We are looking for a new car as we seem to be paying lots of money each month keeping our oldies on the road. We live in rural France where a 'newish' car is under 8 years old. There is very few Skodas here and they are offering good deals at the moment (similar to the UK scrapage scheme) and I think they want to push their precence here. Just a few questions -

my wife will use this on country roads to get the children to school, petrol price is similar to the diesel, is it worth paying extra for the diesel? When we go to the garage is there anything we need to ask - problems about the earlier models that may have been fixed?

We just want a good reliable car and this one is top of our list.

Bonne soir

Noel

My wife's just replaced her Corsa CDTI diesel with a Fabia 1.2 TSI 85. Fantastic little motor and much better than the Vauxall. The engine is very diesel like to drive but whisper quite; just hear a pleasant growl when you accelerate with any gusto.

If your not doing high miles then a TSI would be my recommendation.

Regards,

TP

Hi hello,well thing is it depends on your driving,how many miles do you do? country roads the fabia would be ideal but if you do less than 10 thousand miles well the petrol would be better for you,however I like the diesel so I will be getting mine in about 20 weeks,have a test drive in both the engines,also give the greeline a go that would be cheap to run.

Pankergan, welcome to the site.

The Skoda's are a very tough and very very reliable brand compared to many other european makes of car. You certainly won't go wrong I feel sure if you buy one. I'm not sure how big you want to go but the fact you are in the Fabia section means you probably want one of those.

The petrol 1.2TSI in either form (85 or 105bhp) are good, but my favourites are the diesels. They are superb whichever one you go for. Don't get me wrong the petrol TSI is great but there are already indications from within the trade that they don't run well on some of our petrol over here, and this situation is going to get worse as the petrol fuel changes slowly over the coming next 5 years. In France I believe you will be getting the newer petrol fuels before us and this may not be good for anyone with the TSI, but it's still too early to be sure how it will go. Regarding diesel, this won't change much except for the bio element wihich will increase to 15% in the next 5 years here in the UK, and all existing diesel engines in the Skoda range can cope with that without any further alterations. When pure bio get here, the diesel engines actually will run better on bio fuel...giving more mpg and more power, with lower emissions and with the engine lasting even longer. The AA and RAC tests conducted on commercial vehicles have proven this will be the case. That's in direct contrast to what happens to petrol engines on the newer bio fuels that will be coming...ie: less power, less mpg and shorter engine life due to increased engine temps. Note: some older diesels 10 years or older may produce slightly less power and therefore less mpg but it will only be those that don't have ecu controlled fuel injection. All the PD and CR engines are ok. Blended bio diesel does reduce power and fuel consumption by 1-2% and has been shown to be not significant.

So decide on the car itself that you want...ie: Fabia, Octavia etc etc and then choose the engine type petrol or diesel. I'd personally go for diesel as these engines will run for ever without being affected by any forthcoming fuel changes.

Good luck and let us all know what you decide.

Edited 7 October, 201015 yr by Estate Man

I also recommend the Fabia TSI 85, we have had ours a couple of months now and love it to bits.

Hi, I am Noel's wife and this will be my car. I have spent hours looking on the internet for a new car (made a boo boo with a 307 a few years back). The Fabia seems to be heads above all the other cars that I have looked or test drived - Chevrolet Sparky- or something - was no better than my 20 yr old AX.

My dad is over this weekend and loves Skodas so I am looking forward to taking him with us for the appointment we have on Saturday morning at the local dealership.

Thank's for all the advice, think I will pay a bit more for the diesel.

Take care - Allie

I have the tsi85 and recently moved from the skoda fabia vrs (1.9tdi) and the performance isnt a million miles away. If you dont do a lot of miles id seriously save the money and go for the tsi 85 or 105.

Hi, I am Noel's wife and this will be my car. I have spent hours looking on the internet for a new car (made a boo boo with a 307 a few years back). The Fabia seems to be heads above all the other cars that I have looked or test drived - Chevrolet Sparky- or something - was no better than my 20 yr old AX.

My dad is over this weekend and loves Skodas so I am looking forward to taking him with us for the appointment we have on Saturday morning at the local dealership.

Thank's for all the advice, think I will pay a bit more for the diesel.

Take care - Allie

Hi Allie i must say my nice little Fabia is a real sweetie to handle (you wont get the guys saying that). I had mine from new in February and had a few teething problems but I have no plans to get rid of it. Mine is a petrol but I am likely to go over to the diesel side when I get another simply because I do loads of miles for work. I suggest a fabia and it is as economical as can be expected, althougth when brand new it was a bit sluggish and a bit thirsty

I havent tried it in snow yet.

Julie

Hi, I am Noel's wife and this will be my car. I have spent hours looking on the internet for a new car (made a boo boo with a 307 a few years back). The Fabia seems to be heads above all the other cars that I have looked or test drived - Chevrolet Sparky- or something - was no better than my 20 yr old AX.

My dad is over this weekend and loves Skodas so I am looking forward to taking him with us for the appointment we have on Saturday morning at the local dealership.

Thank's for all the advice, think I will pay a bit more for the diesel.

Take care - Allie

I am new to Skoda and am driving a 5 day old Greenline II. If you are not interested in blasting down the roads, then I would say consider the Greenline II.

I am new to Skoda and am driving a 5 day old Greenline II. If you are not interested in blasting down the roads, then I would say consider the Greenline II.

Dempsek, I think you will find that once run in, you will be able to blast it down the motorways too!! By all accounts it's a very willing engine with plenty of power when it's freed up a bit. Please keep us all informed as to how she goes though.

Edited 8 October, 201015 yr by Estate Man

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. We went to the dealership today and I finally got to drive a Fabia. It looks really stylish and the drive was excellent. The only 'but' was my husband and dad (who is over here house-hunting) thought that the Roomster would be far more practicle for us. In the end I had to agree as we are trading in our van on the scrapage scheme and the space offered is excellent. We have many friends and relatives visiting so we are often collecting them from the airport laden with luggage.

So to all you lucky Fabia owners I think I need to move to another forum. I must say that I am really looking forward to being a Skoda owner.

Bon soir

Allie

Good luck....you will not be disappointed!