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Skoda Celebrates 15 Years Since It Reintroduced the Superb

Skoda Auto started life as Laurin & Klement in 1895. After Skoda Works got its hands on the Czech brand in 1925, the fate of the largest automaker in the Czech Republic took a turn for the better.
Third-generation Skoda Superb 31 photos
Photo: Skoda
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The death of communism in the Old Continent made the folks of Central and Eastern Europe understand that the Western world has some pretty nice cars, superior in design, quality, and reliability. As Czechoslovakia started to turn its focus on privatization, the Volkswagen Group caught wind of that, buying 30 percent of Skoda in 1991. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen, Skoda has gone a long way from its humble roots and financial struggles.

Crucial to this evolution is the Skoda Superb. No, not the full-size luxury car built between 1934 and 1949, but the current Superb. (Re)introduced in 2001 as a large family car (D-segment in Europe), the Superb is the flagship of the Mlada Boleslav-based manufacturer. Even though the Kodiaq mid-size seven-seat crossover SUV is in the limelight nowadays, the Superb sedan and Combi laid out the road for the high-riding SUV. 15 years on, the Superb soldiers on.

Since the first generation (B5 Typ 3U produced between 2001 and 2008), the Superb sold approximately 900,000 units in both body styles. Since the third generation (B8 Typ 3V) joined the party in March 2015, more than 100,000 vehicles were produced. That’s significantly more than its luxed-up ancestor from the 1930s and 1940s, of which around 200 examples of so were made.

Even if Skoda Auto is present in places as far away from the Czech Republic as Australia and China, the carmaker is currently interested in maximizing its global footprint. In this regard, the Czech brand looks toward North America. Having filed several trademarks with the USPTO, Skoda has still to decide if it’s worth having a go at the U.S. and Canadian markets in the near future.

If you think about it, Skoda in America makes a lot of sense. That’s because the Volkswagen brand lost a lot of credit around here due to the Dieselgate scandal. By bringing Skoda across the Atlantic, U.S. sales of the VW Group could spring back to former glories. Fingers crossed the world’s second-largest new car market will soon add Skoda to its automotive ecosystem.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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