Skoda wagon in California on Craigslist

The Skoda Octavia was built in the Czech Republic. I have heard that VW now owns Skoda, and that parts are actually easy to obtain if you don't mind paying for shipping from eastern Europe.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/ctd/1452533746.html

 

Skoda parts are less expensive, here, than those of domestic brands. My neighbor moved to a nursing home and gave me his Skoda which is the first model developed together with Volkswagen. The standard engine was the pushrod Skoda 1.3 liter fourbanger. The one in mine is the 1.6 Volkswagen OHC used in the Volkswagen Polo, older Golf and SEAT models.
The guy is a total slob who seldom got under a shower and smoked cheap cigarettes. I had to scrub the interior, stick any removable interior parts in the dishwasher and even skinned both front seats, to put in the wash machine (they might as well have equipped the car with toilets, instead of front seats. He'd drive in one and sleep on the other). It's still smelly. But not near as bad as before:



The brakes and suspension struts are Volkswagen types. It's pleasant to drive and doesn't give the impression that it's a typical front drive like the wife's AUDI which has the engine in front of the axle. In fact, it reminds me of an early Golf we had in the shop, back in the early eighties. The handling was almost identicle. But, the old Golf was lighter.
It has a plastic intake manifold which is coiled up like those modern Corvettes and Chrysler Hemi's. The fuel injection computer is a Magnetti-Marelli . So far, it runs good. If it ever acts up, though, I could always convert it over to a Bosch system. It's quite economical, also. Unfortunately, the tranny is Skoda and needs a couple synchronizer rings. Supposedly, the Skoda trannies can't handle the VW
's horsepower. So, that rules out any turbo add-ons, for now. The later models had VW units and, supposedly, they aren't interchangable
I don't like the color for this car and decided to cheer it up with a can of silver wheel spray to cover the panels underneath both headlights and the trim strip between both reverse lamps. This makes the car a little Volvoesque and narrow-appearing frontwards and more visible during conditions of unfavorable behind. I also removed the black adhesive wrap they install between both doors to try to make it look sporty. This stuff is okay, if the color is orange or light red:



Here's what one of these look like in a Skoda. My valve color is also dull. I'm taking the steel wool to it, maybe this weekend, to polish it up. The VW with this same engine has nicer looking trim which gives me ideas:

​