How do they compare for ride quality and noise levels?

dunno the fabia on good roads i have found to be almost silent bad tarmac its a bit loud really

Roads which arent tarmac and the Fabia vRS is very loud IMO, seems to be a VW thing cos the Ibiza has awful road noise. On good surfaces it's literally silent.

Might be down to the stiffer suspension though.

good roads, fine, irish back roads its actually quite good too, no noiser than my previous Impreza, the only difference is that rear beam on the Octy vrs isnt as compliant as the independent setup on the impreza... one thing though is "rebound" Im not too sure exaclty what the root casue is but ive found alot of VAG cars (not just the octy) to have poor wheel control over poor surfaces, like the wheels are too heavy which id relate to rebound?!?! something I hope will improve with uprated dampers...

After 20 months driving my Octy vRS and test drives in about 3 Fabia vRS..

I have to say the Fabia vRS is more compliant than the Octy.. It is also

quieter, both in terms of tyre and WIND noise!!

ta

Dazz