Hi, you'll have to excuse my english, but i'll do my best. We don't have a great forum like this in Sweden.

I've been looking to get a Fabia RS for almost two years, and now two have come up for sale localy enough to go look at.
The thing is, atleast, here in sweden the road tax for the Fabia Rs's made after 2005-06-01 is about 204GBP
And for the earlier models the road tax is 409GBP. So my question is, are there any major diffrences between the 04 and the 06 models of the Mk1?

The first car was registered 2004-12-30 (high tax), it has heated seats, oem-xenon, and cruise controll. and has gone 225,000Km (as we don't have miles in sweden) and the cambelt/waterpump was changed at 60.000Km and the 2nd time at 144.000Km
The seller want's 2322GBP for it, There have been 2 previous owners. A car dealership is selling this car.

 

The secound car was registered 2006-08-25 (low tax), it has heated seats, and that's about the only extra it has. It's gone 188.000Km but i don't know when the cambelt was done, The girl that has the car is sure she had it done but she can't find the service-book for the car. She is willing to let it go for 3542GBP. There have been 3 previous owners, Private seller. This car has also mostly been a city car (bad for diesels? right?

If i add the tax, insurance and buying price both cars cost about the same after three years, wich one would you guys go for? What should I look out for if i go too look at them? Are there any tell-a-tale signt about abuse?

Or should i wait for other cars to come up? These are verry rare cars in sweden.

Here are some pictures of the two, the one with OEM-wheels is the 2006 car.

 

 

Thanks in advance!
/Mathias from Sweden.

Edited 11 February, 201511 yr by lotek9003

The main differences between these two cars is the engine type and its compliance to emission tests, the later engine is also known to run slightly higher BHP as standard than the official rating (130 BHP). The earlier car is strictly build to 130 BHP, there are slight differences to the engine internals too. As memory serves the earlier model has the ASZ engine and the later one is the BLT. Both can be remapped to significantly improve the BHP out put, it really only depends on how big your bank balance is and how much you want to spend.

I personally prefer the older model because the gearbox has (purely my  humble opinion) better gear ratio's, and is slightly less strangled due to the emission differences.

Other than that check out the MK1 Fabia pinned section, The Extremely Useful Fabia 1 Topic. It will give you lots of hints and information on what to look out for on these cars, other than that just use the usual rule of thumb and look for one with good service history, lower mileage, etc.

Oh, and welcome to Briskoda!

What is the Swedish tax system based on?

 

As above, the later vRS with the BLT code has better emissions rating, so perhaps the Swedes acknowledge this with favourable tax.

the later engine is also known to run slightly higher BHP as standard than the official rating (130 BHP). The earlier car is strictly build to 130 BHP 

Not quite true. blt engines can put out close to 160 standard but 150 seems the norm. However my asz produced 144bhp.

If there going to work out roughly the same to own for 3 years I'd take a good look round both and take them for extended test drives and see which one looks and feels best to drive. Oh and cruise control can be added fairly cheaply as a aftermarket extra