door handle could be closer to door opener (if you park the car sideways on a slope, you risk hitting anything next to the car if you open and don't grab the door handle quickly enough to stop the door hitting e.g a car parked next to you)

Did your driving instructor NOT teach you the PROPER way to open a door?

(You hold the door closing bar with your LEFT hand, reaching accros yourself, and then pull the door opening lever with your RIGHT hand). That way, you cannot open the door too far in one go and in high wind, you will avoid hitting an object or pulling yourself out of the vehicle!

As any Meerkat will tell you.... SIMPLES!

_{One thing that annoys me, every time I check the oil (Baring in mind, I have a diesel), I have difficulty in reading the dipstick as this is black and so is the oil! Giving the vehicle a silver dipstick would be so much easier! To this point, I have even thought of rubbing down the stick with wire wool to take off the black coating or seeing if the VAG group do the same length dipstick in silver! I think this is a valid gripe as diesel vehicle's oil turns black almost as soon as you start the engine after an oil change!}

_{BTW, On both first delivery AND first service, the car was presented to me with too much oil! I have never had to add as much as a teaspoon full!}

as for flaws, I think it's missing a quality factor that the mk1 had. but theres always the next one!

There is definitely a perceived quality difference in the Mk2 and Mk2 Facelift. The facelift feels great, the doors thud nicely, the dash is pretty good quality and I think the interior materials are upgraded a bit too. I'd say it was way nicer inside than my Mk1.

tbh i paid just over 14k for mine brandnew. At that price its hard to actually pick faults with it lol.

Suspension allows the car to roll to much but still it has massive body roll.

No rear interior light.

Water streaming over the driver side window in heavy rain completely obscures the mirror.

Brakes are woeful if you use them hard above 40mph.

i think we have to remember the fabia is only a 'budget' supermini (bottom end of the VAG group) and for what it costs compared to other superminis like mazda 2, Audi a1, Ford Fiesta, polo, ibiza, etc.can't really complain too much..the fabia III will hopefully sort out these 'design flaws' and if the price stays similar, it will be a fantastic supermini.

I've put some RainX on my windscreen and side windows, lets see if that helps the water run-off issue.

This has actually worked very well so far! I drove 600 miles through various rainstorms over the weekend and the side windows stayed clear. I had forgotten how much I love RainX, you barely need to use the wipers at all

I would change the interior door handles as they feel like they are going to break, should have handles from the Mk1.