Every car produced goes to the test polygon, where technicians check that there are no suspicious knocking, squeaking or rattling noises. But the effort to eliminate all unwanted noises starts much earlier, during the development of the car itself, when the car undergoes a series of tests, many of which focus on identifying the sources of noise and then eliminating them.
These tests are typically also carried out on the polygon, but ŠKODA also carries out laboratory testing to ensure repeatability and to test vehicles that are still secret. These are done using a special piece of equipment known as the Shaker, which is available to engineers at both the Mladá Boleslav and Kvasiny plants. The Shaker is a special device that can vibrate the car exactly according to the engineers’ requirements.