Škoda, while being
responsible for some truly
awful cars, was also able to
imbue their cars with a certain
quirky charm, particularly their last
independently
manufactured unit, the ‘
Favorit’. There is something about a car whose
brakes are
smoking as you coast down an
Italian hillside that just
warms the heart.
Škoda was more or less taken over in 1995 by Volkswagen, and while the quality of their cars improved, the coolness factor generally declined.
So, while a Škoda on the road is still pretty neato, I can’t help but think that underneath it all, it’s really just a Jetta.
By the way, a little known fact is that ‘Škoda’, in Slovak, also means “That’s a shame.”