Autocar has witnessed a few of Skoda’s most vital moments, with each based again in 1895
Skoda’s story has been recorded within the pages of Autocar for over a century. We have sifted by way of the Autocar Archive to search out a few of Skoda’s most vital moments since its inception in 1895.
1902
It took three years from the day that Václav Laurin and Václav Klement started making motorised bicycles within the faraway Kingdom of Bohemia for point out of their names to be made in The Autocar.
A London seller of Benz vehicles had imported their 2bhp creation and sought to point out off its capabilities in a reliability trial to Oxford. “The Hewetson Motor Bicycle is thrashing all opponents,” claimed the advert. “Stopped and withdrew at 11.5 miles owing to brief circuit” was the truth.
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1908
By means of 1908 we had been intrigued by experiences of a little bit four-cylinder Laurin & Klement automobile triumphing in hillclimbs on the continent.
In December, the manufacturing unit check driver, German Otto Hieronimus, rocked up at Brooklands and established a category report for a flying half-mile at 73.77mph. “Its efficiency will want a great deal of beating by any automobile of equal engine dimensions,” we mentioned.
1936-1940
On the 1936 Geneva Salon, we did not fairly know what to make of the Common Coupé, as unconventional aesthetically as Skodas already had been mechanically.
We made particular notice of the central fin that prolonged from the roof all the way in which right down to the rear bumper and the truth that “pointless grilles cowl the top lamps to steadiness the heavy radiator design, itself not very pleasing”. However by 1940 we had softened and thought it represented an excessive of “ultra-smart” styling.
1946-1948
A yr after hostilities in Europe ceased, Skoda resumed automobile manufacturing with the brand new 1101, a household saloon with US-influenced styling and a fascinatingly unorthodox spine chassis; the bigger Excellent adopted a yr later.
As communists took management of the nation, a British motor trade consultant reported from Mladá Boleslav that “the standard of Czechoslovak items is bettering” and “I used to be notably within the morale of the manufacturing unit staff: most of them appeared completely happy and hard-working”.
1950-1954
“Silent operating, versatile engine with excessive efficiency and low petrol consumption,” started the primary Skoda advert ever to look in The Autocar, positioned by the manufacturing unit staff’ union, Kovo.
“Elegant and fantastically designed physique ensures good consolation. Impartial entrance and rear suspension permits excessive cruising speeds even on unhealthy roads.
The synchromesh gearchange underneath the steering wheel provides to the convenience of dealing with. One shot lubrication retains upkeep prices low”. A full model consciousness marketing campaign started after an area distributor, LC Rawlence of Surrey, was appointed 4 years later.
1964
In celebration of Skoda’s seventieth anniversary, Autocar (now minus the particular article) lastly visited Mladá Boleslav. The previous manufacturing unit “had been bursting on the seams for a while”, because of the Octavia’s recognition, so a brand new constructing was erected – at an estimated price of £50 million to supply the primary all-new Skoda in three many years.
“It’s geared up with the perfect equipment from everywhere in the world,” we reported, including “the Westernised 1000MB is one other image of the rapprochement going down”.
1974-1977
Skoda returned to motorsport in a giant manner within the Nineteen Sixties-on the opposite facet of the Iron Curtain there was even System Skoda for single-seater juniors. In 1974 we sampled a Skoda created for British Tremendous Saloon racing: an S110R Coupé with the operating gear and mid-mounted Chevrolet V8 from an previous System 5000 car-mad however “of a bit”.
Then in 1977 we tried the “skilfully homologated” 130RS works rally automobile “a fast machine for 1300cc, likened to an excellent twin-cam Ford Escort by those that have skilled each”. We discovered “the rear engine provides it good traction however an inclination to understeer”.
1988
“What handles like a Porsche, prices solely £4200 and is extra enjoyable than a GTI?” was the query that stuffed the quilt of Autocar-and the reply was the Skoda 136 Fast Coupé. A model that had been the butt of each car-related joke for a decade abruptly was interesting to fans.
“In an period of sameness, it presents a genuinely completely different driving expertise. There isn’t any higher approach to study each angle of dealing with – a kind of freshmen’ course to the Porsche 911, when you like,” learn our street check verdict.
1992
After the Velvet Revolution had introduced down the communist regime, Volkswagen signed as much as rejuvenate Skoda, planning £3 billion of funding in plant, know-how and future mannequin programmes.
“Our vehicles are higher than folks suppose they’re,” exports boss Jan Fechtner instructed us on a go to to Mladá Boleslav. “It is important that the picture is raised, so after we enhance the vehicles, the market provides us due credit score for it”.
Volkswagen R&D chief Ulrich Seiffert added: “We’ll be constructing vehicles that meet or exceed all European requirements. You can not survive by utilizing yesterday’s strategies”. After a tour of the manufacturing unit, we presciently predicted: “Fairly quickly, the Czechoslovaks could also be having the final chortle”.
2009
The worldwide economic system imploded in 2008, inflicting upheaval all through the automobile trade. But whereas others went bankrupt or folded, Skoda was, by late 2009, already “set to emerge from the credit score disaster with its fame enhanced”.
Its worth proposition meant it did very properly out of scrappage schemes in Europe whereas capitalising on the expansion within the growing markets of China and notably India, the brand new Excellent being an actual spotlight. “From the single-car line-up of the early Nineteen Nineties, Skoda’s rise has been outstanding, and it exhibits little signal of diminishing,” we concluded.
2016
Skoda was early to the compact SUV celebration, but it struck such a chord that in 2015, by which period rivals had popped up all over the place, the kooky Yeti was promoting higher than ever. In admiration, we drove a four-wheel-drive instance throughout the robust Himalayan terrain of Bhutan – the house of its legendary namesake.
“It has managed each bushy scenario thrown at it with grace and emerges from our treacherous drive unscathed,” we mentioned, discovering ourselves “extra enamoured than we ever thought we may very well be with a Yeti”.
2022
If we had held awards within the Nineteen Sixties, maybe Skoda might need received Greatest Household Automotive within the least expensive worth class, however it could have had no hope of taking the general honour.
But that is precisely what the model achieved in 2022, and with its first bespoke electrical automobile no much less – a class by which each main producer was investing billions. By this level it had firmly established a model picture of ‘Merely Intelligent’, no-nonsense practicality, and the Enyaq iV exemplified this.
“Designed by individuals who perceive how the world works, it’s a candy spot within the household EV market,” we swooned.
