Not on this car I'm afraid.

Cruise control requires a complete dashboard out job and isn't offered by Skoda any more as a retro-fit citing it as a factory only option.

You may possibly be able to find an independent who can do it but it won't be standard and won't be cheap either.

I ordered cruise on my car if only to serve as a licence retaining facility, especially when going through both GATSO and average speed cameras. Having an auto box also lures you into a false sense of security and you can end up going much quicker than you think you are. At least in a manual you know roughly what speed you're doing judging by the gear you've selected, much harder to gauge in an auto!

I might be wrong but I was under the impression that all modern VAG group cars have all the electronics and software required to facilitate cruise control (as all it really does is manuipulate the drive by wire throttle, doesnt brake the car at all) you just dont get the indicator stalk and its not coded. With the correct stalk fitted and a re-code you should be able to enable the functionality. 3rd parties have been doing this for MK5 Golfs for years. Appreciate main dealers probably wouldnt do it as its a hassle and retro-fitting options isnt something they specialise in doing.

I ordered mine 3 weeks ago, and i was lucky that the dealer ordered the exact car i wanted, so mine is going to be delivered week 5. Already manufactured. (Fabia Elegance 1,2 TSI 86hp)

Heres my opinion on it.

I am this close to ringing up Mr Dealer and saying - new Fabia VRS please! :yes:

So these extras... here are my thoughts, what are yours?

Rear parking sensors - hmm parallel parked for close to 10 years on a busy street with narrow gaps. But then not much rear view and sensitive reverse on the auto box. At £233, hmmm maybe. Is great when parking in parkinghouse (thats my usual place to park in, and its small)

Electric sunroof - cabin needs some light, bit dingy but with sunset rear glass maybe thats the point. Also potential for leakage and more electrics to have potential issue. Considerable extra build time? Nah Not needed, i haven't found any day at all that i NEED more light in the car, if i need it, its just to turn on a light?

Heated front seats - "Only" £137 but I don't really feel the cold. Nah Think its included in mine, and i've driven a car without it, and im FREEZING. I dont even think its possible to order one without heated in Sweden

Integrated headlight washers - But not Xenons? I'll just give 'em a wipe if dirty, just more electrics and use up washer fluid. Nah Got it included in all models.

Metallic Paint - Race Blue. Yes please! Race blue with white roof

Satnav - Integrated, touchscreen would look cool. Very useful. But then I do have a good detachable Garmin. Maybe I can navigate at all places, even places i've never been on.

Smoker's pack. No! Does car still have blanked off lighter socket though if this not specced? To power above Garmin! None smoker, only thing could be phone charger, and that outlet is there.

Storage Boxes. For £50 yes, useful. I'm not really sure what storageboxes, got one between the frontseats and one under passanger seat. Both included by standard

Third rear headrest. No, hate these and never have 5 in car! Cant find it useful, so no.

White roof. Yes! Race blue with white roof is really cool!

Climate control. More buttons to play with, but really any benefit over standard aircon?? Maybe Thoughts please. Got Climatic in standard, and with plus package i got Climatronic

Telephone ready wheel and bluetooth prep - No not a phone addict at all. Im not speaking that much to phone, and here is no law that you have to use handsfree (yet)

Curve projector lights - No, not convinced, especially at £230. Just another potential problem. Nope, got curve foglights (turns on when lower than 40km/h and im turning)

Floor mats - No, will keep my MK1 mats. Do they fit?! Or get nicer unofficial VRS ones. Got both plastic and fabric mats.

Front armrest - Don't do many lazy motorway miles. No yep, got it included

Gigaro - Black/white/dark chrome. Black and dark chrome unflattering in my opinion. Standard silver make wheels appear larger and better proportion. No Do want, but not right now, maybe later

Glasses storage - I need my glasses to drive! No! Think its included, perfect for our gatebadge, on the border to Denmark

Rear electric windows - Gotta keep something old school! No, not fussy, rarely anyone in back. Yep, its useful, because if you got someone in the backseat and you dont want them to open the windows you just shuts it off.

