I'd read a while ago that Fabias suffered from "a slow throttle response" and didn't understand what that meant.... Until this last weekend when I've been driving a new 1.4 Sport as a courtesy car whilst my vRS was having cruise fitted.

I assume that this has the 100bhp engine ? and it more than maintains motorway speeds with low noise levels and a fair degree of comfort. What it also has is a sloppy accelerator - driving at slow speeds is a right pain as the pedal appears to have a couple of inches of travel before anything happens. Then you lurch into over acceleration [like a learner with a hangover ] - I stalled it a couple of times as well whilst trying to come to terms with this.

My vRS doesn't do this and it's not down to my not being used to a petrol car either. I run an old 1.3 Fiesta as daily transport for my dogs and that is much easier to drive smoothly in stop, start motoring.

Was I just unlucky or is this a characteristic of all petrol Fabias ?

Paul

The 1.4 16v I drove was the same... Takes quite some getting used to!

The 1.4 Sport was 75 bhp.

Something to do with European emissions laws, IIRC? i.e. it smoothes out the throttle action, meaning you get lots of acceleration lag... Really annoyed me when I first got my 1.4 16v (100bhp ) - although I soon got used to it...

Downside is you get used to blipping the throttle before pulling off to avoid a stall - so switching to another car means lots of wheelspins

The 2.0 response is quick. I've driven the 100bhp 1.4, and it does have a slow response.

(awaits attack from individuals who have never driven a 2.0 Fabia)

Its true the 1.4 16v does suffer from slow throttle response. This doesnt effect the 1.4 8v, 2.0 and the 1.2 however.

It could well be emissions based.

I used a 1.2 Fabia estate when i was having my VRS brakes repaired and it spluttered everytime i pulled away from lights, not sure if it was slow throttle response or just that the idling speed was too low. Made me miss my VRS though!

Might also have needed a bit more on the revcounter as it's not got a lot of low-down torque though

Because of this, I find it real hard to select the right rev when shift down.

Got to admit - I've no thoughts of swapping to a petrol Fabia anyhow but, if I had, the experience of driving the 1400 would probably have put me right off...

i get that to, getting the right gears and keeping the revs right keeps it all nice n nippy, keep on doing wheels spins in the wet its fun:D