As its most important new model of the past few years, Skoda wants to give the third generation of the Octavia as much publicity as possible, which is why the Czech carmaker planned a special event for the press at its headquarters in Mlada Boleslav earlier this week ahead of the car's first public outing at the Geneva Salon in March.
Skoda's bestseller has been designed from the ground up sharing its MQB-platform and mechanical hardware with the latest generations of the VW Golf, Seat Leon and Audi A3 compacts, all of which were released in Europe this year.
Skoda is a brand with a long tradition in motorsports and this has inspired Czech designer Pavel Hruby to draw a study of a modern Skoda world rally car. Hruby took inspiration from the Skoda Vision D Concept shown by the Czech brand at this year's Geneva Motor Show.
The VW Group’s subsidiary was not involved in any way in this project, with the sketch having been commissioned by Czech Magazine AutoDesign&Styling. The Skoda Vision WRC project shows Hruby's ideas of what a new rally model from the Czech automaker could look like. Based on the new design language launched by the Vision D concept, the rally car features the new corporate grille, underlined by a massive air intake in the lower part of the bumper.
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.
