Goodwill continues to speed Skoda's progress

Last year it took 1.7 per cent of the UK new car market with a record 39,000 sales, and sold 18,000 Fabias, with the model taking its customary 3 per cent of the sector, despite its then imminent replacement. On say from 17 May, Skoda expects to sell 9,000 new Fabia hatches this year. An estate arrives in 2008 and its maker predicts combined hatch and estate sales of 16,000. Will there be another saloon? “At this stage, no,” said Richards. Industry analysts will tell you that out of all the Volkswagen-owned brands, it is Skoda that is probably the most profitable overall, and the Czech marque continues to bask in an aura of goodwill. Many buyers now still perceive the brand as offering VW quality for less money, while some industry observers suggest its cars are now among the best built in VW's sprawling empire. Although its current range is competitively priced, many Skodas are not especially cheap, and this, combined with screwed down labour costs and production efficiencies, makes it easier for them to turn a profit. Bigger and better With the late 1990s' arrival of the bigger, near-Mondeo sized Octavia, followed by the Felicia-replacing Fabia in 2000, Skoda dealers at last escaped only-one-model-to-sell syndrome and sold shed loads of both. It has turned round respectable volumes for the bigger Superb saloon, effectively a stretched VW Passat, which has found a ready, if relatively low-key, market from private buyers and private hire companies, for whom its mix of modern diesel engines, space and relative affordability made it a strong proposition. Now as Skoda dips its toe into the people carrier market with the Roomster and launches a replacement for the Fabia – its most successful model to date – Richards is looking ahead to the launch of next year's Superb replacement, a facelifted Octavia, the new Fabia estate and the Yeti compact 4x4. Richards joined Skoda 12 months ago from Volkswagen's group services department; overseeing aftersales, promotions and product launches. Like Honda, Skoda is popular with older private buyers. Richards is keen to broaden this sales base, citing the “less sober looking, more spacious Fabia Mk2” appealing to young families perhaps more than its predecessor, while retaining the lucrative grey pound drivers who go for things like the Fabia and Honda Jazz. “We want to appeal to our core market and appeal to younger families,” he said. Although it continues making use of VW running gear and sub-structures, Richards insists future Skodas will have “distinct Bohemian characteristics and a home grown, Czech feel”. He thinks the next, bigger Superb will show this. New markets The Roomster straddles the small and medium-sized people carrier market. ”In terms of pricing it's very much pitched at the Fiat Idea and Nissan Note,” said Richards. The Roomster should provide dealers with useful conquest sales. The Octavia continues to enjoy strong sales and next year gets a nose job, something that should revive interest in what will by then be one of Skoda's oldest models. With the current media and social backlash against 4x4s, it will be interesting to see how the Yeti fares when it reaches the UK and if Skoda's magic touch will stick to this car but, generally, Richards has plenty to be optimistic about. Evolution of the Skoda brand In the mid 1980s, Skoda was still making apparently cheerless, antique rear-engined Estelle four-door saloons for pensioners in hats and receiving a regular critical panning, until critics actually drove the cars, realised they were not at all bad and said so. Skoda had by then ditched the swing axle rear suspension – with its windscreen wiper handling – and found itself lauded as makers of “cut-price Porsches”. It won rallies, sold convertibles and fuel injected coupes, stopped being a joke and started to become motoring's plucky underdog. Then it launched the Favorit, a Bertone-styled five-door, front-engined supermini and estate model. Still bargain priced but far more mainstream, it sold well and as the velvet revolution swept away Czechoslovakia's Soviet-controlled, communist government, Volkswagen knocked on Skoda's door with the promise of serious investment. The Czech company became part of the German car giant's empire. Since then the world has witnessed MG-Rover's protracted death throes and the rise and fall of Daewoo, while Skoda steadily grew and transformed itself into one of Europe's slickest car producers, with modern factories, such as the glass and steel Superb saloon plant, which is clean, quiet and a world away from the metal bashing, heavy industrial factories which once made cars. Skoda also cleverly marketed its range, spending years protesting it was ditching the self deprecating line that nobody would believe the products wearing its curious winged arrow badge could be so good, but repeatedly returning to it because it worked so well. Today, the inverted snobbery attached to the brand is a positive advantage. Skoda spent most of the 1990s relying on a single model with the Favorit, then the VW-influenced Felicia, a heavily revised version of the Favorit, a car many thought was a cheaper VW – something that did Skoda no harm at all.