1992
After the Velvet Revolution had brought down the communist regime, Volkswagen signed up to rejuvenate Skoda, planning £3 billion of investment in plant, technology and future model programmes.
“Our cars are better than people think they are,” exports boss Jan Fechtner told us on a visit to Mladá Boleslav. “It’s vital that the image is raised, so when we improve the cars, the market gives us due credit for it”.
Volkswagen R&D chief Ulrich Seiffert added: “We’ll be building cars that meet or exceed all European standards. You cannot survive by using yesterday’s techniques”. After a tour of the factory, we presciently predicted: “Quite soon, the Czechoslovaks may be having the last laugh”.
2009
The global economy imploded in 2008, causing upheaval throughout the car industry. Yet while others went bankrupt or folded, Skoda was, by late 2009, already “set to emerge from the credit crisis with its reputation enhanced”.
Its value proposition meant it did very well out of scrappage schemes in Europe while capitalising on the growth in the developing markets of China and particularly India, the new Superb being a real highlight. “From the single-car line-up of the early 1990s, Skoda’s rise has been remarkable, and it shows little sign of diminishing,” we concluded.
2016
Skoda was early to the compact SUV party, yet it struck such a chord that in 2015, by which time rivals had popped up everywhere, the kooky Yeti was selling better than ever. In admiration, we drove a four-wheel-drive example across the tough Himalayan terrain of Bhutan – the home of its mythical namesake.
“It has managed every hairy situation thrown at it with grace and emerges from our treacherous drive unscathed,” we said, finding ourselves “more enamoured than we ever thought we could be with a Yeti”.
2022
If we had held awards in the 1960s, perhaps Skoda might have won Best Family Car in the cheapest price category, but it would have had no hope of taking the overall honour.