I thought the fabia estate was the same wheel base as the hatch. Puts a new perspective on the hole idea if leg room will be no greater. The Octavia was never a car that appealed but having seen a picture of the new skoda MPV I could be persuaded towards that instead.

Same Wheelbase,  

but the estate is 247 mm longer (9 3/4"), and that is all behind the rear wheels, hence more boot space.

Maybe as a future car not a very viable option. Shame as we really like the fabia estate.

Yeah I loved my astra estate and if I could would buy another in an instant but I can't afford to run 2 cars as I'm the only driver and it just didn't have enough rear leg room although it had the boot space. We looked at a newer astra estate, focus estate, and fabia estate but none had the rear legroom. My cousin owns an 06 octy vrs and we looked at that which was plenty big enough so that's what we bought (all except the vrs bit)

Also I think a lot of it comes down to drivers height. My father in law has a focus but at 5'6" he has enough space to get two cars seats in the back and drive comfortably. Me at 6'2" in the focus makes the back really cramped and hardly enough room for the kids. With father in law in my octy there's enough space for me to sit comfortably behind him but with me in drivers seat I'd imagine that there's not going to be loads of room for a six footer although with no doubt they would fit, just not as much room as having a 5'6" driver.

We traded in a Ford Focus for a Fabia Estate when our first child arrived. It was fantastic for one child. We changed this for a Roomster when number two arrived. Plenty of space in the estate for baby gubbins and reasonable space in back. I would think you'll be fine with the hatch at least to start with. We did get a roofbox for holidays etc. We now have a Nissan Leaf as our main car and an Aygo for the odd long run with our 5 year old and 2 year old!

 

When we change the Leaf might consider an e-Up or a Citigo as our main car. I'm more of the mindset that they're is little point running a big car for the few times a year when you need to fill it to the gunnels for holidays etc, if thats the case for you.

 

The money you'll save by not changing a car you like will more than cover the hire cost of a bigger car for holidays and the like if needed. I remember being a kid in the eighties with all four of us in our family going on holiday in a Mk 1 Ford Fiesta!

 

Cheers,

We have decided to keep with the current vrs and we will review the situation in 12 - 18 months.

the buy a vRS estate

I was in you situation 6 years ago, at the time I had a mk1 fabia vrs that I loved, I'm also quite tall at 6.1 so drivers seat at one click forward from right back. We opted to go for a second car and bought a fiat multipla whilst keeping the fabia, but still used the fabia from time to time for shorter trips out out and though a bit more of a squeeze the fabia did the job. Last year i picked up a new mk2 vrs fabia in January and in march the multipla had to go because it was falling apart so I cut my losses and went for a Suzuki sx4 s-cross sz5 in petrol that returned a impressive 47mpg average over a 5000 miles and was a great family car, not to big or to small and swmbo loved it but we just changed again for a Honda civic tourer after a year because a deal came up that fell really well for us so we jumped. I would recommend looking at the Suzuki's and Honda's but leave the fiat's well alone, they have a 3-1/2 year shelf life and fall apart.

But to summarize I personally would wait until you have all pieces of the puzzle to see if they fit to your taste before you jump out of you fabia.

Best of luck with your decision and congratulations to you both on the little one.

Many thanks.

I saw a black roomster, think the black edition one and looked nice but looked nothing like advert on the skoda website wen we looked. Doesn't look as sporty in the flesh. We do however like the practicality of the roomster

Many thanks.

I saw a black roomster, think the black edition one and looked nice but looked nothing like advert on the skoda website wen we looked. Doesn't look as sporty in the flesh. We do however like the practicality of the roomster

The Roomster may have a bit more 'room' but it's basically the lovechild between a Mk II Fabia and a VW Caddy van and is all the worse for it. You'd be better off with a Mk II Kombi whether that be a vRS or Monte or anything rather than a Roomster.

Fabia Monte Carlo estate owner here, with 2 kids (6 year old and 6 week old!) and we manage absolutely fine with it. Massive boot allows pushchair to lie flat, lots of boot space left over for luggage, shopping, etc. Did have an issue with the rear facing baby seat not being able to fit behind my seat, but 6 year old with her booster seat manages just fine. Wouldn't go smaller than an estate though!