Member Article

Skoda from eighties joke to No.1 brand

Skoda from eighties joke to No.1 brand

• Skoda was founded in 1895 by Vaclav Laurin and Klement
• Making Skoda one of the oldest and most traditional rich car brands in the world!
• The Czech economy performed well up until the 1960s, then began to suffer because of new technology in the western world. ŠKODA continued to make new and improved cars – in the form of the Octavia, the Felicia, the MB range and the Rapid - but production really only grew again with the arrival of the Favorit model range in 1987. Such was its success that the final, very pretty version of the Favorit was designed by the legendary Italian, Bertone.
• Puney backwater cars earned a bad reputation for being poorly built and unreliable
• The Czech car maker was offered up for sale in 1991
• VW bought the company out in about 1991
• There was a close fight between VW and Renault. VW wanted to build expensive generic cars and VW wanted to build cheap low cost cars in the eastern bloc
• VW won the battle in the end
• First car to emerge under VW ownership was the Felicia a small little supermini
• Then the Octavia then the Fabia then the Superb
• It is the official sponsor for the Tour de France and has been for a number of years!
• Which starts this week!
• The new SKODA Octavia has been shortlisted as one of the seven finalists in the ‘Car of the Year 2014’ contest! One of the most prestigious car awards since 1964!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hugh Waddell .