Tweedehands Skoda Rapid

Skoda traces its roots to 1895, when Václav Laurin and Václav Klement started building bicycles in Mladá Boleslav, then motorcycles, then in 1905 a car. That makes it one of the oldest car companies in the world, and Mladá Boleslav is still where the heart of the company beats.

Forty years behind the Iron Curtain left the brand with a reputation for cheap, rear-engined oddities and a stack of unkind jokes. Volkswagen's arrival in 1991 changed everything: the Octavia, Fabia and Superb brought group engineering with more space and a lower price, and the jokes stopped.

Today Skoda is one of Europe's best-selling brands, with the Octavia and Kodiaq as family favourites, the Enyaq and Elroq leading the electric line, and the Epiq on the way for the small end. Simply Clever is the tagline, and the umbrella in the door is still there to prove it.