Škoda Felicia (1994)

Škoda Felicia is a personal car produced by Škoda Auto between 1994 and 2001 in Mladá Boleslav, later also in Kvasiny and even in Serbia and Poland. Felicia is a revised version of Škoda Favorit, featuring improved design and significantly better safety features. The name Felicia was taken from Škoda’s sports car produced in the 1960s.

Development began in 1991 and the car was officially presented to the public in October 1994 in Prague. Until 2001, when the production stopped, approximately 1.42 million units were sold. As early as 1995 further versions– station wagon, pickup, minivan, convertible – were presented and increasingly better equipment was installed, e.g. air conditioning, anti-lock braking system (ABS), driver’s air bag. Felicia had different engines, from 1.3 to 1.9 litres (54–74 horse powers), which were capable of achieving maximum speed of between 130 and 170 km/h. It was also the first Škoda model equipped with a diesel engine.

In 1994 Felicia was declared Car of the Year in the Czech Republic and after that became one of the best-selling cars on the European markets. The basic version cost 209 thousand crowns, while average salary in the Czech Republic was around 7 thousand. In spite of that, even ten years after the end of its production, Felicia was one of the most commonly seen cars on Czech roads. It was used by the Czech police (a total of up to 5.500 units were ordered), Czech Post, Office of the Chamber of Deputies and various ministries. Currently, Škoda Auto is working on a new, electric version of Felicia, scheduled for 2020.