Hi chaps, looking for a car to get me through the next few months, and to be owned long-term by the missus.

What something for short motorway hops, London to Brighton (Sometimes with a full car) and driving around town, lots of road humps etc

I want to spend about 7k (ideally) and upto 2 yrs old, I am pretty sure I want the 3 trim.... Looking at the 85bhp 1.4 petrol.

What do people think about it compared to the 1.4 diesel, and the 1.9. Also is the 1.6 petrol any good (think about automatic here).

Cheers Peter

Edited 3 July, 201015 yr by peter123

Hi Peter and welcome,

You won't go wrong with any of the Skoda's, petrol or diesel. Try to test drive the different models you are interested in. See which one you like. I bought the 1.4TDI PD 80bhp diesel estate fabia level 2 trim. It has more torque than VW's own 2.0ltr petrol engine (the one with 115bhp) so it goes really well. I think you may find you won't need the 1.9TDI. The economy is brilliant and I get over 70mpg on a long run. The PD engines are bullet proof and will cover huge mileages between spannering. Hydaulic tappets too so no worries there. But as I say, see which one you prefer. Some don't like the noise of the PD engines at tickover, but they are much quieter once they have a few miles on the clock and the noise is not very different to most petrol engines when driving above 20mph. Good luck and let us know what you decide on and why.

Some don't like the noise of the PD engines at tickover, but they are much quieter once they have a few miles on the clock and the noise is not very different to most petrol engines when driving above 20mph.

That is a matter of opinion. I had an almost new Fabia 3 1.4 PD as a courtesy car yesterday. It reminded me again that I couldnt put up with driving a tractor.

My view on the 1.4 PD....

Noise.... Bad!

Acceleration..... quite good

Economy.... A little disappointing but obviously better than petrol.

Having said that, I know for a fact that noise varies greatly on all Fabias, depending on what day of the week it was built, so TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.