DerekU

When I spoke to a local Skoda dealer about ordering a 2024 UK-specification Fabia and asked about the likely delivery lead-time for a factory order, I was told perhaps two months but that would depend on what options the buyer specified. It was also believed that, by the time factory-ordered Fabias arrived in the UK, their list-price would have increased. (There is a French website that provides delivery lead-times and, for a 2024-spec Fabia, 6 to 7 months is stated.)

For people considering ordering a new Fabia , this recent forum thread may be of interest https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/523013-fabia-specs-revised-april-2024/

My initial post dealt with fully-lowering the large 'glove box' on the Fabia's passenger side, not the small storage department on the driver's side. Soon after I bought my Fabia I checked where the fuse-boxes were. I could see the one in the cab to the rear of the small storage compartment on the driver's side, but I did not bother to confirm how straightforward it would be to access that fuse-box. When it became apparent from this forum thread (and from other UK on-line comments) that there could be difficulty removing the small storage compartment, I thought I had better experiment. The relevant information in the hard-copy Owner's manual for my 2023-built Fabia differs from the "Access to the fuses" image you provided in your first posting above. This is the image in my cars paper manual and in the relevant on-line Owner's manual. You'll see that no mention is made of a 'tray' and the instruction to "Press the locking button and open the fuse box" is potentially confusing. It's perhaps worth observing that the equivalent image in the very latest English-language on-line Owner's manual is unambiguous and more detailed but, despite following those instructions to the letter, I was still unable to remove the storage 'box' easily by pulling it towards me. The "Accessing the fuses" images in the Manuals clearly relate to left-hand-drive Fabias and I did wonder if difficulty removing the small storage compartment was peculiar to right-hand-drive Fabia MkIV cars. A cursory search of French and German Skoda-related forums found no similar complaints, which might be significant or just mean that French/German Skoda owners are less concerned about using brute force.

I notice that, on this BRISKODA sub-forum, there were a couple of earlier discussions about fitting a dash-cam to a Fabia Mk IV https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/507227-removal-of-tray-to-get-at-fuses/ https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/514511-fitting-netbase-322gw/ I believe the current Skoda Kamiq has the same fuse-box/electrics arrangement as the current Fabia, so this June 2023 thread on the BRISKODA Kamiq forum may also be of interest https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/514251-dashcam-electrical-supply-fuses/ Access-to-the-fuses instructions are indeed in the Fabia Mk IV manuals (and are as copied into nta16's posting above). Although the guidance seems simple enough to follow, it's clear from on-line comments that the advice "Pull the tray out by pulling it towards you" presents difficulty. Matt116 said above "... you just need to pull a bit down and toward yourself, you feel like it's gonna break and then it's gonna pop off". As it's impossible to see what holds the little storage compartment VERY firmly in place, it's not possible to decide exactly what angle the compartment should be at and what the 'pull angle' should be so that the compartment can be extracted with the minimum of force. As far as I'm aware there are no on-line videos showing the removal procedure, nor any photos to provide a clue as to how the storage compartment is retained. My attempts to removal the storage compartment from my Fabia failed dismally. If I HAD to reach the fuse-box, I'd be prepared to wrench the storage compartment out using whatever brute force proved necessary, but for now I'm not going to experiment further.

My car is a UK-specification right-hand-drive October 2023-built Fabia SE L DSG. Should anyone wish to fully lower the glove-box unit on the PASSENGER side (to, say, replace the cabin pollen filter) this is what's involved. This photo shows the glove-box unit fully lowered. A and B are 'buttons' that need to be pressed upwards while the top of the glove-box is pulled forwards. The buttons are shown in more detail here The glove-box will then drop halfway done, but will still be supported by a peculiar turret/strut mechanism identified as C in the first photo above and shown in more detail here. Pulling the top edge of the glove-box unit further downwards (No need to pull hard!) will cause the strut to release from the turret (as shown in the photo). The turret is rotatable with a small plastic cog inside. When returning the glove-box unit to its original position, the turret must be in the correct position for the top of the strut to enter an aperture in the turret through which the strut slides. Once the top of the strut is in that aperture, gently lifting the top edge of the glove-box unit upwards will allow the strut and cog to mesh and the strut to click in place. Next lift up the top edge of the glove-box unit so that the plastic 'tabs' on each top corner of the unit come in contact with buttons A and B. Depress the buttons to allow the tabs to pass behind them and the glove-box can now be fully closed.

