It’s 25 years ago since Skoda and Volkswagen shook hands and made Skoda a Volkswagen subsidiary. The agreement took place on March 28th, 1991, and on April 16th, Volkswagen took ownership of 30% of Skoda’s shares. In Dec 1994, VW took majority of Skoda’s shares with 60,3% in their pocket, and grew that to 70% a year later. It is frankly amazing that in roughly five years from putting pen to paper, Skoda and VW produced the 1U body Skoda Octavia. The first one rolled off the production line on April 3th, 1996.
While the Felicia hatchback was still obviously a development of the sharper-edged Favorit and the later, Polo-based Fabia still used the old pushrod engines dating back to the Gutenberg printing machine, the Octavia was a completely fresh design from the ground up, working as a testbed of sorts for the upcoming fourth generation Golf, yet managing to do some things better with less. If Skoda today can be seen as an extremely successful player on multiple markets, it all started with the humble-but-worthy 1996 Octavia, which lived a long and prosperous life.



For years, the 1U Octavia has been a fantastically dull car for cheap. Its only real caveat is the Golf-sized rear legroom, but the cavernous trunk really makes up for it, especially as it’s a liftback and not a saloon – a key difference in comparison to the 1998-introduced Seat Toledo, which didn’t have a large trunk opening as the glass didn’t lift with the tailgate.

The cabin of the first cars was probably the place where you noticed the desperate bargain-basement credentials of the initial production run, but it improved soon. Grey dials did it no favors, and in better specifications the plastic wood clashed horribly with the other, pale plastic materials.
It’s not easy to find a polished publicity shot of the first dashboard, but this one should make it clear. It’s not quite the kind of place, where one would sit voluntarily for extended periods, admiring the shapes and forms.

The interior layout was redone at facelift time, but you could still see some harsh, light stuff there.

Compare that with the special edition Laurin & Klement interior, and you can see why I like the top-spec model the best. The tan leather brightens up the Octavia with an obvious sense of perceived quality.

This wagon is also a L&K, judging by the wheels, the beige headrest and the little emblem on the fender.


The Octavia that’s probably a fan favorite and the only trim level that anyone has been able to be enthusiastic about is the vRS. Along with a good-looking body kit and hugging part-leather sport seats, it gained the 180hp version of the venerable 1.8-litre turbo engine – a serious slap in the back, if you consider most of the Octavias so far had been saddled with 1.8 20V non-turbo or 2.0 engines at best, or the 1.9 TDI:s with 90 hp or so. Or the starter grade 1.4 with 75hp.
I remember reading of 1.2-litre 60hp cars for some markets, but cannot confirm this at the time of writing. In the other end of the spectrum, you could get a 4×4 wagon with all the trimmings.


But this is the “first-gen” – as there was an Octavia around in the late 1950s-early 1960s – Octavia’s legacy: a worthy car that does exactly what’s asked of it, be it taxicab duty or police car use, but rarely meriting desire. It’s difficult to foist enthusiast instincts upon a car that’s such an invisible one, no matter how important it is.



And while used Alfa Romeo 156:s cost roughly the same as these Octavias, it’s not easy to justify buying one in any other case than outright need. For a lot of people, it’s been the right car at the right time, but it’s not something you would cherish, even if the Octavia doesn’t exactly rust eagerly, nor is it known for fatal flaws.
The Octavia 1U was actually built as long as November 2010, alongside newer generations and long enough for it to see Skoda producing more enticing cars than its mother company – the second generation Superb was available with the frankly enormous 3.6-litre VR6 engine, producing 260 horsepower. But the later Octavias do not quite merit similar admiration as the mid-1990s one, as they built upon a car that was already quite good. The 1U hit the market out of the blue.