i had a lovely abf 2.0 16v mk2 golf. 160hp, coilovers, arb's, the lot. all built by myself. it was a beauty. fast, econonical when needed, and more importantly a hoot to drive. it was my daily and just had some welding and sealing done for the next few years service.

then last week this happened

a stolen car crashed into her (including a yeti!) and a Volvo. the driver fled from the scene and all three cars were written off. the good news is that the uninsured, unlicenced driver handed himself in. but this may leave me out of pocket in money and no claims discount.

so im looking at a mk1 Fabia. circa £1600. they are cheaper in every way than a mk4 golf. i need something economical, cheap to insure/tax. and something i can fit my mountain bike in.

im looking at the 1.4 16v's. im thinking they are all 100hp? but im also interested in the SDI and TDI variants. for this money is this a good idea? i have had no experience of diesels. i can strip and rebuild pertol's with no issue. with say 80k, are they going to be reilable?

so just a few real world opinions really. are the 16v's nippy? are the SDI's really that slow? and are the TDI's reliable? (thinking a chip for the future?)

many thanks in advance chaps

Paul

Not all 16v 1.4s are 100bhp. There's a 74 and 80bhp version as well. Doesn't matter which one you pick, they're all good engines. Although the 74bhp is the most common. Especially if you're getting a hatchback.

The 16v 1.4s are lovely engines. Not exactly rockets, mind you. But they still have that kick you need. I've never driven a diesel skoda so I can't comment on those, But I hear that the SDIs are indeed incredibly slow. Some say they're even slower than the old czech 1.4 that I have. Avoid that 1.4MPI at all costs. Its horrible.

On a sidenote, why exactly was that car written off? Internal damage? Cause that doesn't look that bad. A trip to the scrapyard and a weekend in the garage...

Unfortunately it's fatal. All the frost suspension, drive shafts etc are gone. Front chassis leg has bent, the door pushed up the roof. The rear panel has ripped apart from the inner skin, and boot panel rippled. The only reason the sill survived was because of the recent welding....

i thought all manuals were the 100hp and the auto's were the lesser powered varients?

Edited 29 April, 201214 yr by paultownsend

Unfortunately it's fatal. All the frost suspension, drive shafts etc are gone. Front chassis leg has bent, the door pushed up the roof. The rear panel has ripped apart from the inner skin, and boot panel rippled. The only reason the sill survived was because of the recent welding....

i thought all manuals were the 100hp and the auto's were the lesser powered varients?

Ouch, that looks indeed pretty bad. Seems the first pic was taken from a flattering angle. I see why it got written off. I doubt you can rationalize fixing that economically. Which is pretty sad, because it looks like a great car. Although, that looks like a fender bender compared to my audi.

As for the engine/tranny combo. Originally the 74bhp version was only paired with an auto, but that was changed later. As for the 80 and 100bhp version, they were paired with both auto and stick. My mate's mam drives a Fabia Combi with the 80bhp engine and auto, while my neighbour has the same engine paired with a stick. My cousin had the 100bhp engine paired with a stick, but he was offered auto when he bought it.

I'm pretty lucky, I have four fabia's in the neighbourhood. Usually they're pretty uncommon over here.

Edited 29 April, 201214 yr by DaKKs_152

Nice Golf - like the wheels on there too - what are they? RX's?

I had a 1.4 16v for a while, decent enough to drive but not much low down - not really a problem as it was happy to rev. Drank oil more than my RX-8 did, which given the RX-8 horror stories either says there's a lot of scaremongers or the Skoda was terrible! Made a good noise for a standard car too IMO!

Edited 29 April, 201214 yr by TriggerFish

Sorry cant help with petrol fabias but such a shame about the golf! Make sure you buy it back from insurance and strip it. Im sure it will still be worth a fair bit in parts.

My plan is to buy her back. Some pretty tasty bits on her.

I'm literally looking at sonething economical and reliable. Speed is currently out the window while the insurance is all sorted out

The SDIs are probably the most reliable just because they have so much less to go wrong. No turbo, no plugs, no coil packs. If you get a classic you can find them without air con and electric windows. No ball of fire but a great car for town work and will sit at 80 all day on the M-ways. Driving an SDI is an education and teaches you to use your eyes and anticipate well otherwise you will never get anywhere fast.

