And that my friends is why I chose to buy my old company car.... But it wasn't that many years ago that companies would reward their least successful sales reps with having to drive the company car of shame for a month, a Skoda Octavia until of course they slowly emerged from the old image they used to have. These days they really are cars of impeccable taste and great value for money, my Superb really does live upto its name in every sense. Its 5 years old, lives outside all the time, it's not modi coddled like so many cars that live in garages. It has no signs of rust, still with everything as original apart from tyres, water pump and cam belt, starts first time everytime, automatic and power everything, looks like a new car and I have never polished it, just use the normal drive through car wash, it's perfect. How many cars could you say that about, not many I bet ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
My '04 Mazda 2 (110kmiles), and my mother's '03 Toyota Yaris Verso (40kmiles), to name but two. Much the same could be said of most of my previous cars, since my selecton criteria is (1) does Which? say it is reliable. followed by (2) are the seats comfortable.
But then I had one of my previous cars for 10 years until it was 43 years old - and I sold it for the same price I paid. Yes, bits did fall off regularly (fuel tank, wheel, engine), but since I had the appropriate bolts those were merely roadside repairs ![Smiley :)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
I've been the only driver of my car since day one, when I ordered the car I had to wait almost 5 months before it was ready for collection as they didn't build cars to be stockpiled and left in old airfields slowly rusting away for months or years before being sold, only made against specific orders. Previously I have had Fords, Vauxhall (Opel), Volkswagen and Rovers as company cars and by the end of their 3 years they all looked a bit worse for wear and all were ready for delivery within 2 weeks from time of ordering. The only car among them that I was sorry to see go was a Volkswagen Passat, that was a good car and 1 had 3 of those before I selected a Skoda and that was only because my 3 sons were rapidly growing to being 1.9m tall and so the extra legroom was essential and the Skoda has been the best car from all of them. My current car is 5.5 years old and from the outside you would never believe it. Inside the drivers mat has worn through (now replaced with a new one), still has all the original carpets and passenger mats, foot rests in the rear. Leather on the seats is like new, only drivers shows slight signs of wear and after a good valet looks almost new inside too.
On the other cars I have had new batteries, tyres, brakes, exhausts, ECU's, water pumps, clutches, shock absorbers, starter motors, alternators, window motors, door locks, throttle sensors, heaters and radiators fail all within the 3 years before the company renewed the cars but my current car just keeps on going and the the only reason it had a new water pump fitted is because it is recommended to replace it at the same time as the cam belt is changed as the front of the car has to be dismantled to gain access to it so it is really a preventative measure because of the cost of labour.
Yes I know that the car is essentially the same as all other volkswagen cars including Audi and Bentley but for some reason the Skoda's seem to be made with more pride and attention to detail than say Volkswagen or Seat cars from the group while in my view Skoda, Porsche, Audi and Bentley seem to be from the same mould.