia finished top in both!

In the lower price bracket the Octavia 1.6 TDI S came out on top, and in the higher it was the Octavia 1.6 TDI Elegance with DSG transmission. After considering each model’s merits, the judging panel settled on the entry level S-spec as the UK’s number one �Family Hatchback’.

It’s a second triumph in a row for the popular ? KODA, as the Octavia S 1.2 TSI won in the â€?Family Car’ category last year.

Parkers’ Car of the Year awards are unique in ensuring that price bracket wins are entirely fact-based. Using Parkers’ Cost of Motoring Tool, depreciation, road tax, showroom tax, first registration fee, servicing costs, breakdown cover and even fuel bills for three years/30,000 miles are all taken into account.

Kieren Puffett, Editor of Parkers, commented: “As every family motorist knows, you not only need a car that is hugely practical, spacious and comes well-equipped, but it must be cheap to run and deliver the most car for the money. ? KODA has consistently delivered this with the Octavia and it’s clearly demonstrated with the car coming top in both price brackets in the category for being best value.â€?

? KODA models also came top in two other price brackets. In theâ€?Premium Executive Car Under ?£30,000’, the best performer was the Superb 1.6 TDI CD S GreenLine II. The Fabia 1.6 TDI S five-door came up trumps in theâ€?Family Estate Under ?£16,000’ catergory.

Chris Horrell, Product Marketing Manager at ? KODA UK, commented: “We’re delighted that ? KODA has delivered an exceptionally strong result in this year’s awards. With the calculations based on facts alone, it’s reassuring for customers to know ? KODA delivers outstanding value for money across the range.â€?

Tune back here to autoarabia.org in a few days to read the complete story about the Skoda-Alahram-scandal here on autoarabia.org

MS
Milton Keynes – Cairo
09.04.2012