We used to own a superb laurin&klement when my dad worked at Skoda in the Czech Republic... What a car 😍

This package was also available in MK1 octavia and, to celebrate 100 years anniversary, in special edition of 1995-6 Felicia

Not just Superb. Felicia, Octavia and others also.

But Waclaw&Waclaw would be better

It's not exclusive to Superb. Octavia Mk. 1 has it too. Maybe other models too.

what's the story b4 the acquisition?

@@blinDTiger0.01 typical eastern europe company - owned by the government, no competition, no drive for innovation. They developed 1000MB in 60's and that's it. There were other projects, but the government never gave them enough money to actually put them into production, so they were just modifying their current model. Luckily in the 80's, even government realised they needed a new car - NOW - so Skoda developed Favorit within 5 years with involvement of western companies - so they had relatively modern car and factory when communism fell. But they were near bankrupcy with no resources for further development - in 90's when car technology leapt forward. And government needed to sell it. Luckily, VW saw potential, bought majority in Skoda and heavily invested. Renault was also interested in acquisition, but they had no interest in keeping Skoda brand. Interestingly, it wasn't first time that VW was involved in skoda - during Favorit development, there was apparent need for a new engine and they were thinking about licencing a 1l VW engine. Eventually they found out that modifying the Skoda engine from 60's was cheaper and resulting engine was more capable.

@@Papinak2 okay

@@Papinak2 not true 100% they couldve gone with this same in GDR - the issue was more like how the government wanted to spend the money, and since socialists are not good with money, guess what they made more debts, while the engineers made alot of interesting cars, that only got limited productions or no tries at all because the govs didnt understand what the west market actually wanted :)

@@HippasosofMetapontum more or less what I said :)

Škodilak :D

@@rogluka Škodi lak would mean harming paint in my language lak can also be used as a way to say that someone is light

@@abyssstrider2547 pa odakle si mi brate? 😁

@@rogluka Ja sam iz Bosne :D

Škodilak - kultno auto koje se dugo moglo vidjeti u Mostaru

I think they would do well because they are cheaper than vws so maybe theyll bite into the share of Toyota and so on

@@andreasstrauss5194 That's what I think. VW tries to present themselves as being a bit more upscale than Ford, Chevy, Honda, Toyota, etc. here so I could see Skoda as VW's value brand. I've heard Skoda wants to sell cars in America but VW claims it would cannibalize sales.

@@Alcofoamer thats my guess too

You have one... It is an Superb Estate from a Chech diplomat... :)

Skoda is going to be present in US when VW will focuse entirely on electric cars ( ergo in near future) Skoda will be its brand for " dirty " cars

The first means something like - Joint-skock company, previously Skoda racing. And the last one also ends in Skoda racing not national company.

@@theczechfamous Yeah, google translator sometimes sucks. závod in czech means also "company, establishment, enterprice..." and not only "race". But today is this meaning not much used.

Must be the dudes from the Seidel & Naumann bicycle company that returned Václav Klement's letter 😅

😂

And he always does such good videos on top of that

Those are likes from Australia.

Some people want to be the combo breaker

Yeah that Thing took us everywhere

And the Rapid now sold as VW Polo Sedan in Russia!

Santana was the saloon version of the B2 Passat, well in the UK at least.

@@buggs9950 that was the first Santana... In 2013 both Rapid and Santana were built and sold in China.

Wtf

Even similar script logos.

Its nothing terrible really, we cant blame you for saying some things wrong, when everything shown on the screen was right. I think the rest of the pronunciations were pretty good! Cheers.

The pronunciations you tried were quite decent, though with extremely heavy russian accent. Only Russians that live here would actually pronounce it like that. If I tried to describe how a Czech would pronounce it, it would be with a higher pitch and with shorter vowels.

@@polakjan Thanks. Not sure why I go Russian - I've never been there, and I don't know any Russian.

@@BigCar2 Almost everyone does, Russian is the slavic language people think of when and the only one they hear somewhat commonly, it makes sense they assume other slavic languages sound similar.

Hey, Škoda pronounced as Skoda is just fine. In fact, that is THE pronunciation outside of Slavic countries.

Tatra designed and built the car which became the VW Beetle. The design was stolen from them when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, and then Adolf Hitler's close friend Ferdinand Porche took all the credit for designing it. For some reason the VAG Group don't like to promote this side of their history, but as they did actually get forced to pay compensation to Tatra (only about 5 to 10 years ago I think) it is a bit difficult for them to continue to deny that their empire is founded on warfare, theft, and deceit.

Lots of yes to this...