I'm not sure how 'new' that information is, as it was certainly available on the Skoda website when I bought my October-2023-built Fabia several weeks ago. Browsing the "Build your own Skoda" configuration website https://cc.skoda-auto.com/gbr/en-GB/ will show the four 2024 Fabia 'trims' (SE Comfort, Colour Edition, SE L and Monte Carlo) and - having chosen one of the four trims - selecting "Summary" at the foot of the list on the right will allow full details of that trim's standard equipment to be displayed. Any optional equipment that was selected can also be displayed. For amusement I 'configured' a Monte Carlo with the 1.5litre motor and 24 options that ended up with an OTR price of £34,792.

This link is to the relevant part of the Croation Skoda Fabia configurator https://konfigurator.skoda.hr/cc-hr/hr_HR_SKODA23/C/design/280/PJ37J424/2Y2Y/NV/@/@/exterior?variant=Mnt. Carlo&modelgroupCategory=Hatchback&fuel=Benzin&gear=Manualni mjenjač Ciick on the green "i" symbol and then use the following options under each tyre shown to provide additional details. My October 2023-built Fabia SE L has 16"-diameter wheels with the GOODYEAR EfficientGrip tyre.

There are many 3D-printable models of cup-holder inserts (examples here) https://www.yeggi.com/q/cup+holder+insert/ but you'd need to check what would meet your particular requirements. If you can identify an existing model, your contact who has a 3D printer should be able to produce it in a suitable material. (A GOOGLE-search on 3D printable cup holder inserts will retrieve lots more stuff.)

This is the tyre-pressure sticker on the door-pillar of my 2023-bult Fabia Mk 4 SE L DSG. As will be seen, whatever the wheel-diameter, the recommended pressure for the front and rear tyres is 2.5bar (36psi) when the car has 3 occupants and some luggage or - when the car has 5 occupants and a lot of luggage - 2.7bar (39psi) for the front tyres and 3.4bar (49psi) for the rear tyres. The Skoda website indicates that - for current Fabia Mk 4 cars - the 'basic' SE Comfort model has, as standard, 15"-diameter Rotare silver alloy wheels with 185/65 R15 88H tyres that can be made either by Goodyear or Continental. The 88H Load Index/Speed Rating indicates a maximum individual tyre-loading of 560kg and a maximum speed of 130mph. This Michelin webpage may be useful. https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/advice/tyre-basics/tyre-load-rating-speed-rating Reducing the pressure from 36psi to 32psi (2.2bar) should result in a mildly softer ride, but - unless using the recommended 2.5bar/36psi produces an uncomfortably harsh ride quality - there's no compelling reason to do this and it should be anticipated that fuel-economy will suffer (slightly).

The little spring thingie https://shop.wingsskoda.co.uk/products/skoda-removal-tool-for-original-caps-1 in the tool kit is multi-purpose (there's one in my 2009 Roomster's kit) and - although it's adequate for removing the Fabia's Aero wheel trims - it's nowhere near as effective as my pair of DIY 'pullers' that retain the trim after it has been pulled off. This mid-2023 forum thread discussed the Aero trims in some depth https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/514305-aero-wheel-trims/ (It's stating the obvious, but the trims are not universal and their size must match the diameter of a Fabia's Proxima alloy wheels.)

Thanks, but knowing which type of battery my Fabia has (Breezy_Pete has confirmed it's EFB) will do.

