SWMBO is coming round to the idea of gettins a Fabia hatch to replace her ageing Yaris. only must haves on her part are air con of some kind and CD player (shows how old and basic her Yaris is). Nice to have is Cruise control.

Thinking about either 1.2 Tsi petrol or 1.6CR diesel (car will do about 10k miles a year)

Question is should I go for SE and spec with Cruise, or go straight for Elegance- looks like of bought on Skoda Finance there wont be a huge difference in repayments

SWMBO is coming round to the idea of gettins a Fabia hatch to replace her ageing Yaris. only must haves on her part are air con of some kind and CD player (shows how old and basic her Yaris is). Nice to have is Cruise control.

Thinking about either 1.2 Tsi petrol or 1.6CR diesel (car will do about 10k miles a year)

Question is should I go for SE and spec with Cruise, or go straight for Elegance- looks like of bought on Skoda Finance there wont be a huge difference in repayments

If you're not too bothered about toys the SE will be fine as it has most of the essentials like 8 speaker MP3 CD stereo and AC. Will no doubt be better equipped than the Yaris. Elegance is of course better but its whether you want to spend the extra money; it does however come with Cruise and some other nice things as standard.

Personally I'd have either an 86 or 105ps TSi but engine choice is whatever floats your boat. Recommend the wife drives both a TSi and CR and sees which she prefers.

Edited 16 March, 201115 yr by pipsyp

My missus bought an 86bhp 1.2 TSI SE recently... it's got everything we wanted (elec front windows, cd/mp3 player, 3.5mm aux socket, air-con, remote central locking and reasonable looking alloys). We've only done about 150 miles so far, but it's a nippy little thing, it just wants to go, although I'm holding back until it's got a few more miles under it's belt.

I'd definitely recommend the 86bhp engine!

As has been said it's what you like.

If you want a diesel then I would also consider the Greenline 2 plus the type of trips she will be doing. The more town driving she does the less the need for the more powerful engine.

The diesels could need the odd long run to keep the DPF in good condition.

Cruise control is only £175 so se + cruise is a lot cheaper then elegrance unless you was going to spec a few extras

how refine is the 3 cylinder tsi engine compare to a 4 pot diesel? i cant really decide between the 2 as price is about the same but i can have dsg on tsi,

When the missus was looking to get her Fabia, the dealer gave us a 12v SE to try as they didn't have a TSI in stock... It almost cost them the sale! We found it to be noisy and sluggish, it sounded like a diesel...!

After the test drive they were quick to get a TSI in stock and I had to convince the missis to try it so that she could appreciate to difference. Even I was impressed with the difference in refinement! Needless to say she was happy to proceed with the order after that test drive and her car arrived within a month with about 150 miles on the clock she's currently getting about 37mpg which is all town driving. We're happy with this so far as it should creep up as the engines loosens up a bit.

MonteCarlo?

Not sure about the current 'SE'Spec as I have the Level 2 HTP (It's rubbish by the way that the 1.2 12v is in anyway sluggish or diesel sounding) The level 1 entry model does not have alloys or closing glove boxes and that makes the 2 and 3 models more desirable for me.If the newer models are specced in the same way I would want to avoid the entry level car.

My wifes SE has a good spec, the only extra was metallic paint, but it has air con, mp3 player, aux in, elec windows in fron, alloys, glove boxes are covered etc.

But, That new Monte Carlo does look nice for the money......

It's rubbish by the way that the 1.2 12v is in anyway sluggish or diesel sounding

...just my (and the missus') experience

MonteCarlo?

http://skoda.co.uk/GBR/newcars/fabia/monte-carlo/Pages/default.aspx

Cruise control is only £175 so se + cruise is a lot cheaper then elegrance unless you was going to spec a few extras

how refine is the 3 cylinder tsi engine compare to a 4 pot diesel? i cant really decide between the 2 as price is about the same but i can have dsg on tsi,

TSI's are 4 cylinder, the HTP's are 3 cylinder.

They are quieter than the HTP's and the diesels, though the new CR diesels are also impressively quiet.

I have had my TSI since June and it's great.

SWMBO is coming round to the idea of gettins a Fabia hatch to replace her ageing Yaris. only must haves on her part are air con of some kind and CD player (shows how old and basic her Yaris is). Nice to have is Cruise control.

Thinking about either 1.2 Tsi petrol or 1.6CR diesel (car will do about 10k miles a year)

Question is should I go for SE and spec with Cruise, or go straight for Elegance- looks like of bought on Skoda Finance there wont be a huge difference in repayments

Only you can look at specs and decide if Elegance with Climate Control, 16" alloys (and more expensive to replace) low profile tyres, Maxidot display etc is worth the extra money over SE + cruise option. If she is happy with SE save the money, a few pounds a month adds up over the finance term.

The same applies to driving petrol or diesel so test drive both if you can.

85bhp petrol is significantly cheaper than 105bhp while 105bhp diesel is not much more than 90bhp but 75bhp distinctly cheaper so depends on the normal journeys and how you drive which is right. Given she is wanting cruise I guess longer higher speed journeys so 105ps will be one.

The Diesel currently has £20/year road tax rather than £90/year for petrol but costs around £800 more.

How long are you likely to keep the car?

Also who knows where fuel prices and difference per litre between petrol and diesel will be in a few years but working on the current percentage difference and driving around 10000 miles a year if you will only keep 3-4 years overall petrol likely to work out cheaper while if keeping 10 years diesel should overall be the cheaper option.

If you go for petrol don't rule out the DSG as no fuel consumption penalty but expect a 20+ week wait for build.