Hi all,

I'm looking at purchasing a new Skoda Fabia. I've never purchased a new car before so could use some advice. I've been driving the same tired old Ford Escort for nearly 6 years now and it's finally given up the ghost. That's left me in the need for another car as soon as possible and I'm considering going new. I'm after something smaller, and in contrast to my previous car, something a bit speedy, but at the same time economic to run. My current preferred car is the Fabia, and I've got a few test drives booked in this coming weekend.

Now, the edition I really like the look of is the Fabia Monte Carlo, I've tried to narrow it down and I believe it leaves me with 2 options - the 1.2 TSI 105, and the 1.6 TDI CR 105.

Is there any general concensus as to whether the diesel or petrol engine would be better? Most of my driving is for a reasonably short 10 mile commute - 9 of which is mostly 40mph speed limits with no traffic lights, the final mile is usually 15 minutes of stop/start. There's a number of 60 mile motorway commutes I do about once every month or so, and a long drive I do anywhere from 1-3 times a year is a long 250 mile each way drive from where I live (near Lancaster) down to where my family are (near Bournemouth). This adds up to about 10k miles a year.

The optional extras I'm considering are - climate control, cruise control, esp plus, maxidot and rear parking sensor. That comes to about £12.4k for the TSI and £13.2k for the TDI if purchased online (or would going direct via the dealer offer a better price with some haggling?)

I'm basically after any suggestions as to which option would be best, or whether there's anything else I should consider? Any questions or opinions are hugely welcome.

Cheers!

Now you started something, it'll be a fight the tsi and the crtdi are totally different cars, if you want that speedy feeling its the 1.2 tsi however if you want a good strong engine that will give the economy and bigger top speed go for the 105

In my opinion you are right in the sweet spot with your usage between the petrol (less miles) and the diesel (more miles).

You really need to drive both and choose what you prefer.

Both engines are good and have positives over the other. All you will get on a thread like this is personal opinion. And people have already bought what they prefer. So you need to buy what you prefer and not somebody else.

In my opinion you are right in the sweet spot with your usage between the petrol (less miles) and the diesel (more miles).

You really need to drive both and choose what you prefer.

Both engines are good and have positives over the other. All you will get on a thread like this is personal opinion. And people have already bought what they prefer. So you need to buy what you prefer and not somebody else.

+1

(I'd go for the VRS)

Thanks for the replies guys. Spec wise they seem good, I'm looking forward to giving them a spin at the weekend. I mainly just wanted a general idea if there were any known pitfalls for either option. Or even whether people would recommend going for a second hand model.

Given my track record I plan on using the car until it dies on me (or at least handing it off to a family member), so depreciation isn't so much an issue for the most part - it just seems that there aren't actually a huge amount of Fabias in the second hand market from what I can see - not at substantially reduced prices or decent mileage anyway.

I'll let you know what I think after the weekend, but if anyone has any additional input before hand then please feel free to chime in!

Good choice with the monty they look smashing, colour you looking at? : )

I haven't seen any in person yet, but I'm currently looking at Anthracite... just hoping the lead times aren't too long, having to walk for 40 minutes to the train station every morning and evening is going to get tiring rather quickly!

You really need to drive both and choose what you prefer.

Both engines are good and have positives over the other. All you will get on a thread like this is personal opinion. And people have already bought what they prefer. So you need to buy what you prefer and not somebody else.

+1

You can also use the which which fuel to help you choose, but then again fuel costs between the cars is not everything.

The options are all good I have them all on my Elegance.

You can also get the Monte with 70 and 86 bhp petrol options which may be more economical for short commuting. Personally I'd stick with the 105 though. It's a cracker. Can't say about the diesel, never driven it

The only other issue is what the lead times are on these. If you want a car immediately you will be talking dealer stock which will limit your choice of add ons. I think the waiting times generally are still several months. I have the TSI, and since I have been doing a commute not to dissimilar from yours I have been averaging low 40s mpg. It is an excellent nippy engine and quite refined. The diesel, once run in (10k miles?) will probably return 60mpg? I had a Roomster for a day with the 105 diesel recently which had ~2k miles on, felt tight and sluggish, and after the TSI quite noisy.

It will be interesting to see your opinions when you've driven both.

I found the petrol felt very light and nippy, perfect for short trips. But then the car is nearly 90kg lighter than the diesel.

We actually have the same engine in my wife's Yeti andd it is a cracking engine. It averages 5000 miles per year pottering around the local villages and while it's bigger and heavier yet still has returned 41mpg from new. It also warms up very quickly in the winter, like most petrols do.

It's also very quiet, even compared to the diesel with is quiet (for a diesel).

I had the diesel in a Roomster. Great engine which is why the choice is so difficult.

But I felt it was more suited to longer trips as it takes longer to warm up, feels like it has more grunt (more torque, but over a narrower rev range) and you don't have to think about the DPF when doing more miles. Plus it's about 25% more economical.

My daily commuter is a Skoda diesel, but I do a longer commute on open roads.