My October 2023-built Fabia was bought from a Skoda dealership's showroom and came with the standard 12V inflator and container of sealant. If I had ordered the car myself, I would have specified that the optional spare-wheel package be included. There APPEAR to be two spare-wheel options (both costing £150 when ordered for a new car). 1: A steel spare wheel (for 15" wheels) with tool kit and jack and an original equipment tyre. 2: An emergency space-saving spare wheel (for 16"-18" wheels) with tool kit and jack and a space-saving spare wheel. I asked the dealership to obtain the optional spare wheel 'kit' for my Fabia SE L (that has 16"-diameter alloy wheels) and the 1st type (for £200) was provided. My car has Goodyear 195/55 R16 91V tyres, whereas the 15"-diameter steel spare wheel carries a Nexen 185/65 R15 88H tyre. Obviously neither that steel wheel nor its Nexen tyre match the alloy wheels and Goodyear tyres fitted to the car's other four wheels, but the rolling circumference of 195/55 Ri6 and 185/65 R15 tyres is near as dammit the same. So - if I have to bring the spare wheel into play - the car's handling should not be much affected and the distance and speed limitations that bedevil space-saver tyres won't apply. As the rolling circumference of the 17"-diameter and 18"-diameter wheels fitted to some Fabias (as standard or optionally) is greater than that of the 15" and 16" wheels, It's possible that a wheel fitted with a 215/45 R17 or 215/40 R18 tyre would not fit in the spare-wheel well, which might explain why there are two spare wheel options. Anyway, as far as the sealant/inflator is concerned, I initially considered removing the purpose-designed polystyrene 'box' in which the jack and tools are tidily stored and put the jack, tools, sealant and inflator into a bag and store the lot inside the spare wheel. This offended my OCD though and, as i was going to carry other stuff (torque wrench, sockets, fire extinguisher, Glock 30, etc.) in a couple of bags to be kept in the boot, I just added the sealant and inflator. I've also DIYed a couple of 'pullers' to remove the Aero wheel trims more easily. (Unusual that all current Fabia models (including the quite-quick Monte Carlo) are said to have rear drum brakes. Probably doesn't matter much I suppose as the front brakes do all the work and there's a sporting chance the handbrake will be more effective.)

These links may be helpful https://www.rbbattery.com/efb-vs-agm-batteries-whats-the-difference/#:~:text=Even in low-voltage situations,were using an AGM battery. https://www.interstatebatteries.com/blog/how-to-charge-an-agm-battery#:~:text=What's an AGM battery charger,less than 14-15 volts. The charging differences began to be highlighted where motohome deep-cycle 'leisure' batteries (rather than starter batteries) were concerned, when motorhome manufacturers were switching from deep-cycle gel batteries to AGM batteries but retaining the same battery chargers. The problem was that, although most of the battery chargers used had a 'gel' setting and that setting could be used to charge other battery types, none at that stage had a dedicated AGM setting, with the result that the AGM batteries were unable to attain their 100%-full state of charge. Eventually chargers gained a specific AGM setting, but, by then, many motorhome owners had become wary of AGM technology. Advice is that - if a vehicle starts life with an 'ordinary' wet-acid starter-battery - there should be no problems replacing that battery with an EFB equivalent. But, - if a the vehicle starts life with an AGM starter-battery - only an AGM battery should be fitted as a replacement. However, it's to be expected (hoped) that any vehicle that has as OE an AGM starter-battery, will also have been provided with suitable electrical equipment to charge it properly. (Thanks for the offering to check which battery my Fabia has. I'll Message you with the VIN later.)

I recently bought a new Fabia SE L DSG (built in October 2023). Rough measurements suggest that its starter-battery is 063 size (Length/Width/Height in mm of 207x175x190) and the battery-tray's fixing points indicate that two different-size longer batteries could be fitted. My car's battery has no visible markings to indicate its manufacturer or its type (traditional wet-acid, EFB or AGM) or its capacity (though I'd guess at around 50Ah for a 063 size) and I'm reluctant to start removing stuff above the battery's top surface or to completely remove the battery in the hope that my idle curiosity would be satisfied. My car, unsurprisingly, has Stop/Start (S/S) - that I turn off each time I start the vehicle together with the loathsome lane-keeping assist feature - and, although 'received wisdom' is that cars with S/S should/must have an EFB or AGM starter-battery, that's definitely not always the case. My previous car was a 2021 Hyundai i20 mild-hybrid with a small lithium battery in its spare-wheel well and a dinky little 40Ah wet-acid starter-battery and, before anyone says "That's because it was a hybrid", the Hyundai i20N hot-hatch non-hybrid and with S/S has an ordinary 60Ah wet-acid starter-battery. I'd guess from on-line comments that my car's battery is EFB type as - unlike AGM batteries - the optimum charging regimen for EFB is the same as for a wet-acid battery's (and EFB tends to be cheaper than AGM) but I'd be interested if anyone KNOWS if that's the case (and perhaps who the OEM manufacturer is too). Obviously I could ask the technicians at the Skoda dealership I got the car from, but - as the Australians are fond of saying - that would be "Too Easy!"