Say this, and found it appealing......

Skoda are set to enter F1 after its owners VW were reported to be behind the bid to buy Prost.

The strategy to enter F1 with the Skoda brand could make sense. It doesn

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If this is true , then I doubt the Skoda will trouble Schumi , but maybe Minardi will be quaking in their boots?(..after all its the Prost team we are talking of here , and their car was **** even when it was new , now its 2 years old...) This rumour has circulated before and there didnt appear to be any truth in it at the time...now that it has resurfaced , I'm wondering if there is a grain of truth here after all?

duncan, you're right about this having been around before.

personally, i have my doubts as to the veracity of this as it would seem to confuse VAG's brand imaging even further. doesn't seem to make sense or square with their stated desires for each of the subsidiary marques.

however, would be good to see.....

Well , now there is an extra place on the grid for 2003 as Arrows will not be contesting next season , probably due to the money situation (ie lack of)...maybe Bernie would welcome a new team such as VAG -F1 as Im pretty sure he takes a dim view of a less than full grid!

bloody hell, only 10 teams left! i used to be a mad fan, but have found myself not nearly as bothered as i used to be if i missed a race. whatever the reasons cited for the 'processional' nature of F1, the fact is it is less interesting than it used to be imho. the fact that schumacher can drive a perodua nippa faster than the rest in their cars probably has something to do with it. knowing our fickle nature, we'll probably look back at this as a golden age when he's not around any more. :roll:

i'm not a schumacher fan, but have to admit the guy's a racing genius.

anyway, i reckon that vw may do something eventually as there certainly is scope for room to be made on the grid now, but i still don't think it will be under the skoda auto banner.

Latest Skoda romour I heard (and there are a lot going around it seems) is that they will begin selling them in Australia, risky move considering that Seat didn't do well when it was sold in the Australian market, will Skoda be different? http://drive.fairfax.com.au/content-new/news/general/2002/03/14/FFX62LVFRYC.html

it says in that link, ' ...will again be sold...' indicating a return for skoda. they also say that the market is a tough one to crack. i wonder if skoda had as bad a reputation amongst joe public over there as they did here? whatever there success at achieving sales there, i still can't believe sometimes the amazing turnaround in the brand's fortunes here, given all the skoda jokes etc.

our kids won't even know any skoda jokes in the future!

Old Skodas had pretty much the same reputation in Australia as they had here. My owning a Skoda raised a few chuckles from my family over there, but then they haven't had a chance to see the new Skodas. They were aware of the VAG buy-out and the 'supposed' improvements though.

Heck, Nissan/Renault are managing to sell Clios over there now, so surely Skoda must stand some chance

Old Skodas had pretty much the same reputation in Australia as they had here. My owning a Skoda raised a few chuckles from my family over there, but then they haven't had a chance to see the new Skodas. They were aware of the VAG buy-out and the 'supposed' improvements though.

Heck, Nissan/Renault are managing to sell Clios over there now, so surely Skoda must stand some chance [/quote:ee3947b65c]

Well futher to that I found some information on it (that is dated March 2002) which sayed they will start importing cars to Australia at the start of 2003 or in other words a couple of weeks. Remember Skoda are now cracking the Asian market (Octavias are selling well in India apparently and South America is being cracked at too) so logically Oz must be the next step remembering the amount of 'European' people in Australia or those with European relatives so maybe there reputation now gained in Europe will be passed on. The indications are the tests with a Fabia and an Octavia showed that they were easy to comvert to Oz legal standards and drove well. Also it indicated that if Australia was sucessful N. America may be next. I'll try to find the link and post it back here

. I'll try to find the link and post it back here[/quote:f1c7ebb943]

It'shttp://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/07/1028157962826.html

Hopefully with the return to OZ.

It will only be a short while before they jump the ditch and return to New Zealand.