Can anyone help me with some advice. I want to buy my son a skoda fabia as his first car. I would like a fabia diesel 1.9 but there are not many around where I live in Nottinghamshire. I have seen a couple of fabia's 1.4 diesel's but don't really know much about the 1.4 so is there anyone out there who can tell me the difference besides engine size, like are they as reliable and so on.

Thank you

Diane

The 1.4 diesel is perfect for a first car, the 1.9 is really too fast for starters and easily made much faster, I would say the 1.4 is generally more reliable as well, most peoples complaint is that it's a bit too slow.

the 1.9 is really too fast for starters and easily made much faster

 

 

I think that will depend on the driver and the journeys undertaken. I have a 1.9 PD100 as my first car and find it great. Very relaxed on the motorway, but has enough grunt for making easy work of motorway/A-road slip roads and steep hills. Less of that kind of driving might lens itself to the 1.4, as it's more economical and cheaper to insure.

 

Things may be different for the VRS 1.9 though. The gearing is quite long, which actually makes it feel quite slow sometimes, especially from a standing start. It's not a sports car, by any stretch of the imagination. Also there's no need to make it faster. Although it may seem strange reading this forum, not everyone tunes/modifies their car.

The 1.4 is literally 3/4 of a 1.9 engine, so has all the same features / issues / pro points as the PD100 engine, but with 75bhp not 100.   They are decent from what I know.  You can still remap them up to 100bhp too

Yes they are super reliable when looked after, it takes a while to get used to the 3 cylinder sound track though

Had 70 bhp from new and looked after, regular oil etc, Still easy to get minimum 65 mpg. unless you cane it. Not slow, not formula 1 useable. Now over 260,000 km on her and hope for another 260,000. I would have another one for the wife tomorrow at the right price.

 Running 2 of these as you will see from my profile, they are both proving ultra reliable and economical clocking up 1000+ mile/month each. If you get a chance, try the 70bhp and 75/85bhp versions, our 80bhp version is the Greenline so very high geared. The 75/80bhp versions have much more torque and are nicer to drive - but saying that I do not dislike the 70bhp version which I drive over the Pennines daily where it will still stay in top gear over the long/steep climb.