Little Jo

As folk have said, one vial contains the base coat (silver) and the second is the clear lacquer. Trouble is that you need an ambient temperature of at least 15°C to use it. It's winter, so unless you have a heated garage, it won't be warm enough. As you are UK based, a company called 'Chips Away' will treat small paintwork blemishes for a small charge and you will barely be able to see it. It's hard to do a good job with touch up paint. I clean the area thoroughly and use a tiny bit of cutting paste to smooth the edges and remove polish. I then use a very fine artist's brush to apply the base coat (very carefully). Leave to cure for 3 weeks. Again, treat the area lightly with cutting paste, and then apply the top coat using a fine artist's brush. Leave to cure for 3 weeks, before polishing the treated area. I did the above on a scratch on a metallic blue Corsa I had and it worked a treat, but you need the right temperature, patience and extreme care to get a good result. If you don't know what you're doing, get an expert to sort it for you. Avoids the risk of making any damage worse.

I think the car mag testers are too harsh when assessing cars. They want to drive everything like a GTi and the standard Fabia/Fabia estate isn't that sort of car. If they are testing a very new example where the engine hasn't been run in, how can they really make a good assessment. My 1.4 16v has changed a lot in the last 1500 miles or so in terms of loosening up and giving a livelier performance. When new and tight, it did feel very sluggish. Some of you 1.4 tdi owners report a similar improvement as the miles build up and everything beds in. Lets face it, if you have a modest pot of cash, want a new car rather than a used example and want something that's practical and reliable - you can't go wrong with a Fabia. True, there may be the odd failure (I had an injector fail at 5200 miles), but overall, satisfaction with Skodas is very high. This forum was about the most useful source of information I found when car hunting and thinking about buying a Skoda. Those in the trade (sales and service) are a very useful source of reliable information.

My supplying dealer does Skoda, Proton and Hyundai. To be honest, they located in a town where there's plenty of demand for that kind of car ie. Harlow is Essex. Their new car sales are down, but they are still shifting used cars. The Peugeot dealer is closing - established 50 years ago. There are a lot of businesses closing, even long-established ones. Those newer to the market seem more geared up to work through the difficulties. Sad.

Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, Seldom in a woman, never in a man!

I can tell you tomorrow evening what the headlamp dash lights should be doing. TBH, I don't get much chance to use main beam and I rarely use the headlamp flash. I'll check it out though.

It's not well positioned at all if you're a shortie like me and have the seat forward. It stays up while I'm driving, but is still a useful storage place for my mobile phone charger. I lower it while parked if I want to relax.

I had the emission warning light come on when an injector failed. The car immediately started running rough and was clearly only running on 3 cylinders. The message relates to the emission control system, so points to fuel system or sensor fault.

Mine only squeaks when my 22 stone hubby sits on it. No deformation and no signs of wear after 7000 miles. I only weigh a third of what he does.

Good to hear that.

You could do what the rest of us do and follow what it says in the service book, for us, that's every year or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first. I've been owning cars for nearly 20 years and none had a service interval that short. Diesel Vauxhalls (UK Opel) had an oil change at 4500 miles and a service at 9000. All other cars have had service intervals of 9000 miles or greater.

Yes, but are you being told this by people who genuinely know about Fabias, aren't they relatively new to India? I've driven several Fabias and the brakes were fine. There were few if any rattles or squeaks and nothing wrong with the air con. If you don't like your Skoda, that's your choice, but it doesn't mean the car is rubbish it just means that it isn't the right car for you. Yes, you get the odd poor example from any manufacturer, but as manufacturer's go, Skoda is highly rated throughout Europe. We are unable to comment on the Fabia in India as we have no idea how cars built there compare to the ones we drive. This forum thread is going nowhere!

I should add that this refers to cars with an alarm and remote central locking.

Hi all I checked my manual this morning when I got to work. If the internal protection is active, the light should go out then flash slowly. The manual says that if it stays on constant, it does inidcate a fault with either the central locking or alarm system and it needs to be checked.

