So, it's been five months.

I've done 7600 miles, am returning about 50 mpg and generally it's a good car.

LIKES:

The interior

The looks

The engine - smooth, quick enough and economical

Value

MDI as standard

DISLIKES:

Headlights. Well, those things that illuminate when I turn the switch all the way to the right anyway...

Ride - crashes over bumps, potholes and imperfections the way I last experienced in a slammed Carlsson Merc SLK. Which is uncomfortable and worrying. I fear for suspension components and alloys.

No interior light in the back

HAVE TO LIVE WITH:

Economy. Unless I drive like my mum, it ain't gonna improve too much. Wrong journeys. I suppose it's not too bad...

The stereo. I didn't get to spec the car, so I might change it later.

The height of the drivers seat - I feel like I'm on a booster seat!

I am seriously considering selling it after a year. It was an experiment to downsize one huge car (Superb) and a runabout (Pug 106), into two family cars (Golf and Fabia). It's not a bad car, just not everything I want and I might try something else. Of course, it will need to be run past the co-ordinator of all things sensible and to see what it's worth against what I've got against it...

The glimmer of hope (for the car) was today's trip home from work. Ragged it to death, safely and within speed limits. Felt great. Economy dropped to high 30s. Tyres and potentially other essential mechanicals wouldn't last long if I drove it like that all the time, but the occasional blast might help me live with it...

What's wrong with the headlights?

They're like strapping two candles to the bonnet. They don't give off much more light than the DRLs, and it's a weak, yellow light. Now that we're in permanent-darkness in the UK, all my journeys are spent being dazzled by the oncoming bright white, effective headlights, or more of the same in my rear view mirror, while I strain to see in the two puddles of pee that the headlights produce.

They're a bit better on main beam, but that's not much use in normal driving.

Personally although not the best headlights around I would certainly say they are good enough to not worry about. Though I did upgrade the bulb the day I got the car as I seen so many complaining about the headlights.

As for the seats, you know the height is adjustable right?

No interior light in the back is quite annoying as you say.

The ride is not that bad either, for a small car with sports suspension and 205/40R17 tyres what did you expect? If you want a nice soft ride then don't get a car with such low profile tyres and sports suspension. Though others have said getting coil overs make it a better ride all round though that's an option though they aint cheap.

What's wrong with the headlights?

They are about as good at lightning up the road ahead as two candles in jars strapped to the front bumper! All fabias over here in UK affected by this problem, most people on this forum seem to have upgraded the bulbs (myself included) but even then the improvement is only a little better.

Hmm, I wouldn't have said they were superb, but they're better than the ones I had in the Focus. Is it perhaps something to do with the "black pack" version, or all of them in general?

Hmm, I wouldn't have said they were superb, but they're better than the ones I had in the Focus. Is it perhaps something to do with the "black pack" version, or all of them in general?

Mine has no black-pack and was still pretty terrible as standard. I think it is probably related to the 'projector' lens -I think it just dims the light from the bulb way too much. :wonder:

John - yes, I can ratchet the seat down, but even at its lowest, it is like sitting on a box. Which if you look, is exactly what it is. When jumping from the Fabia to my wife's Golf, I ratchet that down and feel as though I am sitting just above the road and that's on a Bluemotion Eco-mobile! My "sports" inclined Fabia could do with a seat lowering enhancement.

The suspension is sports, but only 15mm less than standard. Yes, the low-pro tyres won't help, but I'm talking bone jarring, component breaking smacks, that compared to other cars I have had the misfortune to cross the same pothole or divot, have gone unnoticed. Some of the roads I travel on mean that you cannot avoid all of the holes, all of the time, leading to much wincing...I knew it might be a more "focused" ride than other cars (and let's not kid ourselves - it's a sports orientated car, not a Sports Car), but didn't expect that. I certainly would have looked elsewhere if I had known.

It's almost as if it is hitting the bump stops, which shouldn't happen. I have no complaints on the ride in general - it isn't uncomfortable on the road, or fidgety.

And the lights - rubbish. If you've upgraded yours from day one and say they're fine, then that answers the question. The yellow coach lights fitted as standard would probably be great for most places. In the daylight...

Overall, I would say there ar eniggles that have disappointed me. I do like the car, am impressed with the performance/economy/practicality mix, just wish the other bits were easy to fix!

Little unfair to compare a Skoda Fabia to a Golf though the price difference is massive you expect all round quality and attention to detail. I agree that it's a little high, but so is the whole car in my opinion, way to much headroom for such a little car, even if I was 6'5" I would still not need to worry about headroom I think. Would have been better if it had been designed with lower roof and lower seats I suppose but not a big deal to me really, not enough to put me off the car.

Yeah simple upgrade to help with the lights issue, http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00440CWCG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

Thing you need to remember is Skoda are still a budget car at the end of the day, compared to the likes of VW anyway, for the money I pay I cant fault the little Monte well happy with it, not many cars even worth looking at for £160 a month personal contract hire with £480 first payment.

Did you not test drive the car before buying one? Surely you would have realized what the ride was like then?

No, long story. I was after a mk1 tdi (vRS if possible). They were like hens teeth and a few dealers were offering me mk2 diesels in various guises (I'd driven my Dad's) and that's what I was looking at used, but again, hard to come by.

A broker I'd spoken to said they had a Monte available, cancelled order, good deal etc.

I jumped and got it. Since then my driving pattern has changed (house and job move), so it's a lot down to where I drive.

The thing is, I don't want to be down on the car, because of a very small niggle that happens to be apparent to me a lot of time because a journey I have to do twice a day for the next 9 months. After that I won't do it and the niggle will be back to background noise.

I don't know if I can live with it for that long though. The reality might be I have to though, as I'm tied to the deal (dreaded finance) and I might lose money if I px it under a year old.

I'll see, I'm only at the "what else could I get that ticks more boxes, for the same sort of money" stage. Right now, there are only a few things and I'd need to drive them to be sure.

Yes, I should/could have driven one first, but as I said, my routes have had to change, so I might not have picked up on it.

I'm not trying to match it to the Golf either - very different, even if there are similarities - same engine, same group, same family...