I don't understand why Chris is so fond of hanging the spare wheel under the car in a cage, where it gets filthy, exposed to road salt and grime? It's also liable to theft, and hard to top up with air.
While Skoda may have once been the butt of jokes, it is my understanding that even later versions of the Estelle rear-engine design were fairly reliable, sturdy and well-built, but of course they sold on being a decent value for money. As TG said, the depreciation was brutal because their reputation was that they would fall apart, and they had low desirability to begin with. The Favorit was the link between these old cars and the first VW-sourced models in the 1990s. Cheap and cheerful, as my parents would say, and although not the class leader in any category even when new, the Favorit represented solid basic transportation. There are elements of cheapness, sure, but the basic bits were sound. It was certainly a far cry from other bottom-feeder cars of that era, namely anything from Malaysia, Yugoslavia and perhaps South Korea. Modern Skodas are, more or less, current and previous generation Volkswagens, and in many cases they make more sense than their VW counterparts. The cars are as well-built (if not better) than their German cousins, and generally better than other VW-family cars such as SEAT. I wish they sold Skodas here in the USA.
