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5:50 AM
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. <data:blog.pageTitle/> <data:blog.pageName/> - <data:blog.title/>
1:09 PM
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.
8:03 AM
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.
7:01 AM
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.
4:31 PM
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.
3:05 PM
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.
8:06 AM
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.
