1979 Ford Escort

[hepcat]

A Skoda Estelle always fetched 4 x figures, but usually there was a decimal point in there somewhere….

Not sure how long you have been watching the Shots Hepcat, but if for a while back to the old club, Lada were the club sponsors for a while. Think there was a report in the Aldershot News after one game that we were as dismal as the cars of our sponsor, or words to that effect!

Never drove a Lada, but drove (never owned) a few of the old FIAT models they were derived from and they were, well let’s say, cars of their era!

The thing I remember about the Lada deal came from Steve Claridge's auto biog. I forget the player he mentioned but he said they were so hard up and desperate they took up the offer of a sponsored Lada to drive the family around in ! I wonder if today's youth have to go through an "owning and driving crap cars" phase as we all did 40 odd years ago? I became an expert in fault diagnosis in those years-wasted now as modern cars dont seem to suffer the same failings with engines run by a micro chip.

[Richard Petty]

A Skoda Estelle always fetched 4 x figures, but usually there was a decimal point in there somewhere….

Not sure how long you have been watching the Shots Hepcat, but if for a while back to the old club, Lada were the club sponsors for a while. Think there was a report in the Aldershot News after one game that we were as dismal as the cars of our sponsor, or words to that effect!

Never drove a Lada, but drove (never owned) a few of the old FIAT models they were derived from and they were, well let’s say, cars of their era!

The thing I remember about the Lada deal came from Steve Claridge's auto biog. I forget the player he mentioned but he said they were so hard up and desperate they took up the offer of a sponsored Lada to drive the family around in ! I wonder if today's youth have to go through an "owning and driving crap cars" phase as we all did 40 odd years ago? I became an expert in fault diagnosis in those years-wasted now as modern cars dont seem to suffer the same failings with engines run by a micro chip.

Cars have certainly changed, it is strange to think how back in the 1970's Skoda's were part of Jasper Carrots comedy routine "What do you call a Skoda convertible - A skip" and yet now they are one of the better makes of car and even used by Police for their performance.

[Turnkey]

Cars have certainly changed, it is strange to think how back in the 1970's Skoda's were part of Jasper Carrots comedy routine "What do you call a Skoda convertible - A skip" and yet now they are one of the better makes of car and even used by Police for their performance.

Can confirm, at work we've a few Octavia vRS traffic cars, they tend to be the first keys the Blackrats reach for due to their speed and reliability, they don't catch fire like the Beemers, drink fuel like the Volvos and spend all the time in workshops like the VW's.

[Fuggletim]

Thing is that Skoda, historical jokes aside, were founded in the late 19th Century, and were one of world ‘s first automotive manufacturers , but after WW2 found themselves on the wrong side of the “Iron Curtain” but once this lifted, the potential for growth (and the interest by VW) meant their potential would be realised.

As I have mentioned, I had use as a “Stopgap” a Skoda Estelle (1987 120 SL I think) and although the build quality wasn’t as good as it might have been, it had a simple and robustly engineered engine and transmission, which even then showed potential of what could be achieved. Yes, I did ultimately have issues (as I have mentioned elsewhere in this thread) but also having had Ford, Rover, Jaguar, Honda, Toyota and many others, car issues are just a fact of life and nor exclusive to any marque alone.