Think I'd rather pay out some extra on the exterior look I want than speccing up with toys, base price is a bit of a push financially as it is. But fantastic savings at the moment

I was toying with all white and some extra goodies, or more basic spec but blue/white. All white looks fabulously sharp and clean but says a bit "couldn't afford an Audi" and looks tatty once dirty. Blue + white roof and silver wheels as in the autotrader gallery looks awesome I think.

I have to say I think unless it comes as standard (like it does on the Elegance) the Climatronic full climate control system is a bit of a waste of time.

When deciding the options on our vRS, the wife and I had quite a heated conversation about Climate Control, she didnt want it and at the time I did. I felt it made the dashboard look a bit more attractive and having not been anywhere near a car with the standard manual system thought that it would just be a normal hot/cold system with an AC on/off button like it is on most cheap supermini's.

On our test drive the vRS had Climatronic, the sales guy had the temperature and fan jacked right up, wanted to turn it down and straight away found it a real pain to use. When changing the temperature and fan speed with the dials its all too easy to turn it up or down too much or not enough, found it a real distraction. Also the buttons for the different distribution settings are fiddly. Found it really distracting trying to adjust the settings to my liking whilst driving.

Afterwards drove a TSi SE with the manual system and transpired that it actually has Climatic (automatic temperature control but manual fan and distribution control) which wasnt what I expected. Sure its not quite as attractive to look at on the dash but its so much easier to use on the move I decided there and then I wouldnt be having Climatronic.

It's quite funny because the Climatronic system appears to be the same system VAG have been putting on their small cars for years, just looks slightly different. Wife had it in her old Ibiza and didnt much like it then either.

I think perhaps the only two other options I would have put on it (particularly if it were me that was driving it every day with the mileage I do) would have been cruise and the centre armrest, but given the wife will be driving it most of the time (and didnt want those options) and its not going to be doing much mileage I dont think they'll be missed very much.

I happen to think the vRS is extremely well equiped as standard, it even has a couple of things my Golf GT doesnt have (like XDS and hill hold), I do think that Skoda are a little bit tight making you pay for electric rear windows though. You get these on nearly every VW Polo, I think they should at least make them standard fit on the Elegance and vRS (like they do the Scout). I'm really against windy windows in new cars, does my head in when someone in the back opens a window, gets out then doesnt shut it and you eitehr have to pull over further up the road and shut it or put up with the buffetting, No such troubles with rear leccies.......you just disable them haha!

Janner SY, out of interest why the jump down from the Octavia? And how did the 1.4TSI compare to the 2.0? Is the Octavia noticeably quicker? What about ride and handling?

difficult to compare tbh.

My octavia was stage 2+ on WALK, coilovers, front and rear anti roll bars, uprated brakes, so was pretty impressive.

I certainly felt that the fabia was a little gutless. but so it would be considering the 100Hp difference and the track setup i was running. However id say standard fabia v standard octavia then it would be pretty equal. Consider the power to weight ratio of the cars

Octavia 197Hp and 1430kg (figures from carfolio) = 137Hp/ton

Fabia vRS 178Hp and 1313kg (figures from carfolio) = 135Hp/ton

Im thinking if i can get the fabia to 240Hp it'll be the same power toweight as a stage 2+ octavia

Handling wise id say standard v standard the fabia wins. The octavia is a big and heavy car.

Ive recently added new options to my order

i added climate control. Initially i wasnt bothered by it, but when i saw how rubbish it looks with the standard Air con unit, i had to change the order. It looks like a really bad afterthought.

Didnt want to order a black rood until id seen one, now i have, i like it so ive added it. Also i felt the need to add heated seats for those cold days

By changing your order does it delay it further ? Just wondered with all the long build times people are mentioning.

By changing your order does it delay it further ? Just wondered with all the long build times people are mentioning.

its not being built until april 4th so it'll be fine for me id think.

Okay, cool

Ive recently added new options to my order

i added climate control. Initially i wasnt bothered by it, but when i saw how rubbish it looks with the standard Air con unit, i had to change the order. It looks like a really bad afterthought.

