The OCTAVIA ESTATE in facts and figures
•The car was first put on show on 11 September 1960 at the International Machine Engineering Trade Fair in Brno, one year after production of the “three-box” ŠKODA OCTAVIA Tudor began.
• It was manufactured from 1961 to 1971 at Kvasiny, but also assembled at numerous plants abroad, such as Iceland, Pakistan, Indonesia, Chile and Turkey.
• In total, 54,086 estates were made, with many of them exported. The last one rolled off the Kvasiny production line on 21 December 1971.
• The car is very compact, measuring 4065 x 1600 x 1430 mm, but all the more spacious for that. The declared luggage compartment space was 690 litres, and as much as 1,050 litres when modified as a two-seater.
• Its three-door body had separate top and bottom boot doors. The spare tyre had its own compartment beneath the luggage space, so it could be taken out even when the boot was fully loaded.
• It was powered by the famous OHV four-cylinder 1.2 l engine, which delivered 47 hp, upgraded to 51 hp in 1969. Its top speed was 115 km/h and official fuel consumption was 8.6 l/100 km. For decades to come, the same engine powered the ŠKODA 1203 van (and its Slovak successor), but this robust unit’s origins date back to 1938 and the POPULAR model.
• In addition to the passenger estate car, there was a goods vehicle version with blacked out rear windows.
• The car was modernised in 1965: it was given a black steering wheel and sunshades and mirrors from the modern 1000 MB model. The interior’s noise and heat insulation was improved and a windscreen spray was added.
• Starting in 1968, the car had rear armrests that could be tilted backwards or forwards. Its price was 44,500 Czechoslovak crowns.
• A year later, component sharing with other models intensified, with a new instrument panel from the 1000 MB, rectangular rear lights from the ŠKODA 100 and the scrapping of the practical separately accessible compartment for the spare tyre. That made the rear of the car stiffer, however.
• In 1996, OCTAVIA was the name given to the first ŠKODA car produced from scratch as the outcome of cooperation with the VW concern. The OCTAVIA become the brand’s best-selling car in history, with almost 7 million units of all generations made to date.
•At the end of last year the company presented the fourth modern generation. Unusually, the first version to be unveiled was an estate car.