Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
I'm pretty sure that rallying had very positive effect for some manufacturers and especially for Škoda. Even though their WRC was never able to fight with the top teams they proved they were not some cheap garbage from the east by taking the gamble in 1998. The stock Octavia was a huge success which started new era of the brand. The WRC campaign sure helped it. Last week Škoda communicated some numbers from this year which is going to be the most successful for the brand in the whole history and I do believe that the great success of Fabia S2000 helped their growth into one of the most important carmakers in Europe. I'm of course aware that the most important was the VW policy towards Škoda but that's for another topic.


Skoda VW was the big difference between Octavia and the previous models. I recognise that brand awareness/image can be helped immensely by motorsport, Skoda you have mentioned and even back in the 80s they used motorsport and clever targetting of the smaller classes to get recognised for their tough/durable cars. Subaru utterly transformed their image through the 90s with rallying. Audi and Peugeot too have over time done good things for their image with rallying.
Hyundia I think will too, actually I think of all currently involved in WRC they are the one who can benefit, VW really IMHO have nothing to get, thay have come and done what was expected of them, impressive? Yes of course, has it changed anyones opinion of the brand? I'd very much doubt it.

Mr N.O.T. that is always the plan, its hard to prove.