Hello all. Recently bought our first Skoda; Fabia 'Monte Carlo' 1.2TSI 'Corrado Red'. Brand new which we said we would never do again but dealership only 15mins walk away, received great customer service, part-ex. deal and discounts. 'Spec-ed' up with curtain airbags, ESP and parking sensors; wife insisting on latter! Have previously run Fiats for many years ,very pleased with them esp. last few years of 'Grande Punto Sporting' 1.9 turbo-diesels. Masses of 'lazy' overtaking grunt (torque), stunning 'drop-dead' Italian styling. Had 'quicker' cars way back to '124 Sports Coupes', 'Mirafiori Sports' oh, and a Mk1 'Capri' and a 2 litre 'Ascona'. Local Fiat dealer has been very good; long serving staff, large modern dealership. Was going to have one final fling with an 'Abarth' or a 'RenaultSport Clio' or as our Skoda salesman tried to steer us towards a 'VRS'. But NO; Rational thought and a sense of reality would for once decree that our heads would, no MUST, rule our hearts! As the somewhat 'hackneyed' trite saying goes: 'Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt', and after all we are mid-50somethings, get real!

So we essentially chose Skoda as part of our personal austerity package (that sounds bad! but you know what I mean?) due to the ongoing fiasco gripping the financial markets combined with our mildly advancing years and longer term provisos. We have redundancy/early partial retirement arriving at Xmas so must bear in mind all our practical and fiscal considerations. Skoda ownership simply offered the best practical, economical, most appealing and desirable alternative: VED, insurance, servicing, warranty package, performance etc.

Loved the way it drove on test runs, almost like a diesel! No Fiat could match our requirements, besides we hated the new look of the 'Punto Evo' despite a lovely almost luxury dash and its 'Tardis'-like interior. Looked at all the competition and kept coming back to Skoda as the best option for our personal criteria.

Initial impressions: Very quiet particularly so at town speeds, very practical, good ride despite ultra-low profiles. Not had a good long run yet, max 20 miles on three or four occasions, only 250 miles on the clock. Will run it on 'BP Ultimate' as annual milage will be quite low hence extra cost not a real problem.

Things I don't particularly like: Fabia as a whole is not a great 'looker' however, not that bad at all in this particular guise. Gear lever set rather low, long way down and I have ape-like arms too! Sparse dash/instruments with too small a digital display and no inner kms ring on speedo; flimsy inside door handles; ott styling for a car of most respectable but still modest performance. Needed to be toned down by about 33% especially since no conservative blue colour option available; For Britain's roads rather 'silly' ultra-low profile tyres are a short-sighted backwards 'practical step too far'; dash now looks dated and a little drab compared to most 2011 rivals. That's about it I think for now. Nothing serious so far, as said just 'Initial impressions'.

Things we like: Four doors again, whoopieee!; body hugging seats, 'lane-change' indicator; quality feel to interior; anthracite alloys with nice pattern and unlike many others, easy to clean; good storage 'nooks and crannies', large boot with useful side bins/hooks; nice gearbox action and above all even at this 'tight' early stage; great torque spread and 'driveability', simply so so very easy to drive. A delight.

Looking forward to exploring this site in greater detail. One final personal note: I am and have been since about eight or nine years old been involved in/followed motor sports; karting, open wheelers, sports and touring cars, bike racing, historics, rally, hillclimbs et'al. Find the current 'scene' with notable exceptions rather anodyne especially one make stuff. Yawn! Apologies for any typos or gobbledegook just rushed this off as an intro. as requested. Cheers!

Edited 29 October, 201114 yr by maltozo

Hi and welcome aboard.

welcome