Skoda Begins Series Production of All-New 2013 Octavia, Sales Start in Late January

On Monday, Skoda initiated series production of its brand new, third generation Octavia saloon at its Czech car plant in Mladá Boleslav, ahead of its European market launch that will take place at the end of January 2013.

Skoda said that in order to prepare its factory for the MQB-platform based model, it introduced "one of the most comprehensive modernization and expansion projects" in the history of its main plant at Mladá Boleslav, boosting the Octavia/Rapid production line’s capacity from 800 to 1,200 cars per day.

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Scoop: New 2013 Skoda Octavia RS with VW Golf GTI Heart Makes an Early Appearance

While Skoda told us that we should expect to see the high-performance RS (or vRS in the United Kingdom) version of the newly introduced 2013 Octavia sometime next year, the automaker itself seems to have uploaded the car on its official configurator by mistake (?).

The images from Skoda's site are a tad fuzzy, but they still allow us to see what the new Octavia RS will look like on the outside.

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New Skoda Octavia III Live Photos and Videos from Czech Presentation

As its most important new model of the past few years, Skoda wants to give the third generation of the Octavia as much publicity as possible, which is why the Czech carmaker planned a special event for the press at its headquarters in Mlada Boleslav earlier this week ahead of the car's first public outing at the Geneva Salon in March.

Skoda's bestseller has been designed from the ground up sharing its MQB-platform and mechanical hardware with the latest generations of the VW Golf, Seat Leon and Audi A3 compacts, all of which were released in Europe this year.

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Skoda Officially Reveals All-New and Sleeker Looking 2013 Octavia III [Updated]

It’s been a long road with plenty of scoops of both camouflaged prototypes and unmarked cars captured during testing and photo shoots, but now the time has come for Skoda to release its third generation of the successful Octavia series, which is seen here in liftback form with an estate model to follow next year.

The 2013 Octavia is the first Skoda model to make use of the VW Group's new and lighter MQB platform that underpins several other compact cars, most notably the VW Golf Mk7 and the latest Audi A3 hatchbacks.

Compared to the model it replaces, the new Octavia is 90mm longer at 4,659mm, 45mm wider at 1,814mm, and more importantly, the wheelbase has been stretched by 108mm to 2,686mm, something that mainly benefits the interior and space on the rear seats.

As a result, front head room has increased by 8 mm, front elbow width by 39 mm and rear elbow width by 26 mm over the outgoing Octavia. According to Skoda, the Octavia offers a class-leading interior space in the compact segment with 1,782 mm of interior length and the largest boot with a volume of 590 liters.

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Skoda Drops New Images of 2013 Octavia III Including First of the Interior

If what the rumor mill is saying is true, then we're literally counting days until the online unveiling of the next generation of Skoda's most popular model, the 2013 Octavia Mk3, which could explain the number of teaser images being released by the Czech carmaker.

A couple of days after Skoda provided us a set with photos of the rear combination lights and the rear window and C-column treatment, the VW Group-owned company published three more images on Friday.

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Skoda Teases Bits and Pieces of New Octavia 3 on Facebook While Readers Capture the Car Undressed

It doesn't make much sense for Skoda to play games with the new Octavia 3 anymore since both the sedan/liftback and estate versions of the car have been photographed multiple times on the road camouflage-free, yet the Czech carmaker insists on providing cropped pictures of the D-segment model.

The latest set featured on Skoda's Facebook page includes shots of the tail lamps and the rear window and C-column treatment.

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U Spy: New Skoda Octavia Combi Also Snagged in Chile

For some…inexplicable reason, Skoda is having a hard time hiding its new Octavia from snooping eyes while filming the car on…public roads in Santiago, Chile.

About a week ago, it was CarScoop reader Nicholas W. who captured the saloon or to be precise, the liftback model on the streets of the South American country, and now, it is Juan J., a member of the Conducechile forums, who was able nab the station wagon variant of the third generation Octavia.

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U Spy: 2013 Skoda Octavia Mk3 Caught Naked in Chile!

Just hours after we showed you our speculative take on the 2013 Skoda Octavia III through Josh Byrne's rendering, CarScoop reader Nicholas W. emailed us this picture he shot in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, earlier today.

From what we understand, Skoda was on site to photograph both the sedan, which is seen here with only the brand's logo on the bonnet being masked up, as well as the estate variant that can be viewed parked in the depth.

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New 2013 Skoda Octavia III: Czech Compact Fighter's Design Illustrated

Skoda may be a foreign name to many on United States soil, but in Europe, the brand is quite popular. Driving this popularity is their money making press called the Octavia - it's Skoda's small car offering that battles with the likes of the Ford Focus, Opel/Vauxhall Astra and the Volkswagen Golf series.

In fact, the latter even has blood ties with Skoda due to Volkswagen buying the Czech subsidiary back in 2000; and that bond will become even closer with the next chapter of Octavia as it joins the Golf and Audi A3 on the diverse MQB platform.

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Volkswagen Group Sells Record Number of 7.5 Million Vehicles from January to October

If you're wondering why the Volkswagen Group isn't as worried as other carmakers in Europe and can even afford to provide better financial terms for buyers in the continent, all you have to do is look at the general picture that is its global sales numbers.

From January to October this year, the German group increased its sales by 10.2 percent over last year surpassing the 7 million mark for the first time in this period.

More specifically, the VW Group delivered 7.5 million cars in the first 10 months of the year, while in October, it sold 788,700 vehicles recording a 14.6 percent increase from the same month in 2011.

