Anyway... I received an e-mail from JaCG reader Michael in Sydney, Australia. In it was a link to this car. Take a look at the picture above. Then take a look at the picture below.
Notice anything different? Yep, this car has 2 doors on one side and one on the other. I can't recall any other car from the 1960s that was built this way. This arrangement made sense in Czechoslovakia where they drive on the right like we do. The rear passengers exited onto the sidewalk. What makes this interesting is that it's RHD for Australia. In Australia the rear passengers had to exit into traffic.
The seller believes the car was imported for the Czechoslovakian Consulate. He states that in his 10 years of ownership, he's never heard of another one in Australia. I'm guessing here, but I can't imagine that Skoda would have produced a RHD version for commercial sale given that the only way out of the rear seat is into oncoming traffic. I suspect that they only made a few for diplomats in Australia, Japan, Great Britain, etc. That would make this already rare car (How many 1202 Combis can there be left in the world?) incredibly rare.
This car needs restoration, but is complete and intact. The seller includes a lot of details in his ad.This is just one of those truly bizarre cars that I love finding and looking at.
Located in Mount Druitt, NSW, Australia, click here to see the Gumtree listing.
Thanks again to Michael for sending me this link.
9 comments:
Wow, that is oddball car nirvana. Predates the current Mini Clubman by half a century. Which raises an interesting point... which side is the door on for UK-market Clubmans (Clubmen)?
Hey Dave check this out it's American even... I think back in the 40's or 50's there were some 3 door pickup trucks made also. I know there is one one rotting away in a field behind my next door neighbors house in VT.
http://www.oldride.com/classic_trucks/541684.html
I was going to mention the late 60's Suburbans also. And I saw one of those three doored Ford pickups at the Winter Park (Florida) Concours a couple years ago.
http://longrooffan-forposting.blogspot.com/2010/06/three-door-blue-oval.html
And ask Monkey Boy to post some images of that rotting away 3 door.
Love the blog, by the way.
I've never seen a Suburban like that before. It's actually pretty cool.
You learn something new every day.
I believe the Clubman rear door remains on the right in the UK.
Dave
HI
I am the owner selling it, I have also 8 of the octavia range I am selling [due to health reasons] after up to 25 years ownership.[see gumtree listings] One Octavia Sedan, 2 Octavia Combi's, 2 Octavia spare part cars and 3 Felicia convertibles [that I dont really want to sell, but sometimes it has to be all out or not]..
I am keeping an 1102 roadster though, to keep at least one version of skoda, although I would have loved to have a restored Felicia. .,
Ironically over here we have a few cars that were 3 doors but only ambulances based on station wagons or panel vans so very rare here,
one reason they have this configuration for my skoda is that they sold ambulance versions of this 1202 combi, perhaps this influenced this on the 1202 combis....[Octavia combis ont have this door configuration.]
cheers for noting this is rare, most Aussies hardly even know what a Skoda is although Skoda has just recently started selling here again.
ps..I notice that the link to m advert is broken, mainly because I have renewed the advert when it expired, just go to Gumtree [sydney] and search skoda and my two adds for the 1202 Combi and the 63 Octavia sedan, will come up.
The 1202 Skoca combi isn't that rare, you buy them in driving condition but not pretty starting around 250 euros.
what is a little rarer are the pick up version of it but I have seen quite a few and i am buying them.
Thanks for bumping my car to view .
Yes you are right but on the other side of the world [Australia] it is very rare and very different.
I have reduced the price by $1000 to $2850 or swap and can be viewed in "Just Cars" magazine or online at Just Cars website [along with my 2 Octavia Combis and finally thinking I'll let my 3 Felicias go now, sorry the sedan is sold awaiting pickup]
http://www.justauto.com.au/justcars/search?search=advanced&selected_category=Choose+Category&looking_for=For+Sale&parent_page=%2Fjustcars%2F&search_category=&search_region=&keywords=skoda
Skodas are not well known here, but this car being a political import with a properly executed right hand drive setup certainly could make it of interest overseas
I may put it on Aussie ebay now to make it easier to access.
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