Not hard at all if it is reliable and value for money...value for money is rather straightforward...means cheaper than others with the same specification...reliability...if the AD believe in what they are selling...offer a 5 years unlimited mileage warranty at least...we have seen Kia being probably the first to offer it...

When ppl mention "lesser known" cars, means sales volume is low. The AD's other means of profit will have to come from servicing. You can't expect longer warranty period or longer warranty mileage from them.

When there are merges between two or more car companies, it does not benefit the car buyers much. But what it does is benefit the car companies who can reduce cost measures in the form of cost cutting eg. sharing car platforms, parts and technology. What we dun see are the network of dealers who will tie up too. Do you see wearnes & tan chong tie up their network dealings? Think again.

There is no denying that resale value is very impt, but for people who plan to hold on to their car on a long term basis (>5yr), servicing and parts availability is equally if not more impt.

Ulu brands becoz of a lack of economy of scale, the AD will not have a comprehensive inventory or expertise to deal with most probs associated w the car and for the case of Skoda, they had changed so many ADs locally that the public (or maybe minority) confidence in them is really low.

Resale Value for Lesser Known cars are really bad because no one dares to buy a car that are scarce in the market.

But for well known brands, I cannot say they have good resale value.

Compare Apple to Apple, If you buy a Hyundai AVante for 50k and Toyota Altis for 70k

You will peg your 2nd hand car price base on the OMV, COE.

If you do the sums, the Depreciation value/year of Jap car is higher than Korean because of the higher Iniitial Buy Price.

Sabretan: I agree with you that with the shuffling of the brand amongst different dealers does reduce the confidence the layman has in the said brands. But in the case of Skoda, the brand has basically been overhauled in the last couple of years and with direction under VW, they will no doubt be looking to new, more capable dealers to take over their brand presence in Singapore.

I personally think the brands are not allocating enough to their marketing budget to change their perceived brand image.

Chery also offers buyback scheme but do u think u got more QQ on the road?

The design of skoda and Renault don't appeal to most. On top of that, for the same price, there are many other choices that have more appealing look. Ofcos it is known that looks is not everything when buying a car, but a very important one to most. The vrs combi look ok especially with it's LED daylight, but the price tag put some off as many Japanese counterparts with better look and expected better resale value are available in the market. The Renault on the other hand doesn't seems to be improving in the looks department. It's so unlike it's French counterparts Peugeot whose design is always sexy. Look at the megane, it's a good car, but the looks never change much over the years. Then compare the new Clio with the Peugeot 207. Votes are likely to go to the 207. If they start to make the car more appealing in the looks department, I believe the brand will sell better. Take Kia for example, their new range prove to be more appealing. Before this, most look at it as a budget brand, the image now is very much improve. And the sales figures... Hmm, look at the number of forte on the road...

I doubt marketing has much to do with it. Unfortunately in Singapore, reputation, especially in pragmatic areas like reliability, is everything. Why do you think there are so little Alfa Romeos in Singapore?

Skoda's reputation is of a shoddy communist car, which was somewhat true at first, but obviously not so now. But image sticks, and even though 21st century Skodas are as good as, or even better, than Volkswagen, locals, especially the older generation who have the money to splurge on cars, still have the communist image of Skoda.

Using my Dad as an example, he once had a Fiat Regatta which required a jump start every morning. As a result, he refuses to touch any European car with a barge pole until today, preferring to stick to the usual Japanese brands.