Skoda increased its market share to 1.7% in 2006 by selling 39,000 cars worldwide.

Overall, Skoda sales were up 8% on the previous year. A major contributor to this success has been the new generation Octavia.

Nearly 17,900 were sold in the UK last year, around 2,000 of which were vRS variants. Skoda sold 18,000 Fabias, 2,600 of which were vRS versions.

Skoda also sold over 2,000 Superbs last year and nearly 800 Roomsters since the compact MPV’s launch at the end of September.

International production shot up to over 500,000 units. This is a 140% rise on the 208,000 cars the manufacturer produced in 1995.