Could you have accidentally double-clicked or hit the button on the door? The sequence of lights tell you whether the internal sensor is active or not. If the indicators don't flash, one of the doors hasn't been closed properly. Jo

My 1.4 16v estate does a fraction over 3000 rpm at 70 mph and is very comfortable. The thing about this engine, is that it needs 2500 rpm at least to deal with gradients. I'm just coming up to 7000 miles now and it's really quite perky.

They just reduce wind resistance/noise and I suspect, the accumulation of grime in hard to reach places. Replacement is free (warranty repair) and only takes 20-30 mins to fit.

I think the current emphasis on speed is wrong. Too many local authorities are lowering speed limits in a vague attempt to reduce casualties, yet the people who drove too fast will continue doing so and it's the law-abiding motorist who suffers. Dig up the cameras and put more patrols on the road where they can be effective in ridding our roads of the tailgaters, uninsured drivers, drunks and criminals. Excessive speed for the conditions kills, but plenty of roads still have a national speed limit of 60 mph which is wholly inappropriate. A review of speed limits would assign speed limits based on the road characteristics, zones of visibility and the presence of vulnerable road users. Cyclists may be environmentally friendly, but too many drive without lights, on footpaths and through red lights. Mr PC Plods may not be to everyone's liking, but it would make our roads a much safer place to be.

Just so you know, I've had a phone call to say my A pillar trim bits have arrived. It looks like Skoda have got their alternative supplier sorted out. So those of you who are waiting for replacements shouldn't be waiting much longer.

If it only happens when wet, then water is getting in somewhere it shouldn't. The door open warning is almost certainly activated by a switch - if water gets into that switch (in wet weather), it could create a contact even with the door is closed. A lot of garages plug in their computer and look for fault codes, if there's no fault code, they're stuck. The Fabia and Roomster have a new style of wiring called CANBUS and that's what allows all these fancy features to appear on a car like the Fabia. A fault with that system cannot be ruled out. Keep a diary and collect detailed information on when the fault appears. You may find that a pattern emerges. You've already noticed an association with wet conditions, but how wet? How long does the car need to be out before the problem shows itself. It will get sorted, but intermittent problems that are climate related are notoriously difficult to fix unless you can reliably recreate the fault. Keeping detailed notes may help you achieve that.

I have the 1.4 16v engine and think it's every bit as good as my 1.4 16v Astra. If you're used to a diesel, it does feel underpowered, but it's competant and doesn't deserve the harsh criticisms. I routinely get better than Skoda's economy figures and on the open roads in Wales, it was achieving 50mpg. I have driven the 1.2 70 bhp and while it was a pleasant surprise in terms of performance, I prefer my four cylinders.

A good quality tyre pressure gauge will pay for itself many times over. I like to check my tyres regularly. It's not always easy at this time of year when it gets dark so early in the afternoon. I've been known to do mine during my lunch break at work. Under-inflated tyres won't just wear unevenly, they're also prone to overheating and may suffer a blow-out. People spend thousands on their car, hundreds of pounds servicing it and fail to look after their only contact with the road surface.

That's unladen. If laden, the rears go up to 2.7 bar. Jo

The Fabia is an excellent car for the money. We've been driving Vauxhalls for nearly 18 years: Novas, Corsas, Astras and a Cavalier (which lasted 172,000 miles with original clutch, engine, gearbox and suspension). The brakes on the Fabia are excellent, even on the Fabia 1 I had as a courtesy car recently. If you crashed, you were driving too fast for the road conditions and not leaving adequate safety margins. Fabias are European cars, designed for use on modern road systems. Skodas aren't a flop, they are highly rated and achieve very high rates of customer satisfaction and are up there with prestige brands.

I've got a Fabia 3 estate, I'll have a look for you tomorrow. One axle is 2.2 bar and the other 2.1, but I can't remember what way round they are. Jo

That's one mod I'd quite like to have done - is it possible to post the part number? I assume the Vrs part is CAN Bus compatible.