@@GeorgeSPAMTindle and thats probably all that there is to say..Tatra remained as heavy vehicle manufacturer for the military and agriculture and prettymuch everything that needed heavy transporting.. The possibly most famous of all Tatra 815 truck and then there are some military 8x8 versions. Not much to say about tatra in general.

@@adam207321 Yet Tatra could have been so much more if they hadn't had their work stolen from them, so I have to agree with you when you state'that's all there is to say about them'.

@@GeorgeSPAMTindle yeah...Unfortunately stuff happenned...czechoslovakia might be the most canibalised country of all soviet countries. During the monarchy, during world war, during the communistic era, and now its the politicians ripping money from people here.. I am also a railfan and during the soviet era if soviets would not have happened we would have easily have the most advanced railways in europe. Back then. So many projects got cancelled because soviets wanted stuff for themselves they didnt leave us any space for our wants and needs. The railway industry the air industry (helicopters just check up the history of that) motor bikes (Čezet) and so many more. Only things that remained are Škoda, Zetor(tractor manufacturer) Tatra which are still capable of existance. Škoda is WV by now so it does not really matter anymore

Does it have the big grill or the "insert cd's only" grill? Also there cars are fucken durable

@@mariekirpalova9329 "insert CD" grill

@@Lando-kx6so Aka Pre-facelift

I first heard those jokes used for the legendary Trabant. But I guess they apply to all dodgy cars produced in central Europe in that era.

Despite the fact that it no longer really means anything even as a joke, I like that a lot!

How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it with petrol. Or my favourite: heard about the new 16 valve Skoda? 8 in the engine and 8 in the radio. Many years ago I had an Estelle, so I heard them all.

@@Nooziterp1 I had 4 rear engined Skoda cars, 2 x Estelles and 2 x Rapids. And despite the jokes, I did always have the last laugh! My cheap Skodas were infinitely MORE reliable than my neighbours Escorts, Sierra and Vauxhall Astra’s of the era. Gave a neighbour a ride in my Estelle once - he was genuinely gobsmacked at the handling, and how quick it was. Never heard another Skoda joke from him after that 🤣. There was a “mother of all snowstorms” in 1990 / 1991 winter, that literally shut London down. Normally taking the tube to work in Holborn, I was forced to take my 1983 Super Estelle into London - as the Tube wasn’t running. The plucky little Estelle made it all the way there through snow drifts and barely passable roads. I passed tens of broken down expensive cars that succumbed to the heavy snowfall. And I made it back in one piece too!

@@datathunderstorm Ah yes, my Estelle's performance on snow. I remember many a time when my neighbours in their modern cars were slipping and sliding everywhere while I just sailed past them. Plus the number of times I shovelled the snow off it and it started first or sometimes second time. While some of my neighbours were on the phone to a breakdown service. The last laugh indeed! I have a Skoda now, (a Citigo) and although last winter was mild I am not expecting it to be as good as my old Estelle. It is no more than a Volkswagen with Skoda badges on after all.

U mean Felicia

Ronald VAN TOL is Feliecia not Felice

@@Doman9191 Sorry, I was 5 at the time, It should have been Felicia and not Fellecia or Felice

Ha! Trying to write how to pronounce ř with rr doesn't help anyone that hasn't heard it pronounced correctly.

An improved version of VW ?

I have a 2012 Fabia combi, bought it 10 months old. Apart from service items (oils, filters, wipers and tyres) nothing has been replaced. That includes brakes & bulbs.

I've had 4 octy vRS so far, current one is a 245 Hatch mk3 FL. Great car, no idea why you'd want to spend more for a Golf, let alone an A3

@@juerbert1 : Apparently the Octavia is more versatile than the vehicle with its drivetrain - Golf - irony for you!.

They even predate VW. ;-)

Are there any electric conversions done for older 1000MB

Dacia Sandero is the best car you can get

That's interesting since Skoda was quite routinely winning their class in British Open Championship. I mean the engine capacity class.

Piotr Malewski - I’m sure you’re right, however it doesn’t change the fact that at the time the British public thought they were awful, cheap cars made by slave labour in the communist east. I remember my Dad clearly telling me how horrified he was that my Great Uncle has bought a Lada (mainly because by doing so he was propping up an oppressive regime, so my Dad said). Just to add, I’m sure these opinions are totally inaccurate in reality - but I remember the sentiment in this country at the time.