And just to ask, are the 8v's noticeably slower than the 16's? Comparable economy?

Do they use different brakes 256/280?

They are a bit slower but still quite fun and easy to maintain and service.

I love my MPi, cracking car now it's had some love.

Excellent chaps.

So do you think I shouldn't get hung up on how many valves it has? Just get the lowest mile best example as possible?

And I promise the last question. Ate the SDI's really that more economical?

And I promise the last question. Ate the SDI's really that more economical?

Yes. I've had mine 7 years and 80000 miles at an average of 59mpg, mostly town and journeys under 20 miles.

Excellent chaps.

So do you think I shouldn't get hung up on how many valves it has? Just get the lowest mile best example as possible?

And I promise the last question. Ate the SDI's really that more economical?

The MPI is based on what, 50 year old technology? I'd go for the vag engine if I were you. Power wise, the difference isn't that big, but the 16v runs a lot smoother. It feels newer, even when my mates 16v ran on 3 cylinders, it felt smoother than my 8v.

Its a decent enough engine I suppose, like tech1e said, cheap an easy to maintain. But that's it. Its one of those, get me from a to b, designs. No joy in it whatsoever.

Tech1e: What kind of love are we talking about here?

Edited 29 April, 201214 yr by DaKKs_152

also have an sdi, very economical car

Mpi's are old tech in that it's an original Skoda design from 50-60 years ago. They have a lumpy idle and 68bhp and cost more to tax, early ones had a revised HG fitted and torqued up properly but they got a slight rep for HGF, they also have a habit of thermostat's failing and temp sensors but cheap & easy to fix. On the up side they're reliable (16v can have issues with oil passing the rings and certain versions had injector issues), easy to work on/service with oil/filters every 10k, chain driven so no belt to worry about, it can be noisy but 120k intervals or when it gets noisy to the rest of us and reasonably economical, I've managed 41.5mpg over the last 5k. They usually come in basic trim levels (Classic) so less to go wrong (window regulators). It'll do 70+ comfortably all day but it takes a little while to get to the +. Peak torque is 2.5k rpm and 70 is just over 3k rpm.

In general (whatever you buy in the range) expect the rear door seals to be past it, the console bushes knackered, drop links knocking and possibly a steering angle sensor required, don't forget the timing belt on the oil burners (4 yrs or 60k). While that may be slightly off putting it's all cheap/easy to fix compared to stripping and rebuilding an engine but if you don't mind a few less toys and a little less power (read cheap insurance) then i'd not write off the 8v mpi.

Definitely go for a 16v!

The 8v is basically a bored out 1.3 from a Skoda Favorit/Felicia with a different head and updated fuel system. Very simple design and easy to maintain but very old-tech. As said above the 16v is a lot smoother compared to the 8v.

Shame about the Golf! That's why I'm glad to be insured with direct line. Uninsured driver cover that doesn't affect our no-claims!

Phil

Go for SDI. Mine is a 2003 SDI with 110.000 miles on board (173.500 KM) and it run's like new. I saw a SDI engines at 310.000 miles(500.000 KM). It's a simple engine, simple technology, simple parts and that means only one thing: fewer chances for problems and higher chances for many miles with minimun costs. The torque power is pretty good at the sdi version: 125 NM.

About the fuel consumption i have to say that the SDI engine beats the **** out of the TDI and all petrol versions. Inside a city the fuel consumtion is 6L/100km and in rural country the fuel consumption drops down at 4 L/100KM.

In average my fuel consumption is 5 L/100 KM (56 miles/galon). The 5L/100 km is the medium fuel consumption/1 year. I have to say that i make about 12-15.000 km/year. At least 10.000 km are made inside a city. If I stayed in rural country the fuel consumption would be something like 3.5-4 L.100km.

I am curios to see when a petrol engine will achive that fuel consumption and when it will run problem free up to 500.000 km (300.000 miles).

The 1.4 engines are problematic(at least in my country, wich is situated in East Europe where the fuel quality is low and the fuel price is the same or even higher than the one in the west, civilized, countryes).

I hope you understand my point of view and you make the best choice.

