It's important to remember your history, particularly if you're a 130-year-old Czech auto manufacturer like Škoda. Yes, that's right; if you can believe it, this car brand has been around and making vehicles since 1895. Only, it didn't start out making the cars you might know it for.
Way back in the before-times, the brand was named after its founders; two men who shared both the given name Václav, as well as a love of bicycles. As the story goes, Václav Laurin and Václav Klement teamed up when Klement had a bad experience with a local bicycle maker. Greatly dissatisfied with the craftsmanship of his bike and the customer service he received, Klement ended up meeting bicycle mechanic Laurin.
And the rest, as they say, is history. The new team fittingly called themselves Laurin & Klement, and they started making their own bicycles and motorcycles because they were convinced they could do the job better. Two early models introduced in 1899 were the Laurin & Klement Slavia A and Slavia B.