@@dj_efk I don't know about the Skoda factory but I can tell you something certain about a car factory in communist Poland. Edward Pietrzak was a head-dircetor of the FSO (Polish cars manufacturer, they were making eg. Polski Fiats 125p and Polonezes). The guy is a legend, he worked there for 40 years, in the 80ies almost saved the factory but was sabotaged and kicked off by a minister of industry. Before they kicked him off, and effectively brought the factory down, it was Pietrzak's doing that FSO designed a new generation of their own car from a scratch. They made Wars which was up to date, and entirely new, including suspension, engines and so everything. They couldn't however put it to production because the state was ripping FSO from money for decades, and in the 80ies was already too poor to give such a major investment. FSO couldn't get a credit outside the country because of international restrictions put on Poland after the martial law of 1981, so Pietrzak first used fake prototype built on a Peugeot car, and then Wars which this time was a real prototype, to show Fiat that they're mounting a strong new opposition on the European market (it was a bluff obviously), so Fiat gave them license and technology for making Fiat Unos and agreed that FSO would pay only once they earn money on Unos. Anyway, this guy, Pietrzak said something very interesting about the quality issues of the factory: "In the system of full employment people were not afraid of losing their jobs and did not respect their work. There was a huge rotation, about 25% of the factory staff all the time were new workers. We were suffering constant shortages of workforce, to the extent we had to send white collars, soldiers, sometimes even prisoners to the production lines. Unfortunately it didn't help much, and had a terrible effect on quality of our cars". From other sources I can tell you FSO was constantly sufferring from theft, and quality of cars varied from good to poor. One car they made could be problem free and easily reach speed of 170kph, while other exactly the same model would give lots of troubles and struggle to reach 140 kph. Jerzy Gutowski, a test driver who worked for FSO in the eighties, commented that he often had to send cars intended for export back to factory, because there were problems, and one car had its rear axle replaced five times before finally it stopped making noises and could be approved for export. My friend's father had about 20 cars of different brands, including 5 FSO Polonezes, and he insists those were nice, reliable cars, as long as you dismantled everything and put it together again to make sure the car is assembled properly. He claims his first Polonez 1.5 could go over 170kph. I also know of cars that could reach mileage of 500 thousand kilometers without engine renovation but these cars were either re-assembled by their owners, either they were the units that were lucky to be assembled by the best workers around Wednesday, so they were already after the post-weekends hangover, but not yet drunk. People say that in factories back then, drinking started on Thursdays, and on Mondays the staff had terrible hangovers.

@@dj_efk Please keep up with reality. Of course those days communist cars were crap! Jokes was rightfully deserved... Škoda in our time are really good cars, even better than VW.

that is a ridiculous, silly comment. not appropriate in 2020!!!!!

Skodas are made with up to 260bhp twin charged engines and some of them are lighter than a ton. Without exageration, a top trim fabia will leave most anything that isnt a high end sportscar in the dust.

@James Tudor yes, but no longer. In fact, isn't it strange that those who did all the mocking and ridiculing have gone somewhat quiet in the year that is 2021? Any thank god for that!! Skoda forever.

@@julianroberts5407 Yes it is generally dull to speak about 30-40 year old jokes i must wonder do not these people never develope their knowledge

@@aris95 no, unfortunately not. It would appear they are far too ignorant

Stop saying Czechia, that is NOT gonna happen!

@@DrataTheDrifter What is not gonna happen? That the official OSN short name for Czech Republic is Czechia? Why we dont use the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, i know right?

@@AndrewEdwardBailey Czechia, that name, that will not happen. I don't give a shit whether Rhodesia is now called Zimbabwe, but Czech will not be called Czechia :-)

@@AndrewEdwardBailey Once again, there's no such thing as "Czechia"! There's a country in a central Europe, which is called Czech Republic, and it has no short name, so it's often called simply "Czech". Some assholes made up new designation "Czechia", which Czech people hate.

@@DrataTheDrifter You're confounding "Tschien" which is accepted and correct with "Tschechei" which is Hitler speech coming from "Resttschechei" (=The rest of Czequia or the part that hadn't been annected by Germany in 1938, which was the whole Czechoslovakia without the Sudeten). I don't know if there are two different terms for "Tschechien" and "Tschechei" in english.

ukposts.info/have/v-deo/r6lpl4KDr4Cj2YE.html

Does it have the 1.9 TDI ?

@@mihneacireasa4613 no its a 1.8t 4x4

I received '97 Felicia from my aunt as a gift. Zero rust and still runs like a dream. It's taken me and my mates across Estonia, to festivals and fishing spots. I'll forever love that little bastard.

Škoda*

I had an Estelle some years ago. It was stolen (yes really) and crashed into a hedge just a couple of miles up the road. I don't think the thief was used to rear-engine handling.. There was a fair bit of their blood spattered about which made me feel better.

