Archive for Skoda

The first Skoda Yeti production car rolled off Skoda’s Czech Republic plant earlier this week, and according to them it marks Skoda’s entry into the “crossover” segment.

In case you were wondering what a “Yeti” is, it’s not a made-up name. It’s what people call the legendary abominable snowman in the Himalayan region where the creature is said to live. But back to this Yeti. The Yeti is another one of Skoda engineers unique creations from the Volkswagen Group parts bin. Another example is the Roomster.

It may have tough looks but it’s not very big though, with a wheelbase of only 2,578mm, which indicates its likely to be using the PQ35 Golf platform. It’s 4,233mm long, 1,793mm wide and 1,691mm tall. On the interior it features a rear seat system called Varioflex which essentially allows you to extend boot space up to 1,760 liters.

Under the hood are a few engines such as a 1.8 liter TSI engine and a 2.0 TDI engine. The Yeti is also equipped with a 4X4 system with a 4th generation Haldex clutch system for those that intend to take it on rough roads, and it also has a 180mm ground clearance to help with that.

Look after the jump for pix and a video of the Yeti.

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Volkswagen’s Skoda marque had planned to enter the ASEAN market sometime soon but has postponed its plans and instead plans to play a waiting game to see through the current crisis. Skoda chairman Reinhard Jung says the downturn will force a consolidation process in the region and the market will need at least a year to correct itself before it can be seen which players will remain in the game.

Skoda could likely enter the ASEAN region via the FTA between ASEAN and India, which some companies like Hyundai Sime Darby have already taken advantage of. The Hyundai i10 that we get here is locally assembled via CKD packs from India. Skoda and Volkswagen just opened a plant in Pune with a capacity of 110,000 vehicles a year.

Malaysia already has a Skoda distributor, Quasar Carriage’s AutoPraha Sdn Bhd under the Berjaya Group. Read our old Skoda Fabia 1.4 Test Drive Review from 2006. That particular unit has been replaced by a new Fabia (shown above) now of course, which will also be built at VW’s Pune plant.

Skoda has released a set of 3 images of their new Skoda Fabia Scout, an alterative to the 5-door wagon variant if its B-segment Skoda Fabia hatchback. The two tone paintwork and roofrails lend the Fabia Scout a slight softroader look, and standard wheels are 16 inch alloy with the option for larger 17 inch ones, rather large for a B-segment hatch, which shows the Fabia Scout’s positioning is not too far from Volkswagen’s CrossPolo.

A few economical engines are available – a 1.4 liter 85 horsepower unit, a 1.6 liter 105hp unit, and two diesels – 1.4 liter unit with 80hp and a 1.9 liter unit with 105hp. The fuel consumption for the oil burners are both less than 5 liters per 100km, while the petrol units only manage 6.5 liters and 6.9 liters for the two engine sizes respectively, clearly showing the abilities of diesel engines to be extremely fuel efficient.

So when is our beloved Malaysian government going to bring our diesel standards below the current MS123 and proposed Euro 2 upgrade to something even better so that we can be assured of running these economical cars reliably?

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Skoda has given the C-segment Skoda Octavia liftback (aeroback) and estate a facelift for the 2009 model year. The front end receives a more dynamic look (e.g. new Fabia-ish more shapely headlamps) instead of the straight-cut look that the pre-facelift Octavia had.

The 1.6 FSI model will be replaced by a new 1.4 TSI turbocharged engine producing 122 horsepower, which is more than the outgoing FSI’s 115 horses. The star of the line-up will be the Octavia vRS which will feature a 200hp turbo FSI engine mated to a twin clutch DSG transmission.

Three more shots of the new Octavia available after the jump.

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The hot hatch vRS version of the latest generation Skoda Fabia will switch to petrol power in the form of Volkswagen’s 1.4 liter TSI engine instead of the current Fabia vRS’s 1.9 liter TDI engine. A switch to turbocharged petrol power was spurred by rising diesel prices in the UK and the higher cost of producing a diesel-powered vehicle, according to Skoda chairman Reinhard Jung.

The current Skoda Fabia vRS based on the previous Skoda Fabia design is powered makes 130hp and 310Nm of torque. 0-100km/h is achievable in 9.5 seconds. Shown above is the early 2007 1000 unit run of the Fabia vRS called the Skoda Fabia vRS Special Edition. – Source

Skoda is planning its own version of Volkswagen’s upcoming new Lupo (based on the up! concept), and plans to manufacture it in India. Skoda currently has two plants in India, one in Aurangabad and one in Chakan.

