Daniel Warner

I've bought the HTP 1.2l 3 cylinder 70ps engine 6 months ago and have over 7000 km on it. To be honest, this engine truly is murder, and just because of this engine I'm already looking to replace this car. I can tell you hands-down to avoid this engine like the plague. It takes forever to get up to speed, greatly suffers when the air-con is turned on, and if you are carrying equipment or passengers, the performance immediatly dies out. I never got past 3rd gear when going uphill , and you need to allow plenty of space between cars when you get out of junctions as the car will take its time to get up to speed. As for economy I average 34 MPG (which is really not impressive for such a small engine). Also, it feels really groggy when you rev it up, almost like a diesel. Once on an uphill start, I had to ask who was in the car with me to meet me at a more leveled part of the road because the car would stall when it try to put it in gear, (granted this was when the engine was still in it's running in). My advice would be to go for either the 85 TSI or even better the 105 TSI, as there is little difference in price between them and marginal in fuel economy. Plus insurance would have been cheaper in my case for the TSI than the HTP because the TSI have less CO2 emmissions. Other than that, the Fabia truly is a great car. It is with a heavy heart that I'm replacing it.