Uninformed people!

[Blanes]

Isnt it amazing how people used to think Skodas were unreliable crappy cars that broke down a lot....

Growing up, my Dad had 4 Estelles....120L, 105S, 120LSE,120L 5.....

I was on a forum the day when some guy wrote "Skodas are volkswagen these days - much more reliable than the heeps of **** they were in the 80's....."

Welll what a load of Tosh..... I remember the 120LSE letting us down once when it stalled and wouldnt start in about 89 but apart from that we had 20 years of reliable motoring.....

Shame people are hung up on image rather than the facts.

[rigsby]

Ive had 28 now in 22 years, and have found them very reliable, and any faults have been self indused (thrashing the pants off them) Only once have i not been able to get home under my own steam (sometimes with clouds off it) and that was when i used normal rubber pipe as a temp repair to a fuel pipe. Eight months later it filled the carb filter with bits of rubber and blocked it up. If it hadnt been all dressed up on a night out, i would have sorted it there, but i was on a promise so i phoned my dad to tow me home, I just wish parts for my Fabia were as cheep as estelle and rapid ones, as it seems to need a constant stream of them to keep it o the road

[CRAZYPHILL]

I'm on my second skud now and I love them, quirky, fun RELIABLE!!!! Apart from my dads estelle that caught fire due 2 a wiper motor burning out in '87!!!! but that could happen to any car!!! new skuds are GAY!!!! So boring and predictable!!!!!!

[TeflonTom]

"Skodas are volkswagen these days - much more reliable than the heeps of **** they were in the 80's....."

i dont think vw's are much cop any more to be honest. they seem to have followed the route of other manufacturers and started to cut corners on build quality and parts specifications to save a few quid

[CRAZYPHILL]

well i have changed several turbo's on VAG group cars this year SO far so that says it all i think! lol

[fordfan]

Skoda were giving their cars 2 years warranty, when all the main stream manufacturers were giving 1. I saw the local BMW dealership having their part exchanges taken away to go to the auction last week. To show how much faith they have in their product, one of them was an 05 registered 1 series.

[Richf]

Ive had 28 now in 22 years, and have found them very reliable, and any faults have been self indused (thrashing the pants off them) Only once have i not been able to get home under my own steam (sometimes with clouds off it) and that was when i used normal rubber pipe as a temp repair to a fuel pipe. Eight months later it filled the carb filter with bits of rubber and blocked it up. If it hadnt been all dressed up on a night out, i would have sorted it there, but i was on a promise so i phoned my dad to tow me home, I just wish parts for my Fabia were as cheep as estelle and rapid ones, as it seems to need a constant stream of them to keep it o the road

28 cars in 22 years??

Doesnt sound like much of a vote of confidence if you are having to change the car every 10 months???

[pinkskud]

i was at a vw show at the weekend, and was amazed by how little the younger vw fans knew about skodas.

80% would say there crap ent they

80% also had know idea what an estelle or a rapid were.

[KenONeill]

Skoda were giving their cars 2 years warranty, when all the main stream manufacturers were giving 1. I saw the local BMW dealership having their part exchanges taken away to go to the auction last week. To show how much faith they have in their product, one of them was an 05 registered 1 series.

My mum and sis are friendly with the local Honda dealer. They do the same with anything that needs an MOT cert because there is next to no market for cars that old in the area they're based in.

[Jake-avery]

Welll what a load of Tosh..... I remember the 120LSE letting us down once when it stalled and wouldnt start in about 89 but apart from that we had 20 years of reliable motoring.....

.

dunno bout that my Rapid gave me about 4 months reliable driving now its on the drive being worked on lol....good job i think it looks cool

[rigsby]

28 cars in 22 years??

Doesnt sound like much of a vote of confidence if you are having to change the car every 10 months???

Only 10 of them have been for road use, most have been bought or given to me for parts, of which most of the parts are still cluttering up the garage

[richardsfavorit]

I too get annoyed with people who slag off the older models. The new ones as other people say don't have the character of old ones. In terms of breaking down, hardly any of the older ones let us down. My dad's Favorit did in 1991 (G reg and the ignition coil went). My last Octavia 1.6 was a pain in the backside, broke down once and was keen to do it on other occasions with the engine management light! Other than that they have been solid. I still think the old ones were best, and would happily have another Favorit or Felicia again, and wouldn't mind something older to tinker with

[Skoda-Msport]

...Its just a western stereotyped view that 1. anything east of Germany is crap "build quality" wise and 2. if a central european built it it must be crap.

Generally the people that say Skoda are crap are the ones who cant even put thier finger on where the Czech Rep. is on the map, eventhough its in the heart of Europe and one of the most culturally richest nations in europe, oh and it has 2 of the oldest car firms in the world, one being Skoda the other Tatra.

Not least to mention that the 2 great car companies that the mainstream love are VW and Porsche - those 2 companies would not have even existed without key designs being stolen from Tatra.

But hey, try explaining that to the average Joe who thinks that owning a VW somehow elevates them up the social ladder to chief bottom feeder.

I quite like the Q factor of owning a Skoda, its not pretentious, its not snobby. Its just what the marketing says it is, an honest car.

[RSIMPS]

Actually there were a few other car manufacturers that made cars that had the style and features of the beetle before the beetle was created, but Tatra must be one of the biggest influences of rear engine cars full stop.

[hawkeracing]

The 'Skodas are crap' attitude comes from the fact that the Estelle was a design dating back over 10 years even when it was first made and nearer 30 when it finally died. Western manufacturers had made great leaps forward in the 1970s and 80s while Skoda and other Eastern block manufacturers had almost stood still. The Estelle was meant to have been a FWD design but ended up being a rebody of the S series cars...which were a rebody of the MB series of cars.

The Estelle was as reliable as most cars it was up against if it was properly looked after, the problem was that by then most western cars took a lot less looking after so Skodas tended to die younger when amateur mechanics took them over once their warranty had run out.

[Supurbia]

There's plenty of them about still, I prefer to look at it that I got something only a 30k+ car offers with Audi bits all over it for the same price as a Ford, the best answer to them is to give them the old you don't know a lot do you look and nod and tut at them.

[rigsby]

I like to put the snobs down that think their Golfs are better than a Skoda by telling them that all right hand drive golfs are made in the skoda factory. It soon shuts them up even if i dont know wether it is true or not

[Skoda-Msport]

I like to put the snobs down that think their Golfs are better than a Skoda by telling them that all right hand drive golfs are made in the skoda factory. It soon shuts them up even if i dont know wether it is true or not

Well, VW Lupos are made in Poland so why not.

Oh, not to mention the Golf MK4s with suspect build quality are made in South Africa but the people who cant see past thier own bigoted snobbery wont see that.

VW were nothing special before they stole the design for the Beetle and they were nothing special after they sold several million of the damn rotten cars. They were still nothing special after the multi million mark law suit which Tatra eventually got out of them. Nor did VW "invent the hot hatch"

The only thing to thank VW for is that they rescued Skoda from being bought by GM or Renault, at least Skoda kept a part of thier identity and are able to design and make thier own cars (to an extent) Something which wouldnt be possible had they been bought out by the other players at the time.

VAG, God does not build thier cars for them, just a shame some people dont realise this.

[TeflonTom]

Well, VW Lupos are made in Poland so why not.

lupo's were made in germany mate, you can tell which factory they were made in by the chassis numbers, iirc only the cylinder blocks and head castings are made in poland

[Skoda-Msport]

lupo's were made in germany mate, you can tell which factory they were made in by the chassis numbers, iirc only the cylinder blocks and head castings are made in poland

Thanks Tom, I knew there was something Polish in them.

It does further prove the point that VW doesnt equal "German build quality" though as most of the parts are made in Czech Rep/Poland/Hungary/Bosnia and alot of other places where labour and materials are cheap, so they are not everything thier reputation is cracked up to be.

"Around 600000 diesel engines are manufactured each year at the Volkswagen plant in Polkowice"

- Thats the legendary 1.9 VW "German built" TDi engine being assembled in an ex eastern block country. Thats some good pub talk bashing for the next Uber VW build quality fanatic.

[Richard Black]

I had 4 Estelles before migrating to Favorits. Of the 4, one I was done on - it had a 130 badge but a 105 engine, very badly fitted (look, I bought it in the dark, right? Paid about £200) and I wasn't too bothered when some tw*t ran into it when my flatmate was driving up our very own road and effectively totalled it. Of the rest, one was a bit of a dog when I bought it (high mileage, not much maintenance) but never gave much trouble, just rusted beyond MOT levels. Another overheated a lot. The third.... overheated a lot. All overheating due to dodgy head gaskets which I never managed to fix up completely. I'll never own a 130 engine again as long as I live, the gasket's just too perilous. The 120 engine I had in one of them, briefly, was much better.

And apart from that the only trouble (and my only roadside repair callout in 25 years) was due a a standard electrical connector working loose and falling off, causing the battery to overcharge and fail - car started running rough, I pulled over and stopped, engine of course wouldn't start again. Couldn't even get anyone to pull over and give me a jump start on the hard shoulder of the A1. Not a bad catalogue really for a 1960s-technology car, all of them bought secondhand at high mileage, total of 8 years with them and at least 100,000 miles. Not quite like my mate Antony's BWM750i, bought brand new - let him down in the middle of the motorway twice in 6 months....

[TeflonTom]

Thanks Tom, I knew there was something Polish in them.

this mk4 2.0 crossflow cylinder head made in mexico

mk3 2.0 sidedraught made in mexico

mk4 polo 16v made in germany

It does further prove the point that VW doesnt equal "German build quality" though as most of the parts are made in Czech Rep/Poland/Hungary/Bosnia and alot of other places where labour and materials are cheap, so they are not everything thier reputation is cracked up to be.

to be fair, vw do have fairly strict quality control procdures regardless of where the parts are manufactured, besides, what's the difference between a cnc machine running in bosnia or germany?? nothing really, it will still churn out the same parts but with less overheads

[KenONeill]

Equally, some of the pressings on my Octy are clearly stamped "Skoda - Made in Germany" (yes in English).

[favguy]

That bastian of a Germanic icon, the new Beetle, is made entirely in Puebla, Mexico, most owners think it's German built!

Although there's nothing wrong with Mexican VW's, I owned a 1985 original beetle built in Mexico, sold it after 10 years and it still looked brand new.

In contrast, my grandfather owned a 1972 German built beetle from new (which looked almost completely identical to my '85) and it was taken to the scrapyard in 1982 due to severe corrosion, and believe me, I've never seen rust like it since, the entire bottom 6 inches of the car was like swiss cheese. I think they were using very substandard steel during the early seventies:eek:.

Oddly enough, I also own a 1955 beetle, German built of course, and although it was restored in the late 80's by myself, it had almost no serious corrosion at all!, I think the steel had a slightly higher carbon content which apparantly makes a big difference to "rustability".

Paul

[KenONeill]

Of course, the bit where 1970s Beetles used as "daily cars" had no factory rust-proofing wouldn't have helped either. My Dad bought one at 5YO, and promptly Waxoyled it. 4 years later, the only thing that dated it other than the non-availability of new 1300s and the changes in the indicators and rear light clusters was the year on the number plate.