[smarinov]

Side note, but I don't get the part about Škoda. They have been building cars literally since the onset of the 20th century and have been a well established producer for a long time before the 90s.

Or was there some kind of consumer boom for Škoda vehicles in the US/Canada/Australia/the UK, or wherever you are from, that I never heard of before?

[NeedMoreTea]

Skoda were the subject of many terrible jokes in the 80s and 90s, thanks to poor reputation and reliability of earlier decades. They were so cheap, but far more basic, compared to the better known makes.

They started to get OK reliability in the 80s which meant they started to become popular as value for money motoring. They got pretty common on UK roads. Popular and reliable enough to become a common choice for private hire use. Which as many at the time noted, meant Skoda had the last laugh.

The price advantage faded after the VW takeover, but they remained popular as private hire cars.

[smarinov]

See also my reply to the sibling, but in the country I come from they were well known maybe from some time between the 20s or 30s, and they were generally always regarded as a good quality brand. Usually not as prominent as others, but still decent nonetheless.

I didn't know that until the last decade or so they were seen as poor vehicles elsewhere, to the extent as to become the target of jokes. Thanks for the context – it definitely helps me understand better how this fits into OP's point.

[NeedMoreTea]

Not sure how much of the joking was simply down to price as they were a lot cheaper than others, or how much was build quality vs reliability.

The context of the era helps too, no 70s and 80s mass market cars were without a weak point or six, and jokes on the back of those.

Eastern Bloc makes had poor consistency, technology, and sometimes reliability compared to others. Applied to Lada, Skoda, MZ motorcycles etc. Simple tech also meant simple to fix of course.

Italian makes were beautiful but rusty before even getting to the showroom, with just as poor a rep for reliability and build.

Japanese makes didn't rust, but they couldn't weld and used bolts made of soft cheese pretending to be steel.

British and French? No one knew, they were on strike. ;)

[dagw]

that I never heard of before?

Outside the eastern block countries, Skoda was the punchline of jokes and generally considered one of the worst cars you could buy up until the mid-late 90's when they became the Volkswagen budget brand. It's really only since the early 2000's that Skoda became a brand people wouldn't be embarrassed on being seen in.

[smarinov]

This explains it. I come from a former Eastern Bloc country and Škoda was well established here well before the former regime overtook power after a short occupation by the Red army. Also, they were definitely not unknown in (parts of) Germany from very early on, although I guess not as prominent as in countries who didn't build their own cars, for obvious reasons.

I never knew that until very recently they had such a bad reputation in other Western countries. Thanks for clearing this up for me!

[wazoox]

Actually that's mostly the Lada that were the subject of many jokes, such as "how do you double the value of a Lada in 5 minutes? By filling up". "What's a Lada on the top of a hill? a miracle. several Lada on a hill? a weird place for a Lada factory. lots of Ladas on a hill? A landfill" etc.

[dagw]

While Lada was probably the most popular source of car jokes I certainly also heard every Lada joke also told with/about Skoda.