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Skoda Begins Teasing New 2013 Octavia with Promo Film

The countdown for the official unveiling of the third iteration of Skoda's popular Octavia begins with a promotional film that concentrates on the design process, which, judging from the recent spy shots, is arguably one of the less interesting aspects of the Czech carmaker's model.

The new 2013 Octavia evolves the design of the current model and applies it on a slightly larger body that rides on the Volkswagen Group's much-touted MQB platform architecture.

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Incredible High-Speed Police Pursuit of a Motorcyclist through Prague

You may as well dim the lights, grab some popcorn and sit comfortably because the video footage that follows has all the ingredients and thrills of a true Hollywood blockbuster. Only difference is that, what you are about to see, actually happened in real life.

Our only gripe is the somewhat poor video quality, but then again, that's probably to be expected from a camera positioned on the dashboard of a police car.

So what exactly are we looking at here? To make a long story short, a Czech police car (a Skoda Octavia 1.8-liter TSI, according to a poster on YouTube) patrolling the roads of the country's capital city of Prague, spotted a motorcyclist without a license plate entering a Bus/Taxi only lane and signaled him to stop.

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Spy Shots: Get a Close Look at a Thinly Veiled 2013 Skoda Octavia

Over the past few days, we have shared with you two spy videos of the new generation Skoda Octavia, which is due to be revealed online in November ahead of a world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March of 2013.

Needless to explain why, video footage of a car traveling on a highway can't offer the same details provided by a close up with a high-quality camera, which is where our spy shooters step in.

These latest scoop pictures afford us our best view of the new Octavia to date, allowing us to decipher reality from illusion, and by illusion, we mean the crafty decals placed on the headlights, the fog lamps, the upper bar of the front grille, the C-column and the rear combination lights by Skoda's people to trick us.

The best way to describe the shape, proportions and styling of the third iteration of the Octavia is a more modern interpretation of the current model with some sharper details here and there such as the front end and the profile window line.

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Skoda Brings New Superb Outdoor to the UK, Priced from £26,465

A new variant has been added to the Skoda Superb's lineup in Britain. The new Outdoor is based on the Superb Estate adding an off-road appearance package to the menu but nothing else more, as it keeps the same suspension settings and ride height as the regular model. Read more »

Scoop: All-New 2013 Skoda Octavia Caught on Camera Again

Here's some fresh spy footage of the of the next generation of Skoda's Octavia compact model, captured only a few days after another YouTube user posted a video of a black prototype with hardly any camouflage.

The silver-colored example seen in this clip offers us an even better look at the Czech carmaker's upcoming notchback model, though keep in mind that the front and rear lights may be covered in phony decals, a practice commonly used lately by the VW Group.

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Scoop: New 2013 Skoda Octavia Mk3 Filmed on the Road with Barely any Camo

Czech carmaker Skoda is wrapping up the development of its highly important Octavia III, as a prototype of the compact model was recorded on the road virtually camouflage-free, with the only parts of the car covered being the rear window corner and the a section of the headlamps.

While not straying too far away from the current model's shape, the third generation Octavia adopts Skoda's smoother design language with a lower and more sharply styled front end.

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Spied: All-New 2013 Skoda Octavia will Share Platform and Engines with New Golf 7

After eight years in the market, it's time for Skoda's successful family notchback to slowly give its place to a brand new Octavia that will make its world premiere sometime next year, either at the Geneva Salon in March or at the Frankfurt Motor Show later on in September.

For the first time, our scoop shooters seized a prototype of the production Octavia Mk3 as the Czech firm's engineers were performing high-speed tests at the Nürburgring track in Germany.

Evidently, it's not east to tell what's going on under the psychedelic-themed camouflage, but we can see that the third generation of Skoda's bread and butter model has a more athletic shape than the current Octavia with a lower front end and a sleeker roofline.

We cannot be completely sure from these images, but it is likely that the new model will keep the Octavia's traditional notchback styling that disguises a hatch tailgate.

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Euro Debt Crisis Reaches VW's Front Door, Cuts 2012 W. European Sales Target by 140,000 Vehicles

It was bound to happen sooner rather than later. The European sovereign debt crisis that started in Greece and spread to other countries including Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, is beginning to have a deeper effect on companies like Volkswagen.

The continent's largest carmaker has cut its internal 2012 sales target for Western Europe by up to 140,000 vehicles, the German news daily Handelsblatt reported on Friday.

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Skoda Rapid Makes…Sensual Debut in Paris, Pricing Starts From £12,900 in the UK

An affordable compact-sized sedan with ample passenger and luggage room is just what the doctor ordered for many new car buyers in Europe. The new Skoda Rapid, which made its first public appearance at the Paris Auto Show this week, fits that description to a tee.

Loosely based on the VW Polo, the Rapid is 4.48 m (176.4 in.) long, 1.71 m (67.3 in.) wide and 1.46 m (57.5 in.) tall. It comes with a capacious 550-liter boot space and according to Skoda, ample room for “up to five persons”.

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One Helluva Dedicated Traffic Cop Hitches a Ride to Catch Lawbreaker

Now this is one traffic officer who really takes his job seriously! On September 19 (the date shown on the footage is wrong), a 46-year old policeman stopped a black Skoda Octavia for a traffic violation on the road alongside the Fontanka River in Central Saint Petersburg, Russia.

A driver of an unrelated car or truck, who we come to know as Roman Ilchenko from the name listed on his YouTube channel, was traveling on the street recording everything though his dashboard-mounted camera.

At around 1 minute and 25 seconds into the first video and on the right side of the road, you can see the traffic officer holding on to the side of the Octavia that was trying to make a getaway.

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