A good car but not as small as you might think (Skoda Fabia in general)

Member Name: ahenry

Product:	Skoda Fabia in general
Date:	06/02/01 (414 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fit, finish, packaging

Disadvantages: Weight, availability of discounts

I thought of buying a Skoda Fabia when I needed to change my car last year. At that time, you could only get the 1.4 litre petrol engines and the five door hatchback. This didn't have a big enough boot for my family so I decided not to go for it in the end. However, if the estate version had been available, things might well have been different. That has 15 cubic feet of space in the boot (with the seats up and the luggage cover in place), compared to 9.3 cubic feet for a Fabia hatchback. This is the same as for an Octavia hatchback or 12 cu ft for a Ford Focus hatchback. It goes on sale from March 2001 with list prices from £8400 to £12800 the Fabia estate, which is £700 more than the hatchback. It is likely to be in short supply for a while.

Whilst the Fabia is classed as a small car, there is plenty of space inside, and if you compared it to a car from 20 years ago, then it would be called medium sized. It feels solid, and this shows in the overall weight of the car which is as much as 1235kg for a turbodiesel hatchback. A Citroen Xantia is only 30kg heavier, but is considerably bigger.

The Fabia feels nice enough inside. I definitely wanted ABS and air conditioning which is available on the Comfort model. One of the nice little features is that you get a compartment big enough for a couple of cans of coke that gets chilled by the air conditioning. Its much smaller than the cool box in a Renault Scenic but its still a nice touch. I'm not wild about the font they use for the markings on the speedo, but thats about the worst I can say about it.

On the road, it handles and rides competently. One of the engine options is for the 115bhp 2.0 petrol engine which used to be used for the Golf GTi. The 100bhp turbodiesel engine gives particularly good fuel economy although as I said before, it is heavy, and having a big heavy lump of engine at the front of the car won't help the handling balance.

The Fabia is a good car. W
hether it is worth buying depends on the amount you have to pay. Residual values should be pretty good, but its cheapest to buy a car and use it for a long time, rather than chopping and changing all the time which makes this less relevant. I paid less than £10,000 to import a Ford Focus 1.6LX with a ABS, traction control, side airbags, a heated front screen, air conditioning and a sunroof. If I was going to get a Fabia, then I would want at least an estate model, probably with the 1.9 turbodiesel engine, and the comfort trim level. The list price in the UK for this is £12,000 - even the 1.4 litre 16 valve car is £11,200. I doubt a UK dealer would discount this much below £11k, and I also wonder how quickly you would be able to get one if you tried to import it.

Summary: