Hi,

 

As some of you know I have got a fabia vRS hatchback which my girlfriends uses as I had my works Passat. I have changed my job and have to give the Passat back as at my new job I don't have a car provided. Our other car is a Peugeot 107 which is great for pottering around and is a very under estimated car.

 

We are expecting our first child in June and so we had a trial fit the other day of our baby seat and our isofix base which was a doddle to install into the back even with the sculptured rear seats of the vRSThe pram frame fits into the boot but have to remove one of the wheels to get a proper fit. Even though the Peugeot is a small car the seat base pram frame still fits into the boot (providing your patient getting it in.

 

I want to know if anyone else uses their fabia as their main car and how they cope with it. We are maybe thinking end of this year trading in our hatchback for a fabia estate.

 

Many Thanks.

We use the estate as the main car, the extra space in the back will be handy for a buggy and such like baby things. We also have a wheelchair that fits in nicely and there is just about enough room for all the cases for when we go on holiday plus a couple of boxes of nappies that we have to take with us.. We have recently been considering the Dacia Logan for its boot space but not to sure on its long term reliability.

Our other car is a seat Leon but the boot space is not big enough to use as a main car,

that's really interesting to hear. I have some roof bars and a roof box for the fabia so that will become useful on holiday trips etc.

We're grandparents to two lovely wee girls, aged 3 and 1. We very regularly have the kids in the Vrs, both car seats fit fine in the back without any issues. Much of the potential issues around buggies fitting depends on the exact model of buggy you end up buying, we have no problem with the buggy in our boot. The only problem that arises is when we also have our daughter along with the kids, meaning 3 adults plus the two kiddies, when that happens it's tighter for space in the back but we never usually go much of a distance when that happens.

 

I know my daughter and her man just changed their car to a Dacia Sandero Stepway, and they are loving it so far. Loads of space, 1.5dci engine is pokey enough for them and is giving great economy plus road tax free initially then 20 bangers a year. As far as I know you can get the Dacia Logan with same engine. Would I choose one over a Vrs estate? Probably not but the cost of ownership plus difference in space if I were in your position might make me change my mind.

 

Sorry, late edit. My other daughter drives a Fiat 500, and surprisingly enough the buggy mentioned above also fits into the boot of that car without any problem, as do the car seats. She's expecting a baby in August and has no plans to change her car because, as she says, "I know the car seat fits fine, and so does the buggy in the boot so why change the wee car I like".

Edited 6 April, 201511 yr by Sittingbull

This is why I sold my Fabia and bought an Octavia estate.

We're expecting our first in a few weeks.

Yes the pram fitted in the boot, but not much else would around it. With the dog and a newborn, the last thing I want to be doing is faffing trying to get everything packed so that it fits together.

I just want to be able to lob it all in without any fuss

Thanks for the info. We don't have a dog and there is only 2 of us and the child  but I totally understand about size. We like the fabia and Laura, my other half, loves the dsg box hence why we look at a fabia vRS estate.

 

The buggy we had a was a quinny buzz with the maxicosy car seat and maxicosy isofix base. The car seat and pram wouldn't be used much in the Peugeot but it is nice to know it would fit.

The Fabia really is a glorified two seater.

When the family is young they can't hang their legs over the edge of the seat, that's OK.

But when their legs start to dangle over the edge of the seat and you can feel a pair of feet stabbing you in the middle of your back when driving, it's time to change the car.

 

Long term get an Octavia whether saloon or estate, (bigger the better), as your children things you have to carry, also get bigger and bigger..LOL

Had enough room in the back for my 6ft 3" 15 year old as long as he wasn't in it for hours , the boot however is woeful , that was the factor for me

I don't think we will be struggling in the very near future with leg room but in the future it will be a big factor when choosing the next car.

I went from the fabia hatch to the estate for this exact reason, the cabin is the same but the boot feels huge compared to the hatch back, i think its a very underestimated car.

I've got vrs fab estate. Our pushchair which is a biggie lies complete flat in the boot. Can even fit a weeks worth of shopping in with the pushchair. I can also stand the pushchair up on it's side and even get the dog in with it. Really is big boot :-)

We had a similar situation with our baby daughter and our fabia mk1 hatch. I would say it depends how tall ur? I'm 6'2" and need the seat all the way back to be able to drive. However when fitting the isofix base and baby chair behind the driver I could not put the seat far back enough for me to drive comfortably! So baby seat setup went on the rear left side; this meant no one could sit behind me and effectively the fabia was now a "2 seater" for all the wrong reasons! Getting everything in the boot was a challenge. The bugaboo pram plus a few bag of shopping was just about it. A weeks holiday worth of stuff wouldn't fit in the boot and bags ended up on the back seat next to our child; no ideal in the event of a crash! We struggled on with it for 18 months and 1 month ago just got rid of the mk1 fabia for a vw Tiguan; loads more room. this weekend got a fabia Monte Carlo as a 2nd car, which is fine for short trips around town; not long hauls with luggage. If you aren't tall a fabia estate my work for u.

