Skoda Revives ‘90s Pickup Truck With Futuristic Take On A Cult Classic

In 1999, Skoda built an iconic lifestyle-focused pickup truck based on its standard Felicia model. Exclusively sold with bright yellow paintwork, it was a car bursting with personality at every turn. Now, the French stylist Julien Petitseigneur has revisited this cult classic with his own interpretation of what the model could look like today.

Petitseigneur said: “The original car was pure fun – it didn’t take itself too seriously, and it stood out in a way that few other Škodas ever have. For me, it was the obvious choice to reimagine in my spare time. I even found myself looking at buying an original while working on the sketches.”

While the Felicia Fun was still a practical car, it leaned into the lifestyle market, carving out a niche for itself compared to the brand’s range of family wagons. It may have captured attention with its bold design and eye catching paintwork but its party trick was the rear seats. A sliding bulkhead separating the cabin from the pickup bed moved backwards to allow two additional pop up seats for extra passengers. Since the flexible seating setup would leave rear passengers in the open air, it was mostly targeted at beach living or summertime fun.

Using the original’s spirit as inspiration, Petitseigneur brought it up to date with Skoda’s Modern Solid design philosophy. This design language was first introduced with the Vision 7S concept in 2022 and now features heavily in the styling for Elroq and Enyaq models. Petitseigneur worked on marrying this contemporary interpretation of the Skoda brand with retro nods to the ‘90s.

“The Felicia Fun was unusual, but its design was relatively simple, which made adapting it to Modern Solid surprisingly straightforward. It had clean shapes and very little ornamentation, so updating it was more about proportions and details than reinventing it entirely,” Petitseigneur explained.

The new reimagining features what Skoda describes as its tech-deck face grille – not to be confused with the finger skateboards that launched around the same time as the original Felicia Fun. T-shaped LED lights appear at the front and rear with the taillights connected by a long neon pink strip. The pink accents around the car including on the wheels and glass tints are said to be a tribute to the car’s playful character.

Petitseigneur, of course, kept the iconic yellow color, widened the pickup’s stance and added some chunky black exterior trim from the bumpers to the sills and wheel arch cladding. While Skoda doesn’t currently offer a pickup truck in its lineup, this quirky concept is an insight into what the company could potentially offer, bringing a light-hearted, personable feel to the range.

No one seems to quite know why but the mascot for the original Felicia Fun was a frog which appeared on the B-pillar and interior upholstery. A leather yellow steering wheel dominated the interior landscape accompanied by seats with yellow leather bolsters and grey frog-print fabric in the centre. Petitseigneur’s version has a full-width dashboard screen and video game style retro graphics. Sadly, the new concept doesn’t use a sliding rear bulkhead for the extra two seats.

Just over 4,200 Felicia Funs were built in the Czech Republic between 1997 and 2000. It’s estimated that around 80 examples remain on the road in the UK today.