I have a new company car, an Octavia, on order. It comes with plenty of bells and whistles, so the only option I wanted was a set of roof bars for the bike rack.
The car is now at the dealers being pdi'ed, but no roof bars -
"the accessories are currently being tested for UK market, and they are not able to give a definite date yet as to when we can order them"
It's not a major inconvenience, but are they expecting me to believe that type approval for this sort of thing isn't europe-wide, or that the roof bars will function differently on a right had drive car ?
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this is presumably the new model Octavia?
If so, maybe they are telling the truth as I understand it is significantly different from the previous model.
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>> The car is now at the dealers being pdi'ed, but no roof bars -
>> "the accessories are currently being tested for UK market, and they are not able to
>> give a definite date yet as to when we can order them"
You are not comprehending what they are saying.
Its not testing them for type approval, its testing the market to see if
a: If anyone will buy them
b: What price they are prepared to pay for a: above
c: suitable, if any, profit margin for the dealers.
They might never ever get stocked in the uk, whereas may be available for purchase in France. You just buy them there and use them here.
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Have you heard of Thule ?
Pound to a penny they'll be the OEM of the Skoda bars and that Skoda will add a significant markup.
Then there's Halfords and other options.
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Does the OP refer to bike specific bars or the longitudinal rails to which such bars attach?
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It's a company car and we aren't allowed 'post fit' accessories, so they have to be dealer supplied/fitted. Of course the Skoda branded bars will be manufactured by Thule or someone similar, but the car its self has been on sale and on the road in Europe since last december, and when I was looking around a showroom three months ago, the showroom models already have the fitting holes in place at the top of the door opnening.
As for testing the market to see what they could get away with, the prices ahve been in the brochures for months now.
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>> the prices
>> ahve been in the brochures for months now.
means nothing.
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I would be surprised if they are anything other than a major roof equipment manufacturers (Thule?) kit with untested and expensive "Skoda" stickers on the bars.
EDIT - Beat me to it.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 10 Jun 13 at 13:52
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£175 seems pretty expensive though, or am I just out of date.
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That is a bit expensive.
I bought Volvo bars for my S60 5 years ago for £72, I was quoted over £90 for after market ones at the time. About 18 months ago I paid £130 for Citroën bars for our Grand Picasso.
I swear if I bought a Transit van I'd still need a roof box or a trailer after a visit to the UK.
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My £25 aluminium aero bars from LIDL work just fine.
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>> My £25 aluminium aero bars from LIDL work just fine.
They don't whistle?
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>> >> My £25 aluminium aero bars from LIDL work just fine.
They're chocolate.
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>> >> >> My £25 aluminium aero bars from LIDL work just fine.
>>
>> They're chocolate.
>>
Yes, of course they are Zero. l-0
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>> >> My £25 aluminium aero bars from LIDL work just fine.
>>
>> They don't whistle?
>>
Not up to "Was I really going that fast officer" speeds. :-)
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They finally arrived this morning - I presume the delay was while they compiled the 210 page manual into near approximations of 12 languages
I've worked out that references to 'roof suspension dome' mean the seam at the side of the roof, but any takers to explain 'when the cap is mounted on a non-fitted rack, it is pushed away by a return spring that might cause malformation of the cap in case of a long term exposure'
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Perhaps fitting provides some opposing force to the return spring. Left in place but not fitted, the unopposed force of the spring can deform the cap - whatever that is. Is it advising you not to leave accessories on the bars when the bars aren't on the car?
It's a company car and we aren't allowed 'post fit' accessories, so they have to be dealer supplied/fitted.
Curious about this in the original post. Roof bars are hardly fitted accessories any more than, say, a plug-in phone charger. My Volvo was a company car when I bought the bars for it and it never occurred to me to ask. Nor, of course, would I have had anything permanent fitted to it - wheels, stripes, vinyl roof. (Got all those the day after I bought it, of course.)
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Fri 23 Aug 13 at 10:14
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>> It's a company car and we aren't allowed 'post fit' accessories, so they have to
>> be dealer supplied/fitted.
Our company car policy runs to 32 pages - the fleet management co have to earn their living
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Skoda - Who believes them - AnotherJohnH
