I arrived at my sister's house yesterday to give her a lift to the shops. I hadn't seen her in a while and she didn't know that with my new job came the awesome extra of a new test car each week.

"Is this yours? What is it?"

"It's a Shkoda Octavia. Nice ay?"

"Urrrr, a Skoda? Rubbish!"

After carting her about in it for a bit she realised herself that the company and its products are completley different from the point and laugh affairs she used to see 10 years ago. (She didn't actually say: "Skoda's and its products are completley different from the point and laugh affairs I used to see 10 years ago," it was more like, "Actually, it's pretty cool.")

Ok, so the realisation that Skoda makes decent cars isn't new and the motoring savvy all know this. However, it never really dawned on me how true this was before i was behind the wheel. It kind of took me by suprise.

Even the cute little cake adverts for the Fabia or the fat gymnast advert for the Octavia hadn't really done anything to make my sister think differently about the brand before she saw the car in person. To her, it was still that embarrassing word. If your dad drove you to school in a Skoda people would make fun, a bit like if you had crisps from Aldi.

It just didn't filter across to my sister. But i can say now, and openly admit, without fear of feeling a bit red in the cheeks, and not even in a whispered tone, that i like Skodas. Do you think that Skoda has completley shrugged off its naff image?


The Octavia Scout - If i was a vet, i'd buy one right away!