Skoda Wins Super 2000 World Rally Championship with Fabia

Skoda won last weekend’s RACC Rally of Spain and with it, the Super 2000 World Rally Championship – the first rally title in the company's 110-year old history.

Juho Hanninen and Mikko Markkula completed 18 stages and 406.5 km (252.6 miles), the longest event in the calendar, over both tarmac and gravel. After three days, they brought their Skoda Fabia S2000 to the finish line in first place in their class and 10th overall to win the title after their main rival, the Estonian Ott Tanak, retired on the first day.

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Skoda Posts Record Worldwide Sales in First Half of 2011

Skoda revealed today that it delivered 454,700 vehicles in the first half of 2011, which represents an increase of 20.1% compared to the same period in 2010. The Volkswagen Group brand also achieved its best ever June sales, with 81,300 deliveries, compared to 71,300 units in 2010, scoring a new sales record for the fourth month in a row. Read more »

Live from Wörthersee: Skoda’s Hot Fabia RS 2000 Concept

Not that the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Concept needed any help to draw the attention of automotive fans at the Wörthersee show, but the Volkswagen Group was t enough to bring some very pretty faces (and bodies…) to the Czech firm’s stand. You can get a better look at the car and the girls in whichever order you prefer in our high resolution photo gallery right after the jump. Read more »

Skoda Shows Fabia RS 2000 Convertible Concept at Wörthersee Festival

Over the 30 years of its existence, the Wörthersee Tour in Austria has developed from a small exclusive event for owners of the Golf GTi to a large happening connecting all brands of the ever-growing Volkswagen Group. Joining the production Golf GTI Edition 35 and the wild Audi A1 clubsport quattro concept at this year’s show is a prototype model from Skoda called the RS 2000 Concept.

Prepared especially for the anniversary meeting, the concept is a design study for an extreme convertible based on the five-door Fabia Super 2000 rally car. Skoda did not released any official information on the car’s mechanical hardware, but it very likely that the study keeps the rally model’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine linked to a six-speed sequential transmission and a four-wheel drive system with three passive differentials.

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Gerhard Plattner Does it again: Drives Skoda Fabia GreenLine 2,006 km / 1,246 Miles on a Single Tank of Fuel

We're not sure if you know this, but there's a world champion in economy driving out there and his name is Gerhard Plattner. He's the kind of guy you'd want as a driver on your gas-guzzling car now that oil prices have hit the roof.

However, the Austrian champ has better things to do, like driving a Skoda Fabia GreenLine from Austria to Denmark and back on a single 45-liter (11.9 gallons US or 9.9 gallons UK) tank of diesel fuel. He covered a distance of 2,006 kilometers in a Skoda Fabia GreenLine without ever having to refuel the eco-friendly diesel car.

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Robert Kubica Discharged from Hospital, Still a Long Way Before F1 Return

Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica has left the Santa Corona hospital in Italy where he had spent the last 11 weeks after a scary rally accident. According to a hospital statement, the Polish driver is in good condition and will soon begin rehab. “He will carry on being monitored by the Santa Corona doctors who had him in their care through scheduled appointments," the hospital said in a press statement. Read more »

Skoda Reportedly Readying Up-based City Car for 2011 and Low-Cost Sedan for 2012

Volkswagen Group's new strategy for Skoda is beginning to show its first results. In order to avoid competition between VW and Skoda products and to get a piece of the low-cost market, the German company’s plans for the Czech automaker include a new affordable model.

According to reports from the UK, Skoda has confirmed that the new addition will be a small sedan positioned between the Fabia supermini and the Octavia and will target developing markets. The sedan, which could be a competitor to Renault’s Dacia Logan, is scheduled for launch in 2012, but first Skoda will introduce a city car based on Volkswagen’s forthcoming Up series.

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Skoda Introduces Fabia R2 Rally Car for the Masses

The VW Group’s Czech subsidiary Skoda has unveiled the Fabia R2, a new race-spec mode intended for the popular R2 rally category. Based on the series production Fabia, the R2 features significant changes to the engine, chassis, suspension and gearbox.

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Geneva 2011: Skoda's Fabia Monte Carlo Special is all Show, No Go

Skoda's offerings at the 2011 Geneva Salon include a new special edition version of the Fabia supermini that is said to have been created to celebrate 100 years of the Monte Carlo Rally, and commemorate the 110 year anniversary of the brand's motorsport efforts.

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F1 Driver Robert Kubica Injured in Rally Crash, May Save his Arm After Emergency Surgery [with Video]

While competing in the Ronde de Andorra rally in Italy, Polish Formula 1 star Robert Kubica was involved in a horrendous crash on Sunday, as he lost control of his Skoda Fabia S2000 rally car and left the road at high speed. The Lotus-Renault team driver was airlifted from the scene and underwent successful emergency surgery at the Santa Corona hospital in Pietra Ligure.

