After a year of pleasant ownership of my black, 56 plate Fabia VRS, it's time to part ways. I've been working a lot delivering curries at night and I seem to spend most of my time crashing over potholes and speedbumbs around housing schemes rather than boosting around nice flat roads for 'pleasure driving' like I used to. Everytime the car hits a bump I can feel myself wanting to grit my teeth.

I think I'm gonna get either a 1.3 yaris, or a fiesta zetec 1.6 tdci. I drive a fiesta van at work and the suspension is a lot more forgiving than the fabia. That's the only fault I have with the car, other than that, it's been a great car and will be for someone else to enjoy. Will certainly miss the power & the mufflerectomy.

Thanks to everyone who has answered my posts over the year, you have been a big help.

Garnier81

Get a nissan Micra or Almera.

Its a shame about the Fabia mate, you'll miss it!

I did think about a micra, one of the most reliable cars going. I know I said a fiesta or a yaris, but I don't think I could handle driving a micra

Is it just the crashy suspension ? Why not consider a different Fabia model - we have 5 in our family (but no VRs') and no-one says they're uncomfortable! There are other 'cool' Fabias as well as the Elegance and '3' which have good specifications. They're so reliable and the dealers are generally helpful.

I get ove 40 mpg from my petrol mark 2 1.6 engine.

Yaris mark 1 is more reliable, generally, than Yaris mark 2, we have had several Yarises in our family and the've been great. Boot is very small, though. Went to Isle of Skye in our 1.0 Yaris Blue and it was surprisingly comfortable as well as doing over 50 mpg.Look out for noisy rear wheel bearings, they cost around £250 per side for the part!

Let us know what you decide.

Mk1 Yaris will be brilliant around town. Just don't worry about the image!

Parents had a mark II Yaris 1.3. . .*shudders*

Yeah it's pretty much just the crashy suspension that is my only gripe. If I was to pick a small petrol engine and lose all credibilty, then I'd have to go for total reliability with something jap, so I don't think I'd have a non vrs fabia, or anything else VAG for that matter.

Has anyone driven a Fiesta zetec s 1.6 TDCI? I think it has 90bhp, I wonder how that would feel compared to the VRS.

After my original post I drove the car home and gave it a good thrashing over the Tay bridge and it made me want to keep the VRS

Edited 20 January, 201214 yr by garnier81

How much should I be asking for? 2006/56 Black VRS, 57k, FSH, cambelt done at 50k. Good all round condition?

Why not check out Auto Express Driver Power survey giving owners' views on their cars on various aspects including reliability ( comfort is included).

From memory, most Fords are not so reliable according to responses. Fabia 2 is reliable as well as Fabia 1, would be sorry to lose you in the Skoda 'club' because of crashy suspension.

Theres nowt wrong with the mk1 yaris, i had a yaris tsport before the fabia for 3 years and covered over 50k and not a thing went wrong with it, i gave it death everyday and still went well after 3 years, cheap to run and service aswell, cheaper been a tech for toyota aswell heres a few pick of my yaris

So it's not just me considering getting rid? I thought it was just the 17inch wheels with low profile tyres that are on mine that did it..., what wheels are on yours?

So it's not just me considering getting rid? I thought it was just the 17inch wheels with low profile tyres that are on mine that did it..., what wheels are on yours?

Standard 16", standard suspension. For a car that rides so high, I can't understand why it's so crashy.

Maybe the suspension needs looking at?

Yeah, maybe. It got the rear console bushes replaced a month ago, and springs changed last week after one broke. The anti roll bars could probably do with being changed.

Edited 20 January, 201214 yr by garnier81