ŠKODA OCTAVIA and ŠKODA SUPERB voted ‘4×4 of the year’

› Readers of German Auto Bild Allrad magazine vote two ŠKODAs best in their respective categories

› OCTAVIA is best import car and overall winner in the ‘4×4s under €40,000’ category

› SUPERB is chosen as best import 4×4 costing over €40,000

› ŠKODA currently offers four models with all-wheel drive: the OCTAVIA, SUPERB, KAROQ and KODIAQ

Mladá Boleslav, 5 June 2020 – Readers of the German Auto Bild Allrad magazine have awarded two ŠKODA models with ‘4×4 of the year’ titles. In the category of all-wheel drive vehicles under €40,000, the OCTAVIA 4×4 claimed victory for both best import car as well as overall winner. As for all-wheeldrive vehicles costing more than €40,000, the ŠKODA flagship SUPERB 4×4 was voted best import car. The readers of Europe’s bestselling all-wheel-drive car magazine picked the OCTAVIA as their favourite in its category for the fourth time, and the SUPERB for an impressive eleventh time.

Christian Strube, ŠKODA AUTO Board Member for Technical Development, said, “The fact that the OCTAVIA and SUPERB have been named 4×4s of the year by the knowledgeable Auto Bild Allrad readers is great testament to our brand’s high level of all-wheel-drive expertise: our 4×4s meet all kinds of expectations and demands and, thanks to state-of-the-art and intelligent all-wheel-drive technology, they make driving fun and handling safe in every driving situation. On behalf of my entire team, I would like to thank every reader who voted for our models and thus enabled ŠKODA to come top in two categories.”

In the category of 4×4 passenger cars costing less than €40,000, 13.8 per cent of readers rated the ŠKODA OCTAVIA 4×4 as their favourite. The brand’s bestseller was voted the overall winner as well as best import car. The Czech car manufacturer’s bestseller had already been the readers’ choice in the ‘4×4 of the year’ category in 2014, 2015 and 2019. Having secured 6.59 per cent of the votes, the brand’s top model – the ŠKODA SUPERB 4×4 – is the first-choice import 4×4 over €40,000 this year. This makes 2020 the eleventh year in which the brand’s flagship came first in the readers’ poll.

This year, voting for the ‘4×4s of the year’ took place for the 19th time. Overall, there were 218 models in eleven categories to choose from. Readers had the opportunity to vote online for their favourites from 10 January to 6 March.

The success story of the modern-day all-wheel-drive ŠKODAs began in 1999 with the ŠKODA OCTAVIA COMBI 4×4. Three years later, the Czech carmaker also presented the hatchback version of its bestseller as a 4×4, followed by the second generation of the popular compact model, also available as an all-wheel-drive variant.

In 2019, approximately one in nine ŠKODA OCTAVIAs delivered in Europe were 4×4s. Now in its fourth generation, the model will be once again available in various all-wheel-drive powertrain configurations; the OCTAVIA is also more spacious, connected and emotive than ever before.

ŠKODA first presented the SUPERB hatchback with 4×4 technology in 2008, and the first SUPERB COMBI 4×4 followed one year later. In 2019, every fourth newly registered model on the European market was equipped with all-wheel drive – making up 26 per cent of total sales. Since it was comprehensively revised in 2019, the ŠKODA SUPERB has offered features such as full LED Matrix headlights and an even wider range of innovative assistance systems – making it more attractive and state-of-the-art than ever. Last year also saw the debut of the SUPERB iV, the brand’s first production plug-in hybrid.

All-wheel drive at ŠKODA: now available in four model ranges

ŠKODA developed the first prototypes with more than one driven axle back in the late 1930s. ŠKODA’s modern-day 4×4 success story began in 1999 with the OCTAVIA COMBI 4×4. ŠKODA AUTO has since produced more than one million 4×4s – 157,000 in 2019 alone. Demand for all-wheel drive is so high that the Czech car manufacturer has rigorously expanded its 4×4 portfolio in recent years. Today, this includes the KAROQ, OCTAVIA, KODIAQ and SUPERB model ranges.