The ‘Skoda joke’ was a staple of many a 1980s comedian (eg – “What do you call a Skoda with a sunroof? A skip!”), making fun of a Czech manufacturer with a bottom-of-the-barrel reputation for its very budget cars.
Today, the laughing stock has become anything but a joke, as Skoda enjoys global annual sales of well over a million and buyers praising both its product and its service. Today the brand is a consistently successful division of the giant Volkswagen Group, with a range of bang up-to-date cars with all the upmarket quality of their German parent but in a generally better value package.
Skoda has always traded on the value-for-money proposition of its model range, and under the parentage of the Volkswagen Group over the past three decades has added the quality – all but one of the brand’s current UK model range earns A or B scores in the Expert Rating Index produced by The Car Expert.
These factors have rapidly increased the popularity of the brand, which enjoyed record UK sales in 2023. It has been slow to adopt electric power, with just one current model, but this is set to change rapidly with six EVs expected to be in showrooms before the end of 2026.
So who or what is Skoda?
Skoda existed as a company long before it started making cars. The Skoda Works was established by Czech engineer Emil von Skoda in 1859, in what was then part of the Austrian empire, and over much of the next century became a major arms manufacturer as well as diversifying into many other areas of engineering.
That diversification saw in 1924 the acquisition of a car maker called Laurin & Klement, which was formed in 1896 when young entrepreneurs Vaclav Klement and Vaclav Laurin opened a bicycle repair business. Soon they were making their own bicycles, quickly followed by motorcycles and by 1905, cars. These became popular and the company later diversified into trucks, until a fire at the factory led to the 1924 tie-up with the Skoda Works. By 1936, Skoda was the most popular car maker in Czechoslovakia.
During the second world war, the Skoda Works was used by the occupying German army to produce military products, and was bombed almost to destruction by Allied forces. It was soon rebuilt and the first new car produced immediately after the war ended in 1945. Three years later, the now Communist regime in Czechoslovakia separated the company’s automotive operations from the parent Skoda Works.
In the 1950s, Skoda cars remained popular but their Communist origins badly affected efforts to sell them in America. Over the next two decades, Skodas became steadily more dated against Western European cars.
The turning point came in 1990 when following the fall of communism, the Czech government decided to privatise Skoda and sought a major European partner. Eight manufacturers bid and Volkswagen was the winner.
The Volkswagen Group’s initial 30% stake was steadily increased until in 2000 it bought Skoda outright. The first new model was the Felicia, but this was soon followed by the Fabia small hatch and Octavia family car – these were basically Volkswagen products wearing Skoda badges, as all of the company’s products have been since, and both model names remain in the range today.
The initial UK marketing campaign for the Skoda Fabia Skoda made fun of its former image, under the tag line “It’s a Skoda, honest…” Sales rocketed to more than 30,000 by 2005 and Skoda has maintained a top reputation for its product and customer satisfaction ever since.
Skoda has also stayed at the cutting edge of market trends. Its first SUV, the seven-seat Kodiaq, was launched in 2016. The company has been slower to go electric, however. Its first EV, the Enyaq SUV, went on sale in 2020 and the second, the Elroq small SUVs, is due to reach the UK next year.
Today, Skoda is a highly regarded mainstream brand with sales rising fast, the manufacturer delivering more than 70,000 vehicles to UK customers in 2023.
What models does Skoda have and what else is coming?
The current Skoda range perfectly encapsulates the company’s target market of families and fleet drivers.
The Fabia supermini traces its ancestry back to 1999 and is now in its fourth generation, the current version closely related to the Volkswagen Polo.
The larger Octavia family car is the fourth generation to wear the name. The current car underwent a facelift in 2024 and is available in five-door liftback or estate forms. It’s only offered in petrol or diesel variants.
The Octavia’s bigger sibling has the oldest model name of all. The first Skoda Superb was launched in 1934 – the model name was revived in 2001 on a car which Skoda pitched as an executive model against the likes of Audi and BMW, with some success. The current Superb, launched in early 2024, is available as a saloon or estate and with petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Another former model name, much derided in the ‘Skoda joke’ period, was revived in 2012, but the Skoda Rapid lasted just seven years before being replaced by the Scala. The mid-sized hatchback is Skoda’s equivalent to the Volkswagen Golf and SEAT Leon against which it is considered excellent value for money – updated in 2023, it is only offered with petrol engines.
Skoda’s first SUV, launched in 2017, was a large model called the Kodiaq. The second generation version appeared in 2024 and is on sale in both five and seven-seat variants. Engine options extend to petrol mild-hybrid, diesel and plug-in hybrid.
Skoda quickly followed up the Kodiaq with a smaller sister called the Karoq, which replaced the popular Yeti in the model range. Mildly updated in 2022, the Karoq comes in petrol and diesel form and is also known for its off-road ability.
Current Skoda range on our Expert Rating Index
In 2019 there appeared an even smaller crossover model dubbed the Kamiq, sharing most of its mechanical specification with the Volkswagen T-Cross. Again offered with petrol or diesel engines, it has proven popular as a value-for-money option with great practicality and comfort.
Skoda’s first model to be designed from the start as an electric vehicle is the Enyaq, a compact SUV launched in 2021. It’s available with two battery options and as a dual-motor all-wheel drive model, in both standard five-door form and as a coupe. Skoda also offers both body styles in a performance-pitched Enyaq iV vRS model, though many reviewers argue that it is not potent enough to wear the vRS badge.
On its way into Skoda showrooms is the second electric model, the Elroq. This compact SUV is also the first car from the Czech manufacturer to adopt an all-new styling design and will go on sale with three battery options. It will be followed by a clutch of further models with the same basic look, Skoda stating that it intends to be selling six EVs by the end of 2026.
Where can I try a Skoda car?
Buyers interested in trying a Skoda should not have to travel too far – the brand has around 150 dealers evenly spread around the UK, with a handy locator on the Skoda website.
For many years Skoda dealers included some of the smallest showrooms in town centre locations, but as its market share and model line-up has grown the brand has increasingly signed up with larger dealer groups on ‘motor alley’ locations.
What makes Skoda different to the rest?
A brand that once was about budget cars that people didn’t like admitting to owning has totally reinvented itself. Today, Skoda is all about quality vehicles offering a degree of luxury and all of the latest technology one could want. Quite often Skoda models are preferred to those of their parent company Volkswagen, the giant that made Skoda’s transformation possible.
A Skoda fact to impress your friends
Cars are not the only vehicles ever made by Skoda. By the time Skoda started manufacturing cars in 1924, it had been making tanks for many years, as well as hundreds of steam engines.
There were also aircraft with Skoda badges and later trolley buses, and even today Skoda still produces electric railway locomotives and tram cars.
Summary
Skoda is a brand currently enjoying a reputation that is the envy of rivals. Its cars are very highly regarded, as much for the quality of their build as their value-for-money prices. With its range of electric vehicles set to mushroom within two years, Skoda’s future looks bright – and that’s no joke…
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