bazz2004

The aero trims on our Fabia mc look smart to me and certainly don't give the impression of being cheap plastic. For a while I thought they were metal. They would be expensive to replace via a dealership. Removing them with a single hooked tool encounters strong resistance because of the way the centre attachment is designed. The wheel covers release very easily if you pull straight back on both sides of the hub with two tools . Maybe £5 additional outlay. Certainly, Skoda should have thought this through. "Simply clever" they are not. The aero wheel covers on the Mk 4 are a minor matter compared with all the other issues that are being discussed on the forum.

I tried the suggestion of slightly opening the windows when starting but encountered an issue in that small adjustments are very difficult. The Fabia 4 mc has four electric windows and they all shoot up and down failing to cooperate by stopping where I want them to.

The biggest problem with the covers is that it isn't clear how to remove them quickly and easily. My personal conclusion is that there's no need to buy wheel nut and hub covers apart from for cosmetic purposes. it's the first encounter with them may lead you to doing so. I lack the strength to shift the aero covers without a second pull tool. If you have paid extra for disks on the rear and want everybody to see them then go for it. Otherwise, hold off and see if you really need to do this. I seem to be in a minority of one because I like the aero covers. Skoda just failed to think them through as with much else on the Fabia 4.

The suggestion of a glass cleaner to prevent condensation developing is interesting. It's finding something suitable that's the challenge. Promises of sparkling crystal clear windscreens on the bottle and enthusiastic Amazon Vine reviews aren't reliable guides. Anybody know of a lasting treatment that will help prevent condensation or reduce its persistence? I'm thinking that there may be no such product.

The observation about demisting issues is bang on. When we updated to a 2023 Fabia mc we thought that starting in the cold weather would be a much improved experience over our 22 year old old diesel. It has proved to be a considerable disappointment and I cursed that I never investigated this. There was nothing mentioned in the many reviews I looked at. I was expecting naively innovations like heated elements in the windscreen. Like most cars ours is left outside and initially, winter 2023 it could take me 15 minutes to feel safe about driving off. On a few occasions I'd reckon we were all set but find within about 100 metres that vision was again badly compromised and would have to pull in and wipe the windows again. Things that have helped : 1 A moisture absorbing pouch left in the Fabia towards the front of the dashboard. The ill conceived surface of the dashboard means it slides off in motion. However, we had considerable problems with setting up a sat nav which wouldn't attach to the dash. We bought a circular shaped Nav-mat which when turned 180 degrees provides a secure base for the bag. The car does mainly local trips but sat nav attachment problems were initially a major source of annoyance. 2 Immediately whacking up the temperature on the air con to around 27 degrees with boost on front and rear. 3 An extendable handle windscreen wipe pad with a swivel for the pad. This is invaluable because much of the windscreen and side windows is out of reach from the driver's seat. 4 A small Vileda squeegee to wipe the outside of the windows. Well worth the expense. 5 Patience. Trying to remember before leaving the house to allow for time lost before driving. It takes at least 5-10 minutes, depending on the conditions, before it's safe to leave. 6 Looking on this forum in hope of more ideas.

"I am thinking of coming back to a Skoda Fabia Mk4. Maybe a 72 or 23 plate SE L trim. My current car is a 2019 plate Peugeot 308 and the sat nav is free. Map updates are free and easy to download to a USB stick via a computer and install in the car from the USB stick." I ran Peugeots for many years and they are very good but last year we decided on the Fabia 4 mc. It's a great drive, spacious for a small car and comfortable. However, if you like electronic gadgetry the Fabia 4 is not a great idea. Skoda Connect came with a free trial. All it seemed to offer was a way to check that you had remembered to lock the doors and the option to get the lights to flash if you can't find where you are parked. I don't know if Skoda Connect is needed to update the sat nav but Skoda don't give stuff away apart from an umbrella in the door and a free ice scraper in the petrol filler flap.

When I read the reviews to decide which car to buy the Skoda Fabia came out well ahead of the VW Polo and Seat Ibiza. This reminds me historically of BMC's failed badge engineering. Maybe if VW pooled the best talent from the various marks and marketed the cars under a single brand for each of the different sized cars it might help. The VW group may yet be forced into a shakeup just to survive.

When it starts raining I have to turn on the wipers. Unfortunately, fiddling around in menus when driving is "Simply dangerous" so the mantra "Simply clever" is in no way apt. I did wonder soon after getting the car if voice commands might transform the Fabia mc experience but can imagine the conversations that would ensue. "Sorry, I do not recognise that command." Just an impression but the Skoda group seem to lack the expertise to iron out the electronics and software issues. Some of the wilful behaviour displayed by my mc brings to mind Basil Fawlty lashing his BMC 1100 with a branch.