Didnt want to order a black rood until id seen one, now i have, i like it so ive added it. Also i felt the need to add heated seats for those cold days

It does look better no doubt but functionally I think its a bit suspect (and a bit primative). Its the same system VAG have been putting in their Polo sized cars for ever.......after 3/4 years it tends to break as well......well it did in our 03 reg Ibiza and on my mates 03 reg Passat, once its seen plenty of use the fan control system goes mad and it needs new parts. My Golf has Climatic and if its good enough for that sure it will be more than adequate in a £14k Fabia. It's effectively semi-auto climate control, not really "manual air conditioning" as it specifies in the brochure. I just think It's a reasonable sum of money to spend on something that gives you no real benefits other than a slightly better looking dash, i'd save the money.

ive got the money burning a hole in my pocket mate :giggle: ive even sold the wifes car so at the moment were saving 2 cars worth of fuel per month, and 2 lot sof insurance payments. Plus i cant drive anywhere to spend money either

ive got the money burning a hole in my pocket mate :giggle: ive even sold the wifes car so at the moment were saving 2 cars worth of fuel per month, and 2 lot sof insurance payments. Plus i cant drive anywhere to spend money either

Fair shout mate, heres to a better looking dash!

By changing your order does it delay it further ? Just wondered with all the long build times people are mentioning.

I added "bad road package" after 4 months on my order.. no change to me. (still build week 9)

By changing your order does it delay it further ? Just wondered with all the long build times people are mentioning.

I got mine to be built pretty fast, but now im waiting for it to be shipped from the factory to sweden, seems to be a little problem to send them right now because they dont have enough of transportation ways.

Mine got fixed last thirsday but havnt arrived yet.

Greetings,

Peter

Fabia vRS 178Hp and 1313kg (figures from carfolio) = 135Hp/ton

According to the brochure I picked up the Fabia vRS weight 1243Kg = 143bHP / ton

Close I know but it edges the Fabia out in front

I am looking to change my job, currently have an Octavia 1.8TSi as a company car, and looking to jump into a Fabia vRS if / when I get the job (having had a 'smokey' vRS and an extended test drive in the new one I think its the best out of the bunch of hot hatches), however I will be after one in the space of ~4 weeks, so will need a stock car from somewhere. Here's hoping the dealers are ordering some nicely spec'd cars!

Personally I think the climatronic does look a lot better in the dash, and would be after that. I use the cruise a lot at the mo, even in 30 limits, so that is a must have (saves on the speeding fines). Apart from that I'm hoping to be fairly easy.

Just for the sake of completeness I am having a test drive in a Renaultsport Clio tomorrow, but its a cup so I think it will be too hard, and the running costs are astronomical compared to the vRS!

According to the brochure I picked up the Fabia vRS weight 1243Kg = 143bHP / ton

Close I know but it edges the Fabia out in front

But that doesn't take into account that the octavia makes that power for nearly all of its rev range, instead of just peaking. also the octavia makes more torque for pretty much all of the rev range, so the octavia IMO would be the quicker car

Im with you on the cruise control, i use it alot. Id have preferred the |Clio cup for what i use my car for, but for when the wifes driving it, its just to hard and to expensive to ruin in comparison for only a small benefit

I think it would be pretty close. The Fabia develops peak torque from 2-4500 RPM (thanks to the supercharger) so is also pretty flat on the torque curve (250NM). And lets face it, more BHP it only a couple of clicks away...

Then I think the Fabia would run rings around a standard Octy's handling...

I think it would be pretty close. The Fabia develops peak torque from 2-4500 RPM (thanks to the supercharger) so is also pretty flat on the torque curve (250NM). And lets face it, more BHP it only a couple of clicks away...

Then I think the Fabia would run rings around a standard Octy's handling...

its not everything though. Standard Octavia on JKM's rollers whihch are renowned for being accurate and./or lower than pretty much everywhere else

Now that's a flat torque curve. i think they will be similar. I think over 100Hp the octavia would start to pull away, its geared higher and has more power. But with the DSG and lightness i think the fabia would edge it just. For me i wasnt overly iimpressed with the fabias grunt. it was nippy but not quick.