Buggs. “Handling”

@@buggs9950 that's the car of my whole childhood and my first car too.. what a beautiful set of memories!

Same here, problems and jokes aside there's just something very charming about them.

My first car was a 1983 Orange Skoda Super Estelle (code named “Foxbat” ) with funky alloys, a vinyl roof and a front and rear plastic bumper that greatly enhanced its looks so much so, my mates often mistook it for a BMW 2002. It ended up with the complete interior of a crashed 1988 Estelle - including the dashboard - which was plug and play! It also got a huge whale-tail spoiler which was sprayed the same colour as the car. And rare chrome inserts around all the side windows! Next car was an aquamarine blue 1984 Skoda Super Estelle (affectionately dubbed “Voyager” - from Star Trek). It inherited the whale tail from Foxbat - suitably resprayed the same colour as the car. Then there was “Cappuccino”, a Black 1988 Skoda Rapid 130G, so called, as the boot and bonnet lids rusted through quite badly and were replaced with beige ones from a scrap yard. The vehicle was also called “The Defiant” - a la Star Trek. The last Skoda I owned was a 1988 battleship grey Rapid 130G dubbed “Thunderstorm”. This one’s engine had apparently been bored out to a bigger CC and went like the clappers! I inadvertently jumped a humped bridge on the A406 (it’s no longer there) on the way to work with it, one morning 😱. I eventually gave it to my sister! The longest lasting was “Voyager” who had 2 engine transplants (Foxbat, then Cappuccino) when both cars were written off in accidents (not my fault - I got very good Insurance pay outs for them). Voyager ended up with a 1.3 litre engine from the Defiant and was entertaining to the end, when it was written off in another rear end shunt - the wife got over £2,000 for that! Incidentally, I’d bought Voyager for scrap value of £30 with a blown engine! It was my last Skoda, and despite the shunt was still running! I drove it to be scrapped - and literally cried all the way there, actually stopping along the way to blub my eyes out 😭. Then I broke down again handing over the keys!!! 😭 I totally loved my rear engined Skoda cars!!!

We are. I've been thinking that for a couple of decades now.

First of all, Škoda, second, the reason that its not in america is bc of the crash testing, im not sure

Marie Kirpalová sorry. I knew the accent was there somewhere. I’d be surprised if it was to do with crash tests as they share a lot with vw and you get them in the us.

@@mariekirpalova9329 my guess is that VW doesnt want it because they fear that theyll sell better than VW itself

@@andreasstrauss5194 That's what I've been told in Canada when I raised the same question

Why criticise it because it had a powerful heater? It's not as though they were forcing you to have it full on, since, as you say, it had off, low and medium settings - as with any other car...

@@wordsmith52 , The comment was made with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I haven't had a car since that could produce so much heat, so quickly. It was brilliant for those really cold and frosty mornings and on those odd occasions when we actually had snow on the ground.

@@Brytonrock Yep, the Lada Samara was a similar case. That car was terrible in most ways, but the heater was always good.

@@wordsmith52 Some cars like the Citroen DS had known problems where it sometimes would jam on when you were either cruising at speed or accelerating hard enough. In parts of the world where temperatures vary wildly over a day, long journeys could get very uncomfortable very quickly if it happened

Until u sit in vw seat and skoda equal model and notice all the little things vw does better. Same when comparing vw to audi. I am in a market for a new car, considering Scala or an octavia and both are great, but the second i sat in the Golf and the A3 you see all the little things they do better. I will say that Seat and Skoda are much better value however. The Scala will cost me just 25k for top tier model here in Ireland, whereas an equal Golf costs 35K plus. For that reason I will go for Skoda this time, but the Golf still feels superior.

Just back from Prague, amazing time. Made it to the ŠKODA Museum,Highly recommended and The National Technical Museum also if interested in transport. Thanks for the video, made the trip more interesting and share some pictures from the trip, Thanks Keith. imgur.com/a/FzUyoVS

I had a mate who bought a brand new Lada in the early 1990s here in the UK. Paid about £4k for it I think. Unbelievable.

As well as Skoda's name itself...

Oh well. Maybe if the rest of Europe pronounced English words correctly then you might have a point.

Yeah, it should be pronounced something like Wuh-tslove :) But nevermind. I am happy because of this video anyway.

@@johnturner4400 Invalid statement as this person's whole point is the story of Škoda, researching the correct pronounciations of a foreign word you're doing research on is common sense. Get a grip you entitled clown.