Skoda officials say its small car will have a new platform, which seems to indicate the upcoming rear-engined rear-wheel drive platform which underpins the up!/Lupo. The new small Skoda will make its debut by 2010, and will fuel Skoda’s race to sell 100,000 cars annually from 2012 onwards.

It will be priced between Rs 3-5 lakh (US$7,100 to US$11,600). Skoda recently unveiled a 1.2 liter version of the Skoda Fabia hatchback in India, joining the existing 1.4 liter MPI petrol and 1.4 liter TDI diesel engine variants.

Source

Skoda has confirmed that it will be putting the Skoda Yeti into production, after the Skoda Yeti Design Study displayed at the Geneva Motor Show was quite well received by the public. After the success of the Yeti concept, Skoda also produced a two-seater pick-up version that used a hard top that could be removed for an open top driving experience.

The name for the new car has not been decided yet, so the production version could use the Yeti name again, or an entirely different name could be used. The production Skoda Yeti will be a unique Skoda in the sense that will use some parts from the Volkswagen family parts bin much like how the Skoda Roomster was developed – it used the Polo chassis front and the Mk4 Golf chassis rear.

You may think why bother when the Volkswagen Tiguan is there for Skoda to use, but the concept Yeti was a little SUV-like thing smaller than the Tiguan. Think of it as something positioned somewhere between a CrossPolo and a Tiguan.

Three more images after the jump.

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The new Skoda Superb was unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. As far as I know, Skoda hasn’t released a full technical release on the car yet, but there are some preliminary info on its specifications.

The highlight is of course the Twindoor which you can see in the photo above. It combines the rear boot opening of both a sedan and liftback, though I am not sure why anyone would want it – does anyone see disadvantages of a liftback boot design that requires this additional sedan-like opening? The boot holds 565 liters and folding down the rear seats to extend boot space results in 1670 liters.

Initially the Skoda Superb will come with 3 petrol engines and 3 diesel engines. The petrol engines consist of a baseline 122 horsepower 1.4 liter TSI engine, and next up is a 1.8 liter TSI putting out 158 horsepower. The top of the range petrol engine is the 3.6 FSI V6 producing 256 horsepower.

The oil burner options include a 103 horsepower 1.9 liter TDI, a 138 horsepower 2.0 TDI and a 168 horsepower common rail 2.0 TDI (the other two TDI engines use PD, or Pump-Duse injection, which is conventional unit-injection). There is also a special Skoda Superb GreenLine model equipped with the 103 hp 1.9 liter TDI.

Equipment options for the Skoda Superb includes a bi-xenon headlamps with AFS, a touch-screen navigation system, an automated parking system, and up to 9 airbags. The 1.8 TSI, 3.6 FSI V6, and 2.0 commonrail TDI engines also have the option of an all-wheel drive system.

More photos and a video available after the jump.

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The new Skoda Superb will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, but here are some details released before the event. The new Superb will have a new feature called the Twindoor, which is basically both a sedan and a hatchback’s boot-opening mechanism both rolled into one. Twindoor allows the boot lid to be opened like a sedan – only the bootlid swings open, or like a hatchback where the rear window also tilts open together for full access to the 565 liter luggage space.

Six engine options will be available, divided equally into petrol or diesel powered options. The baseline engines will be the 122 horsepower 1.4 liter TSI engine and the 158 horsepower 1.8 liter TSI engine, while the top of the range petrol engine will be the 3.6 liter FSI V6 putting out a healthy 256 horsepower.

Oil burner options include a 1.9 TDI PD DPF with 103 horsepower, a 2.0 TDI PD DPF engine with 138 horsepower, and finally a new 2.0 TDI CR DPF which features common rail injection, producing 168 horsepower.

More photos including an interior shot after the jump.

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The latest 2009 Skoda Superb carries Skoda’s most recent design language and will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland on the 6th of March 2008. Earlier this year selected car journalists were presented the opportunity to drive a variant of the new Skoda Superb featuring a 1.8 liter TSI engine putting out 160 horsepower.

This will be the second generation flagship Skoda – the first generation Superb was based on a long wheelbase Volkswagen Passat. Many were talking about Proton using the first gen “stretched Passat” Skoda Superb as a base for the Proton Perdana Replacement Model.

The first gen Superb is on sale here in Malaysia for RM181,068.40 OTR without insurance for the 1.8 liter turbo model, and RM259,022.50 OTR without insurance for the 2.8 liter V6 model.