At the very beginning of the 90s, very serious political and, subsequently, economic tectonic processes took place. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of the GDR and FRG, the change of the political model in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, the disintegration of Czechoslovakia and other hustle and bustle. In general, in all the countries of Eastern Europe, everything was falling apart, changing, and being reformed. At the same time, the population was getting poorer, purchasing power, naturally, was falling, enterprises were closing, and so on. Everything was like we had in the early 90s. The planned economy no longer exists, and the market economy has not yet been built. And they haven’t even figured out how to do it. And imagine this situation. You are one of the leaders of the Czech automobile plant Skoda. Such a large plant. With history, with traditions. With an excellent team of workers, design engineers, and so on. You recently launched a new car into production – the Skoda Favorit. A good car. But there are no real sales. simply because it is impossible to sell anything on the domestic market and on the market of former socialist countries, because the majority of people simply do not have money, and in Western Europe they produce and buy their own cars, which in many respects are much more interesting than your products. And you really want to save the enterprise. So that it exists, so as not to fire the team, so as not to lose your job, in the end ... How to do this? How to dramatically improve the quality of products to compete on equal terms with German, French, Swedish car manufacturers ... How to organize sales on the European market? Where to get money for all this? And there was no time - the conveyor of your enterprise has already slowed down, and if nothing is done, then everything will stop ... In my opinion, there is only one solution. You need to merge with some large and strong auto concern, or rather sell yourself to it. But not to get money, but to save the enterprise. The Skoda management did just that. First, negotiations on the sale, or merger, began with 24 car manufacturers. Soon their number was reduced first to 8, and then to 2. The best conditions for the reorganization of production were offered by the Renault Volvo and VAG alliance. And in the end, the choice was made in favor of the Germans from Volkswagen. So, in 1991, the Volkswagen-Audi group bought a third of all Skoda shares, and added another brand and plant to its piggy bank, and the Czechs had an opportunity not only to survive, but also to develop. And the cooperation began. German and Czech engineers began working on improving the Skoda Favorite model. The result of this work was, as it were, a new model - Skoda Felicia. Quite a competitive car. But still, the Felicia was not a fully new model. It was a very deeply redesigned, improved, but still old in design Skoda Favorite. But nevertheless, sales of Felicia started in 1994 in Europe. And 2 years later – in 1996, the production of the Skoda Octavia model started. And this is a completely different story. The new Volkswagen platform – PQ34, the same as on the Volkswagen Golf 4, and Audi A3... State-of-the-art body galvanizing technologies, German suspension, fundamentally new electrics, completely different comfort, controllability, and overall quality of the car did their job. Octavia A4 not only sold well, but even excellently. It became not just popular, but mega-popular. It was Octavia that pulled the Skoda brand out of the crisis, gave impetus to further development, and it became the main model for the Czech manufacturer for many years to come. Our channel on Youtube: / @dirser On Rutube: https://rutube.ru/channel/30249756/ Our VK group: https://vk.com/dirser Zen: https://zen.yandex.ru/id/622624db18aa... Telegram: https://t.me/dirser Boosty: https://boosty.to/dirser Our car services: SVauto, St. Petersburg, Vasilievsky Island, Kamskaya St., 7 phone: 955-35-10, +7921-955-35-10, AvtoKultura, St. Petersburg, Telezhnaya St., 37U phone: +7-921-953-35-10 Director's car selection: St. Petersburg, Telezhnaya St., 37U phone: +7-931-955-33-55 https://dirpodbor.ru/