I don't think that the wipers are auto. The less that the Fabia mc does itself the less there is to go wrong. Mine has changed the virtual cockpit display all by itself twice this week. I spent ages trying to get the wing mirrors to fold in and out when parking but it doesn't have that option. I'd leave it alone. The rear camera and parking sensors are pretty good though.

There's quite a bit on this in various threads so this is just a follow up on tips given. I still think aero trims look smart but if you can't shift them easily that's not good. I bought a second hooked wheel trim removal tool from ebay for around £4. With each of them hooked into holes in the wheel trim close to the centre of the wheel and the wheel brace slotted in through the two finger loops the cover came free from the centre very easily. You can then detach the clips that fit onto the wheel near the tyre. Putting things back wasn't quite so easy. I unhooked the two wheel trim removal tools and fitted the outer edges of the trim in place, checked everything looked right and then gave the centre of the trim, where the logo is, a whack with my hand. No super strength in the fingers required.

Thanks for all the posted info about how to remove the wheel trims. I do prefer the look with trims though no one else seems to agree. It's odd that Skoda didn't put more thought into how they are fitted. I think I tried to pull on holes near the outside of the trims whereas the info and pictures posted show that the main fixing is at the centre. Not great to learn that putting them back is trickier than removing them. There's snow outside and it's freezing cold but I'll try again when the weather is more favourable.

nta I do read the posts in a thread but note that your experience relates to a 9 year old car not a mk4 . My first Skoda was from even longer ago than that being a Felicia which was the first version that had been adapted by VW after taking over Skoda. It was pretty good to drive but showed right at the start that VW group were not great with electronics. It had what was described as "Paper shop syndrome." That means that on driving on cold days it stalled at every stop made. It was said to be down to the engines electronic control unit which could not be adjusted and cost a lot of money to replace - with no guarantee that this would be any better. The competition for highly qualified designers in the area of electronics and software design is something that Skoda are not doing well with. Their cars remain "glitchy" despite being mechanically well engineered.

I'm not obsessive about cleaning anything on a car so, if we may, let's return briefly to getting those wheel trims off the Fabia mc. If I bought another of those hook tools (which has a ring for you to put your finger to pull on the hole in the trim face) and then put a tube through or a piece of dowel, would pulling straight with both hands at the same time rather than at the angle resulting from just one hook work. It would increase greatly the force exerted. Obviously, if you've binned the wheel trims you can't answer this question.

The cars are just glitchy. I remarked a few weeks ago to the wife that the start stop no longer seemed to be kicking in. It recently decided to start operating again. I did wonder if it was related to engine temperature but the weather is presently rather cold so it's not that. There has been no embarrassing situation yet where the engine has stopped then not responded to the controls leaving me holding everybody up.

Imagine that you are getting on and not built for heavy lifting. Any ideas for providing more leverage in the absence of a strong man who happens to be passing by - probably in the middle of nowhere? Obviously the operation needs to be done without risking damage to those neat looking trims.

I did post a question about removing the wheel trims some time ago. I liked the trim and thought maybe a couple of times a year I'd take them off before taking the car for a clean. At the first service a week ago they valeted my Fabia 4 mc. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask about the wheel trims but the car looked superb. After getting home I decided to stop putting this off and remove the wheel covers using the little hooked tool provided. My efforts were a total failure. Not one of the wheel trims will come off. I have the spare wheel kit but now realise that unless the RAC change the wheel I will not be able to do so myself. You need mega strength or a better tool. The trims have to come off before the wheel can be changed.