Kubica has suffered multiple fractures to his right arm and hand with initial reports saying that he could lose the functionality of his limb. Fortunately, the operation went well, according to Dr. Mario Igor Rosello, who told reporters that Kubica, awakened form an induced coma, was able to move his fingers, which is “an encouraging sign for the rest of the recovery process”.

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Skoda's Fabia Monte Carlo Anniversary Model Packs Style but Lacks Punch

VW Group subsidiary Skoda is celebrating the 100 years of the Monte Carlo Rally as well as its own 110 year-long involvement in motorsports with the presentation of the Fabia Monte Carlo, a special edition version of the five-door hatchback model with bespoke exterior and interior styling cues.

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VW Group's Skoda Division Sets New Record in 2010 with 762,600 Sales

The once ailing Skoda brand is turning out to be a solid investment for the Volkswagen Group as the Czech automaker is breaking one sales record after the other. In the year that just passed on, Skoda Auto recorded is best-ever sales results delivering 762,000 vehicles, which represents an increase of 11.5% over 2009 when it sold 684,200 units. Furthermore, the company broke the threshold of three quarters of a million vehicles sold in a single year for the first time in its history.

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VIDEO: Meet the Bad Boy Builders of Skoda’s Mean Green Fabia vRS

After focusing on the 'Mean Green' machine first, Skoda has now released a follow-up video clip documenting the fictional bad boy crew that builds the Fabia vRS hot-hatch in the firm's latest commercial on the car for the United Kingdom. The new campaign takes a darker but equally humorous twist on the Fabia’s ‘Made of Lovely Stuff’ proposition which was made famous by the 2007 Fabia ‘Cake’ commercial. You can watch the new ad in the video after the jump.

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Skoda Celebrates IRC Title with Fabia RS Edition S2000

In celebration of the International Rally Championship (IRC) title won by its Fabia S2000, Skoda has rolled out a limited-run edition version of its road-going Fabia RS hot hatch dressed in the firm's racing colors. All 200 examples of the car will be painted in a Rally Green finish with a white roof, white alloy wheels and stickers from the rally-spec S2000 model.

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VIDEO: Skoda Fabia vRS Hot Hatch Shows its "Meaner" side in New TV Ad

As Skoda is enjoying its best year on record, the VW Group-owned company wants to build on the momentum by launching a new TV campaign for the Fabia vRS hot hatch. The new ad, which is meant to show the darker side of the 180-horsepower-strong hatch, features the "Made from Meaner Stuff" tagline. There will be two versions of the TV commercial, a short 30 second ad and an uncut, 60 second advert.

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A Painted History of Skoda

Just today, we learned that Skoda delivered a record number of vehicles in the first nine months of 2010, increasing its operating profit by a whopping 64%. This is what most people know about the Czech automaker; that it has been a wild success since Volkswagen took over the reins of the company. But there are others -myself included- who think the real glory of Skoda lies in its past.

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Skoda Begins Full Production of Fabia in Russia

The facelifted version of the Fabia supermini has become the second model in the Skoda range after the Octavia to enter full-cycle production at the VW Group's Kaluga plant in Russia, the automaker announced today. Full-cycle production includes welding and painting.

The Volkswagen Group opened the factory in Kaluga in November 2007, and its planned capacity is 150,000 cars a year.

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Czechmate: New Skoda Fabia RS with 1.4 TSI 180HP in both Hatchback and Estate Forms Head to Geneva

The latest generation of Skoda cars are -rightfully, in our opinion- considered by most consumers as budget-priced Volkswagens under disguise, a notion that has helped the Czech automaker go from post-Communist joke to a global success story. Their newest "VW Group Transformer" is the 2010 Fabia RS that will make its world debut at this week's Geneva Motor Show

The sportiest version of the Fabia range shares a common platform as well as its engine, transmission and other hidden hardware with the VW Polo GTI and Seat Ibiza Cupra models (and certain parts with the Audi A1...).

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Skoda Facelifts Fabia and Roomster Models, Adds New Gasoline and Diesel Engines

At next week's Geneva Motor Show, Skoda will lift the wraps off the refreshed Fabia hatchback and Combi station wagon models as well as their MPV-esque sibling, the Roomster.

All three models benefit from some minor cosmetic tweaks up front that include a restyled grille, a new bumper design and revised headlights. The new alloy wheel and hub cap designs along with the expanded palette of exterior finishes round off the exterior changes.

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Skoda Fabia Sport: When Less mean More

Skoda's UK arm announced today that it has made the Fabia Sport edition a tad sportier by lowering its suspension by 15mm. Unfortunately the modification will see an increase of £290 per vehicle with the new prices applicable to orders placed from 1 October. The Sport edition is available with two petrol engines, 70HP 1.2L (£10,880) and 105HP 1.6L (£12,035) and two diesel units, 80HP 1.4L (£12,340) and 105HP 1.9L (£13,025). All Sport editions boast 16-inch alloys and a subtle bodykit as standard.