""""climate control, cruise control, esp plus, maxidot and rear parking sensor.""""

I would have a look at the following options as well (climate and parking sensors not important to me)

Spare wheel???

Third rear head rest???

Heated front seats???

Storage boxes under both front seats?????

Electric rear windows?????

The mileage figures you quote suggest 5000 urban commute, 2000 extra urban.

Assuming the remainder 3000 are domestic mileage shopping etc you have a 80/20 mix of urban/extra-urban mileage which is very similar to my own.

Doing the maths on this your projected mpg's for petrol/diesel are 46/60. Fuel at £1.30/£1.40 per litre. Your annual fuel spend is £1303/£1073.

Your diesel saving is £230/annum so by year 4 you are saving money over the extra that the diesel costs.

The diesel may be cheaper to tax but a little dearer to service so there isn't much in it. You really need a lot of motorway mileage to justify a diesel financially.

It therefore comes down to which YOU prefer.

I quoted an online brokers price to a lot of dealers before I found one who would compete, don't just expect your local one to do it.

I have all the extras you want, but I wish I had added heated seats. If you have never had them you don't know what you are missing. I have had them and I do know what I am missing.

If you have never had them you don't know what you are missing. I have had them and I do know what I am missing.

Out of curiosity, how long does it take for a car that's been out in the freezing cold all night (I am talking -5 to 0 degrees) to have the seats fully warmed up, when you drive off in the morning?

Based on my mk1 fab heated seat experience, 200 yds to feeling something warm, 1000 yards to the full monte, fnarr fnarr. Oo er missus.

So, I popped into the dealers on Friday and had a test drive in a TDi Monte and I was really impressed. Seemed to handle very well, and once the turbo kicked in it certainly had some kick. Nothing compared to the VRS I'm sure, but compared to the junker I've been driving the past 6 years the difference is night and day. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to test the TSi as they didn't have one available. Having thought about it more, the main reason that I don't do that many miles is because on my current car (which gets a tremendously low mpg of between 25 and 30) isn't that economical. I think with a decent car that will offer me more I'll end up visiting places nearby a lot more often.

So, after thinking on it over the weekend I popped back to the dealer today to negotiate. I managed to get the dealer to within £150 of the price with a few things thrown in, and with the current offers on finance I decided to go ahead. He says current build times are around 12 weeks, but he'll call me when a build week has been set. I forgot to ask how long it'll take on average before he calls. Has anyone got any experience on how long this will take?

Can't wait for it to arrive, it means I might be able to go on the Europe road trip that I've wanted to plan for ages but couldn't risk with a car that might break down any second!

P.S. Thanks for the suggestions fabdabrav, and others. I ended up adding a few extra options too - a spare wheel, heated front seats and storage boxes under both front seats.

Congrats : ) im sure i read somewhere there are less montes in britain than aston martins so your part a rather small group

Just been given an initial build week of week 9, so assuming it doesn't slip I might have the new car by the end of March! Can't wait!

Just been given an initial build week of week 9, so assuming it doesn't slip I might have the new car by the end of March! Can't wait!

Ooooooooo.....look a flying pig!!!.......

Lets hope you get it near the end of March........

......this year!!!!....

I must admit that was my initial thought too, but from what I can gather it seems most of the delays are due to the DSG gearbox... so since I don't have that I'm still holding out hope. A man can dream right?

Non-DSG..........That should speed the delivery up a bit!!!!......Actually if I have to replace my MKI Fabia I'd still have a tradtional gearbox....so non-DSG again for me!!!!...

Aeonflame,

congratulations on your purchase my friend! Have you chosen a colour?

I shall be ordering a Fabia Estate Greenline, quite soon. It'll probably be a silver one, which suits the car very well. My current Octavia estate is Anthracite Grey which suits the Octavia. ( Will I miss it? Not the MPG performance! ).

Frank.

Non-DSG..........That should speed the delivery up a bit!!!!......Actually if I have to replace my MKI Fabia I'd still have a tradtional gearbox....so non-DSG again for me!!!!...

You cant get a Monte Carlo with DSG anyway

""""climate control, cruise control, esp plus, maxidot and rear parking sensor.""""

I would have a look at the following options as well (climate and parking sensors not important to me)

Spare wheel???

Third rear head rest???

Heated front seats???

Storage boxes under both front seats?????

Electric rear windows?????

Nice selection. What's the 3rd headrest for though ?

Honestly (and this goes for any car) when was the last time there was 3 people in the back and the middle guy said "wow, this headrest is so comfortable"

Congratulations on your new purchase.

Just one word of advice, get the technician at your dealer to explain about the DPF and it's effects also about the anti-stall set up to the ECU so that you know what the car may do that you may not be expecting coming from an older car into the new CRD. You may not have any problem coming from a petrol car as you will be used to driving the car in higher revs but coming from an older diesel car myself when the anti-stall kicks in and the ECU applies 1000 revs when you aren't expecting it can be rather disconcerting especially in traffic.