I have just had a 1.4TDi/80 Sport for the day while our Octavia Scout 2.0TDi has been in for service. Opportune as I am strongly considering a Fabia Estate with one of the TDi engines. My thoughts are as follows:

Interior: Absolutely fine, indeed quite good quality for the price point of the car. Sports seats are superb and I would really like them in a Fabia if/when I buy one. Sound quality of the Stream Radio is very decent - more than acceptable! I don't really like the dual gloveboxes - they look a bit clumsy and one big one would IMHO be much more useful. But generally the interior is a strength of the car. The boot is a very good size, and that in the estate is superb for the class of car. Two minor criticisms here are firstly that it would be much better if the boot floor was flush all the way from the boot lip to the backs of the front seats when the rear seats are folded down - other cars have a false floor which achieves this and provides a good hiding place into the bargain. I would love to see the Fabia incorporate something like this. Secondly I don't like the way you have to fiddle around with the headrests to fold the seats (although I could put up with this) and that you can see all the padding etc under the seat squabs when they are folded.

Handling: Certainly doesn't live up to the Sport tag! As everyone knows, the suspension is unchanged in the "Sport" from any other Fabia hatch with the same engine. The main problem in my view is that it's underdamped - I don't think there's such a big problem with the springs. It rolls a bit too much but it's the bounce that gets me! I think it would be much better with firmer dampers, although probably better still if there was a properly engineered sport suspension kit which could include firmer damping, slightly lower ride height (maybe by 20mm) and possibly, if needed, firmer anti-roll bar(s). The ironic thing is that I don't want to be able to drive the car quickly, I just like a car that is more precise to drive than the current suspension delivers. The Octavia Scout is a great balance for me - it's firm but not too firm, and stays pretty flat through corners. the Fabia in its current form feels like a car from a different company.

Engine: Very flat below about 1800rpm, from where it picks up pretty well. If you keep the revs up it goes well, but then economy would really suffer (see below for more on this). So you have to nurse it at low revs until they build into the power band. As an example, you pretty much can't drive in a 30mph zone in fifth - the engine just can't cope with it. So you do need to change gear quite a lot just to make normal progress.

Economy: Here's the biggest disappointment of all. How come a car which by the figures is two-thirds the weight of the Octavia Scout and has an engine that is just over half as powerful delivers pretty much the same (maybe even slightly worse) fuel consumption? There's something very weird about this. As an example there is a cross-country route that I travel on pretty regularly where I can get around 55mpg in the Octavia, but doing it today in the Fabia, driving in exactly the same way, I only got 51.5mpg. I know the trip computer in the Octavia isn't that far out because I have tested it by brim-to-brimming it. The only explanation I can come up with is that the CD of the Fabia isn't as good, so maybe it's because the drag is more? I would have hoped that the smaller frontal area of the Fabia would have compensated enough, but maybe not. Obviously the lower weight and the smaller engine doesn't account for anything. The conclusion I have come to is that I would be better off getting the 1.9 engine - maybe it's just that the 1.4/80 is not very well set up by Skoda and the lack of low-down torque is compromising it. Any other ideas from others?

CONCLUSION: I rate the body of the Fabia for convenience, looks and comfort, but I am rather disappointed with the entirety of the car. It feels to me like it could do with a bit more development time to sort out the areas that disappoint. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Mk 2 tweaked version incorporating some of the above changes, and in particular the new range of engines which we've heard about. The 1.6 common rail diesel which gives in the region of 100bhp would probably be great, and hopefully much more economical! Finally, why can't you have the Sports seats as an option in whichever model you want? I don't think the Sport model is very good value as it stands, and the model I would like to be able to buy (based on the current engines) is a 1.9TDi estate 3 with sports seats and firmer suspension. That would probably be close enough to my ideal Fabia that I could put up with the other shortcomings!

Interesting to hear other views...

A nice revue,

Re the economy I have done a similar sort of test with the mk1 between a 1.2htp and swmbo 2.0i.

Over a 10mile mixed course includeing a 5mile country blast section. The 2.0 was about .5mpg better.

Another re:

It used to be on the Mk1 Fabia that the underside of the rear seats had plastic covers, but they were fitted by the dealers not the factory, and consequently often binned / pinched for other cars. As a result, my wife's car has them but mine doesn't (not that I'm going to lose any sleep over it... )

My Fabia2 Tdi 80 is just starting to loosen up a bit and I am very happy with the fuel consumption of approx 58mpg.

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