Škoda Hid an Umbrella in the Door and Remembered What Happens When It Gets Wet

On Škodas equipped with a door umbrella compartment, the holder is designed to accommodate a wet umbrella and let water drain outside the car. Availability and location vary by model, so check the equipment fitted to yours.

Getting into a car with a wet umbrella usually involves a small defeat. Fold it outside and rain runs down your neck. Bring it in quickly and the seat gets a soaking. Eventually it ends up in the passenger footwell, where someone will put a shoe on it.

Škoda found somewhere better.

Open the door of a suitably equipped model and there’s an umbrella tucked into its own compartment. It’s easy to overlook until somebody points it out, particularly on a used car where the original umbrella may have disappeared years ago.

The clever part becomes apparent when it’s time to put it back.

A wet umbrella needs more than a hole to live in. In the third-generation Superb, Škoda provided water-repellent compartments with outlets that let the water escape outside. The umbrella could go back into its holder after use, rather than spending the journey dripping onto the carpet. Škoda also specified an antibacterial coating for the umbrellas supplied with that generation.

It’s a modest piece of engineering, but someone clearly thought beyond the pleasant moment when a driver discovers the free umbrella.

The umbrella hasn’t always lived in the same place

The first two generations of Superb kept theirs in the left rear door. With the third generation, the arrangement moved to both front doors, putting an umbrella within reach of the people getting out at the front.

That distinction matters when looking at a used car. A compartment shown in a review or sales photograph may belong to a different generation or specification. Check the actual car before assuming something is missing.

If the holder is there but empty, a replacement umbrella needs to fit it properly. A compact umbrella from the supermarket might look about right and still refuse to slide all the way in. Check the dimensions or buy the replacement intended for that compartment; forcing one into the opening is an expensive way to save on an umbrella.

There’s a practical advantage to keeping it in the door, too. An umbrella in the boot is perfectly useful once you’ve walked through the rain to fetch it. This one is waiting where you’re about to step out.

Most of the time, it will sit there unnoticed. Then the weather turns while you’re in the supermarket, and it suddenly becomes one of the better things about the car.