Whilst taking my Garage pics this morning, the local plod came by in his Fabia, and stopped for a chat.

http://www.briskoda.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=2519&c=500

It's a (debadged!) Fabia SDI Classic, and if it looks a bit low at the back, it's because of the amount of kit they have in the boot. Including the video recorder for the camera hanging from the rear-view mirror. And that's not a standard beesting aerial either.

Leicestershire police are going for Skodas in a big way - they have more unmarked than marked. Once the Instant Response drivers had tried their Octy vRSes, badge snobbery went out the window and they now prefer their Octys to the Mondeo ST20s they had before ("build quality" "reliability" and "handling" were mentioned).

The community policing Fabias replace Peugeot 206s, and they find the Fabias far more reliable. Apart from the seats ("uncomfortable") the only problem was the electrical load all their goodies put on the standard alternator. When attending an incident they have to leave the engine running to supply power, and after 2 hours or so on tickover, the power steering fluid boils, apparently. The other complaint was the small fuel tank (on an SDI?) - they have to leave it at least 1/2 full (in case it's needed in a hurry) so have to keep it topped up.

Should I have taken him for a spin in my vRS and shown him what a real Fabia is like?

cops going for Skoda' seen a lot at Crewe Transport police station... Also seen an unmarked dark blue scooby on the m56

Fuel tank size is a tad small, I was hoping for 55 liter tank in the Furby but it's 10 less, which is still fine but it means I cannot do a whole week on a single refuel :(

The Rover100 only had a 25 liter tank though, refill every 2 days on that