Edited 30 April, 201214 yr by cocosamba

Might knock my 8v but it doesn't get EGR faults, doesn't ingest it's own oil and need ECU updates to clear emmision faults.

Tech1e - I don't know who told you about EGR faults and ECU updates.

I never heard anyone having those problems. I know a lot of people with both SDI and TDI engines.

The oil ingestion is a diesel common problem. It's almost physiological for a diesel engine to digest some oil.

To be specific the oil ingestion is about 500 ml (0.5 L) /10.000 KM so that's absolutely no problem. The oil capacity is 4,2 L and you buy 5 L to change the oil so there is an extra 0.8 L unused, but perfect to use after 10.000.

How about your 1,4 8V throttle body? How often do you have to clean it?

How about the AC unit ON/OFF. Does your engine cope with the power loss? I heard that the 1.2 petrol engine has problems departing from a stop when the AC is on because the engine has a small amout of torque. So I guess that your 1.4 engine does not stand very good at this chapter.

Anyway this not a battle between petrol and diesel engines.

The real point is that a diesel engine (sdi tdi etc) is built to last in comparison with a petrol engine.

Edited 30 April, 201214 yr by cocosamba

I had an MPi for about 4 years, never any major issues (besides the abs fuse ), it was great. Its not fun on a straight but its fun in the bends than the vrs i have now..

I've heard that the 16v variant had this throttle lag issue? May need to search for that on the forums to confirm.

Cant comment 1st hand on SDI, I thought it would be purely a high mpg, a to b, no fuss car.

Check out the insurance for the 1.9 TDi, I heard mapped it can do 130-140 with ample torque.

Tech1e - I don't know who told you about EGR faults and ECU updates.

I never heard anyone having those problems. I know a lot of people with both SDI and TDI engines.

The oil ingestion is a diesel common problem. It's almost physiological for a diesel engine to digest some oil.

To be specific the oil ingestion is about 500 ml (0.5 L) /10.000 KM so that's absolutely no problem. The oil capacity is 4,2 L and you buy 5 L to change the oil so there is an extra 0.8 L unused, but perfect to use after 10.000.

How about your 1,4 8V throttle body? How often do you have to clean it?

How about the AC unit ON/OFF. Does your engine cope with the power loss? I heard that the 1.2 petrol engine has problems departing from a stop when the AC is on because the engine has a small amout of torque. So I guess that your 1.4 engine does not stand very good at this chapter.

Anyway this not a battle between petrol and diesel engines.

The real point is that a diesel engine (sdi tdi etc) is built to last in comparison with a petrol engine.

Who told me? Im a technician in a Skoda dealer.

The 1.4 16v has a lot of EGR issues and these largely stem from high oil consumption as the rings are poor causing excess crankcase pressure forcing oil into the inlet. We have had over the years a lot of ECU updates for the BBZ and BBY engines to counteract lambda probe faults which aren't anything to do with the probes themselves more to do with to tight parameters in the ECU programming.

No problems with my AC, I don't have it.

That good enough?

The 1.4 16v has a lot of EGR issues and these largely stem from high oil consumption as the rings are poor causing excess crankcase pressure forcing oil into the inlet. We have had over the years a lot of ECU updates for the BBZ and BBY engines to counteract lambda probe faults which aren't anything to do with the probes themselves more to do with to tight parameters in the ECU programming.

Tech1e - What does this has to do with the SDI engine which is ASY?

The 1.4 16v has a lot of EGR issues and these largely stem from high oil consumption as the rings are poor causing excess crankcase pressure forcing oil into the inlet. We have had over the years a lot of ECU updates for the BBZ and BBY engines to counteract lambda probe faults which aren't anything to do with the probes themselves more to do with to tight parameters in the ECU programming.

Tech1e - What does this has to do with the SDI engine which is ASY?

Nothing, I didn't say it did

Nothing, I didn't say it did

How common are these faults, mate? I know a few fabia/polo owners with those engines. Never heard a bad word about them. I know about the ECU updates, they usually do that with the service.

Incidentally, I just got BBZ today from a bloke I know. Slightly damaged, but it seems salvageable.

are all the 1.4 8v's MPI's?