@@Davej82 More like /vahts lahv/

Just buy one again much better than the nowadays Müncher Scheisse.

Thx David

The favorit had a troubled and rushed development with the revolution not helping either, the felicia is what the favorit shouldve been

It's a LOT of work. I'm trying to work out how to streamline things a bit as these are getting a bit out of hand.

Thanks! I have a new found respect for people from the Czech Republic after researching this.

+Big Car | Do you think you could do a story about Škoda trolleybuses, too?

@@mardus_ee Probably not. I'm likely to stick to cars on this channel.

I'm sitting here in New Zealand checking every day for updates. There are so many silly sites. This is definitely NOT one of them. I'm passionate about Rolls-Royce and while it has HUGE subject matter, do you think you could find the time to do a story? That would be grand. I love the Silver Clouds and the Corniche.

Longer?!? A 20 minute video takes forever to make! Thanks for the feedback, but if they are longer you'll see far fewer unfortunately as it will take so long to make them.

@@BigCar2 I completely understand. Keep up the fantastic job, I love every episode of Big car an Little car

Canada is 15 years import law, right? So you can get a MK1 Octavia

@@dustojnikhummer yes you are correct however I wish skoda sold here. I'd love to get my hands on their electric SUV.

@@myronv4390 the Vision 4? Christ, I hate that thing. But then again I dislike SUVs in general.

Myron V electric SUV? What you mean? There is none.

Nah, on newer models you could uncover vw logo on the engine with a screwdriver, hidden under Škoda's logo

Better value tho

@@mariekirpalova9329 that was a hoax

Skoda and VW are the same thing... lots of components carrying the VW logo are developped by Skoda and vice versa (same goes for Audi)... So really, the only difference is the logo and where the car was assembled and since VWs are assembled in Germany, they are a bit more expensive but they are the same otherwise

www.logodesignlove.com/skoda-logo-evolution

I didn’t know that it was inspired by a headress

The world has overlooked Czech cars it seems. Even the Beetle is a copied Tatra design

I like Tatra and Skoda, I also like a Lada Niva. Never perfect but a lot of character!

May i interest you in "Velorex"? A car that you can build home from pipes and cloth/maybe leather (and other parts of course)

@@MaxxVelo Yes Ferdinand Porsche stole alot of ideas from Tatra and used it in the beetle and the 356. Skoda esthetically look better then Tatra.

I forgot that one. Thanks!

I heard that those Škoda jokes used to be applied on other eastern brands as well, like ladas. Is it true?

@@jirkanovak2 Yes ! Even Fiat didn't have a strong reputation for durability or reliability in the UK as it was back then ,so imagine who bought Ladas ... old age pensioners lol. In hindsight they probably weren't that bad for the money , especially if looked after and maintained properly.

Unfortunately, both countries were members of the Warsaw Pact, so officially speaking, they were allies. I think that's what the host meant.

@@ko_tech Russia wasnt a member, it was the boss i guess thats what he meaned.

Thanks - but "heavy"? What do you mean?

@@BigCar2 uhmmm. Heavy on facts? That is not something british people say? English is not my first language so sometimes things turn out weird if you translate something from your own language. Anyway, what i wanted to say was that videos with a lot of information in them can quickly turn into reading a boring list of facts and specifications out loud. Your videos do not suffer from that at all, very engaging while also being full of information. That is how it should be 👍

​@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 Yes, I try to make it interesting!

@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 . I'm Brit. I knew xackly what you meant......

@@dannygroom3327 thanks ;)

Ale furt to je jednička z roku 1996, akorát po minimálním faceliftu z roku 2001. "Tour" bylo jen jméno.

MK1 Octavia went from 1996 to 2010, with just a slight, very slight facelift. I mean, you would not call the 2017 headlight abomination an MK4, would you?

@@dustojnikhummer yeah and it also recieved an engine ID number :D

@A real bisexual petrol-head You mean MK3. MK4 went on sale only couple of months ago.

Škoda

It is worth watching! It's not a great movie, but fun (with some amount of positive attitude)

Shame they are not in videogames.

"4 people on the street carrying a trabant on their shoulders , they are asked "is the car broken are you carrying it to a workshop" they answer "no we are just in a hurry"

Yeah, and Yeti seems to me like Roomster on steroids, also he showed a more modern version of Yeti, the old one had one more pair of round lights on the inside (if u know what i mean) , škoda is updating the older models cuz they were succesful

They dont make the Roomster any longer

Nick Usalis Knight true, but just because it’s discontinued doesn’t mean you can’t love it

Blaze064 Fabia RS II is mine

@@tnickknight They should make electric Roomster