The Skoda 1203, the cult car par excellence in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, celebrates its milestone birthday in 2018.
The beginnings
First presented to the public on September 14, 1968, it was to accompany the lives of Czechs and Slovaks literally from the cradle to the grave.
As early as the second half of the 1950s, the Czech Skoda plant in Vrchlabi began developing a light commercial vehicle with an advanced self-supporting body in a practical one-box design. The predecessors 1201 and 1202 had already been produced at the same plant, but these were based on passenger car models and could therefore only offer limited storage space.
From the outset, the engineers had their sights set on a front-wheel-drive body concept with the engine at the height of the front seats. This would ensure that the van would not have a hood in the true sense of the word, thus enabling optimum use of the converted space.
Brave and inherited technology
The body of the Skoda 1203 was self-supporting, i.e. it did not have the usual frame of the time. In order to be able to use as many identical parts as possible for the model range, many tried and tested components from other models were added. As a result, the 1221cc OHV four-cylinder engine (49 hp) came from the predecessor model 1202 and the cockpit instruments and rear lights from the 1000 MB model. The 1203 had compact exterior dimensions of 4.5 m long, 1.8 m wide and 1.9 m high and offered space for a 5.2 cubic meter load compartment. The permitted payload was 950 kg, which almost corresponded to the unladen weight of 1100 kg.
From patient transporter to workshop vehicle
Series production started in November 1968 in the extensively modernized Vrchlabi plant, parallel to the predecessor 1202, which was built until 1973.
Initially, the 1203 was delivered exclusively as a panel van, but just one month later 192 units and three microbuses had been built. Skoda later expanded the range to include numerous versions. There was everything from platform vans, workshop vehicles and hearses to ambulances. This led to frequent appearances in films, one of the reasons for the popularity of the car among the population.
Socialist influence on demand
The Skoda 1203 was initially sold exclusively to the socialist sector, state-owned companies or cooperatives. Private customers had to be patient until the vehicles were offered as used cars. The reason for this was quite simple; the character of the car as a commercial vehicle was a thorn in the side of the regime. They did not want to delay private trade, which was undesirable in socialist Czechoslovakia.
Interestingly, however, the vehicle could be bought in France and Belgium, as well as in exotic places such as Egypt.
In the Czech Republic itself, production of the model ended in 1981 after 69,727 units had been built, and in Slovakia in the mid-1990s.
Popularity in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
The Skoda delivery van was extremely popular in Czechoslovakia for several reasons; firstly, the model was extremely present in public service, which led to many films featuring the car in one role or another, making it even better known, and secondly, it enjoyed a virtual monopoly position on the domestic vehicle market for a quarter of a century. The iron curtain was a useful protection.