ŠKODA Octavia and Superb come top in ‘The Best Cars of 2014’ readers’ poll

ŠKODA CEO Prof. Dr. h. c. Winfried Vahland receives award for the victory of new ŠKODA Octavia in import compact class from Jens Katemann (on the left), Chief Editor of AMS and Dirk Gulde, editor of AMS. More than 115,000 readers of the trade rag ‘Auto Motor und Sport’ (AMS) voted the ŠKODA Octavia and ŠKODA Superb ‘The Best Cars of 2014’ in their respective classes. In the small car category, the ŠKODA Fabia achieved an outstanding third place among import models. This is the fifth class victory in the readers’ poll over the last four years for the Czech carmaker.  

The new ŠKODA Octavia is a real winner: The third generation of the traditional brand’s bestseller managed to jump into the top 10 of the German new vehicle registration statistics straight away. The import car has now won over the readers of the trade rag ‘Auto Motor und Sport’, who voted the Octavia ‘Best Car of 2014’ in the mid-class import rankings. Despite strong competition, 18.4% of the participants gave the successful model their vote.  

The Superb – the flagship of the ŠKODA model range – came out on top for the fourth consecutive time, voted in the ‘Auto Motor und Sport’ readership poll as the best mid-class import model. This year the Superb gained 22.2% of the votes.

The ŠKODA Fabia also secured a place on the podium. In the small car import rankings, 8.6% of all participants voted for the Fabia, ensuring one of the coveted podium positions with third place.

“We have been very pleased this year to have won over the readers of ‘Auto Motor und Sport’ with the ŠKODA Octavia and ŠKODA Superb,” said Dr. Frank Welsch, ŠKODA Board Member for Development during the award ceremony in Stuttgart. “The results show us that the ŠKODA brand makes the right cars for their customers: Attractive, practical, high-quality vehicles with modern technology and clever ideas at great value for money.”

ŠKODA has been a rip-roaring success on the international markets recently, especially with the new Octavia collecting some hard-earned prestigious awards. In Germany, readers of ‘AUTOStraßenverkehr’ (CARtraffic) and ‘Eltern’ (Parents) voted the Octavia ‘Family Car of the Year’. The Octavia RS was also voted by the readers of the trade rag ‘Auto Bild Sportscars’ the sportiest series saloon of 2013. In Russia, readers of ‘Za Rulem’ (At the Wheel) voted the Octavia the winner of the ‘Best value for money’ category. In Switzerland, the Octavia achieved an outstanding second place in the ‘Schweizer Illustrierte’ (Swiss Illustrator) readers’ choice for ‘Most Popular Car of the Swiss’. In Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, Lithuania and Latvia the third-generation Octavia is the ‘Car of the Year’. And even in its home market of the Czech Republic, the Octavia has done very well, recently winning the title ‘Car of the Year 2014’ in the audience rating. 

In addition, the new ŠKODA Octavia has been nominated for the final vote in the ‘Car of the Year 2014’ competition. Only seven of the original total of 30 cars made it to the shortlist for ‘Car of the Year’, one of the world’s most prestigious and coveted car awards. The winner will be announced in early March in Geneva.