Be assured that the Fabia 4 is a good car to drive. Like you I'm behind the curve in terms of a familiarity with electronic aids on cars. My last car was over 20 years ago when I decided to go for something more reliable hence a new Skoda. I do like things to work properly. We felt we should be making use of all the aids to make driving easier and safe but this is not something to obsess over. The rear view camera and parking sensors are great and the automatic lights control is also useful. The automatic stop start engine can be a bit disconcerting but must help with mpg. The latter figures are impressive on a decent run but in urban heavy traffic trips the economy isn't much better than our old car. Stuff like lane assist and the ability to change the cockpit display seem a good idea but the former can be very disconcerting when it tugs at the wheel. In theory you can turn it off but it seems to reactivate. The cockpit display format for a long time kept changing itself which is very irritating. That seems to have settled down. The Park assist package is a nightmare. Our Monte Carlo version doesn't have built in sat nav so I use a Garmin SmartDrive 65. I wanted all sound to come over the car infotainment system but have given up on that. I turn off bluetooth in the car settings and use the Garmin's built in speaker. Linking an android phone works fine but in the case of the wife's iPhone I've given also given up the battle. We don't drive around listening to music or chat on the phone when driving so it's not really a big deal. Be aware though that if you are having such issues you have to have the engine running while battling the electronics. There's no old school ignition system and you should consider buying a faraday type pouch to keep the key fob in for better security against tech savvy thieves. The gearing is completely different to our previous cars but even with six forward gears you won't struggle as much as you might expect. We did worry about whether we should have gone for an automatic gearbox. In practice the manual Fabia 4 is very flexible and forgiving with the gear it will run in though I've managed to stall it a few times. Don't get too worked up by the issues you have getting to grips with the Fabia 4. It's very much a reflection of the failures by Skoda to perfect lots of shortcomings in the software. Just try to enjoy driving the car. One of the disappointments is that demisting the inside of the windscreen on cold days with high humidity is just as bad as on my previous car.

Modifications like this certainly increase the efficiency of speed humps.

"The way I understand it is that using a smartphone (not sat-nav unit) plugged into the front USB port displays the phone's screen (Google Maps) onto the Infotainment screen so brightness is not an issue. The phone can just sit anywhere since you do not look at the phone screen after you have used it to set up your route." Wiganken! It's great that you understand this because not everyone does. Please start a thread explaining how this works and how to set things up. The idea that we don't need to look at the screen for navigation is attractive but not realistic. Until we have a self driving Fabia or a heads up display as in a fighter jet we have to do the best we can without compromising safety. I'm the owner of a smart phone but try not to make my life revolve around it.

"having to plug the sat-nav's power-cable into the socket in the Fabia's central armrest compartment is a bit irritating. I agree. I am thinking that @offthewall method is better since USB connections are at the front under the air-con controls so a much shorter cable." Difficulties with mounting and using a Garmin large screen sat nav ruined my first months with the 1.0 mc which had no sat nav option when I ordered the car. Mounting it was more than difficult. First partial success was in mounting the unit on the air con flaps with a cable to one of the usb c sockets under the dash. The brightness of the screen seemed OK but it was winter. After the clocks changed and with bright daylight we couldn't see the sat nav screen. It turned out to be impossible to turn up the brightness because the power from the socket wasn't sufficient. Luckily I hadn't thrown away the cable that connects to a cigar lighter type socket. Inside the arm rest located between the two front seats the traditional socket has been included. This is necessary to provide the power needed to enable the Garmin screen brightness control to function fully.

I'd like to think you're right about that so thanks. In the first post (Headphones) there was this "I don’t know if there’s any connection but my infotainment system keeps crashing too. Won’t let me access the heating/cooling controls, unless I turn the engine off and back on again?" We had great difficulty getting to grips with various settings and it turned out that lots of changes required the engine to be running. This was a horrendous waste of fuel as you don't have the option to turn on/off the ignition. A lot of scope remains for improving the infotainment system. It's hard to understand why Skoda haven't tried things out with potential customers to get their feedback before rolling stuff out.

The warning has come up a fair number of times now (Mk 4) but there hasn't been any activation of the brakes. No idea why it has been happening but on a couple of occasions we were taking a sharp turn to the left with cars parked along the road. So long as the system doesn't slam the brakes on for no good reason we'll try to ignore this glitch.

It's reasonable to expect there to be well thought out videos and instructions on how to set things up. I found nothing useful. It's simply not clever to leave owners to grapple with these issues. Fabia owners tend still to be from the older generation who are less tech savvy than Skoda seem to believe when it comes to smart phones, apps and connectivity.

I was very keen to buy a new car with a good sized boot already equipped with a spare wheel. That was one reason for choosing the Fabia but isn't it better to have breakdown cover as well? If I do need help following a serious puncture calling in the aid of a breakdown service to do the heavy work will be my preference. What am I missing here? As far as disk brakes are concerned I've never had them front and rear. Rusty disks were an MOT issue every few years with previous cars and that was just with front ones. The Fabia stops very effectively without disks at the back.

I'd never heard of Waze but it looks interesting. We now have a workable solution though. Our Garmin DriveSmart 65 is very good but I had trouble finding a stable and easy solution for mounting it. The Fabia dash with its textured surface and slope is not helpful. Looking directly at a smart phone screen wouldn't be acceptable for us because they are small. I've never been a fan of smart phones. I like tech but was too slow to adopt one.