Skoda has announced details of its latest used car initiative, the approved used car programme. It says it takes carefully selected Skoda vehicles that are no more than five years old and have less than 120,000km on the clock, and ensures each vehicle undergoes a series of stringent checks to meet the requirements of the programme.
In addition to this, the Czech brand also says all Skoda approved used cars will come with industry leading low rate finance options from zero per cent APR, and also have a 12 month roadside assist and 12 month warranty available as standard.
Skoda says each of the approved used car undergoes a 110 multi-point quality check before qualifying for the initiative, and any repair work required to the vehicle in order to meet this standard is carried out by its highly trained technicians using their genuine parts to ensure optimal quality.
In addition, free puncture repair and complimentary summer and winter health checks with courtesy wash and valet are included. And these offers are available on all orders up to September 30, 2018.
Some 80,000 used cars were imported from the UK in 2017, but Skoda Ireland claims more and more customers are now looking to their local authorised dealers to purchase their used car in Ireland.
Skoda is currently sixth in the national new car sales rankings, but the brand lags way behind in 12th position when it comes to the number of used cars imported into Ireland from abroad.
Commenting on this, Cathal Kealey, PR manager for Skoda Ireland, said since launching the Skoda approved used car programme in 2015, it has a competitive used car offer in the market.
"Since then there have been additional challenges to the used car market as a result of Brexit and the fall in the value of sterling, which is making used car imports more appealing to some people. For Skoda, we have not experienced a dramatic rise in imports and we firmly believe this has been down to the success of our used car programme.
“The interest people pay on personal loans may often erode the perceived savings on the car. By offering attractive low rate finance at source on our used cars in partnership with Skoda Financial Services, it believes customers are less likely to travel abroad. We see our used car finance offers as a major factor in limiting the number of Skoda used car imports in Ireland at present.”