I use the FABIA as the main car for drop offs and pick-ups and the odd day trip with overnight stay.  That’s for a 3 and 7 year old.

 

Anything more and I think you will struggle with the pram being the main problem.

Edited 6 April, 201511 yr by pkoconnor

ive had a mk1 and mk2 vrs for over 11 years and my kids are 12 and 15 so for a good bit of time i had a car seat and booster at the same time, its tight for a pram but we always managed. Kids are now as big as me and its still fine but i wouldnt use it for suitcases/airport run, you cant get two large cases in the boot

to me its perfectly fine but i can see why youd want more space, it all depends on how youll use it

Interesting reading. I think an estate would be beneficial in the near future but we have to keep on with wat we have ATM. At present we use the passat for everything. One thing I am so thankful for is 5 doors. Both our skoda and peugeot are 5 door and won't go back to 3 now

You'll be fine, give it at least a year and see how it goes.

Our first is now one and a half and we have had no problems. Got roof bars and roofbox for holidays and camping trips, but otherwise no worries with buggies, baby seat, shopping and weekends away for the rest of the year.

If we smash out a second then will probably get an Octavia scout estate, until then am going to see out the 5yr warranty.

Enjoy all the baby stuff, it is great!

A

Swap now for a Fabia vRS estate if I were you! We have a 13mnth old boy and believe you me I'm sooooo glad we ditched the vRS hatch for a load-lugger just before he was born.

We also had the maxi-cosi cabriofix seat on an Isofix base which fits fine in the rear. The issue is boot space. I found (like you) that our buggy would just about fit in the Fabia hatch boot but the wheels would have to come off. Even then it would fill the entire space. Not good if you then need to also fit the weekly shop etc in. It's not fun putting a baby in the car in the pouring rain then faffing around removing wheels etc to get the damn buggy in and trying to pack the Tesco shop into the rear passenger space. Far better to just chuck it all in the back of the estate and be away in a flash.

Quite often we have packed the nipper up for a stay over at our parents house. The vRS estate was invaluable for this. Try fitting a buggy, travel cot, steriliser, bedding/clothing, bottles/milk, changing bag, toys etc etc all in the boot of a Fabia hatch... Not easy.

Congratulations on the baby. It'll be great! :-)

i have a vrs hatch with a 6yr old and a 7 month old and we have enough room for the day to day things like popping to the shops etc with pushchair and shopping in the boot, i had the mk1 vrs before this and again that worked fine for me only difference was in the mk1 i had to take a wheel off pushchair which nowadays is all quick release, to get it in the boot, in fact im even considering getting another mk1 vrs. Keep what you have you will be fine.

When we were looking we found the fabia just a touch too small. Although we have 2 kids we found that with me being 6'2" and with the seat position I need that once they went into forward facing seats that it was just too cramped. Although we could get the pram in the boot it left little room for anything else especially when we visit family for long weekends, so although I would have liked the fab we ended up with an octy instead which has masses of room.

Tom: simple.... vRS estate looks better too

Thanks for the replies. I am really toying with the idea of a vRS estate as we love the DSG box. Laura doesn't like the Octavia and likes the size of the Fabia. I think we are going to keep with the car we have and just see for 6 - 9 months and see how we get on.

 

What are peoples thoughts on the ISOfix system. We went for this as we felt the seat belt version didn't seem sturdy enough.

isofix is a proven system. No problems I am aware of.

Isofix was a god send. So much easier, we had the isofix base to go with our travel system and it just stayed permanently in the car, which meant we brought the baby into the house in the car seat then when getting into the car the seat just clicked into the base and job done. Literally took 30 secs to open door drop car seat in base, close door. So much easier than now where their a bit older (5&3) and you have to mess around with 5 point harnesses in forward facing seats

Tom: simple.... vRS estate looks better too

 

Actually, the wagon probably is an ideal solution, but I had no problem fitting a baby/toddler seat and a small fold up pram in the boot of a hatch. You just need to learn how to pack more tightly.

Edited 7 April, 201511 yr by OzFabia

I have to say the ISOfix is a realm time saver but the other system we looked at used the seat belt to strap it in. And we can remove base and put in Peugeot as that is also ISOfix.

 

The only annoying thing I have found with Skoda which my previous Corsa had was that the rear seats had 2 stage setting. The corsa had a 2 stage rear seat setting to allow for slightly larger items to fit in. Saying that the skoda boot space is a much better shape and has a wider appature.