After several weeks of waiting, I collect my Skoda Fabia Color Edition 1.2 90PS TSI and drove it 60 miles homes. I have named her Margot.

 

It was purchased as a second car along our 2016 BMW X3. We needed the car to be easy to park but as roomy as possible, fun to drive but yet roomy as possible. We test drove several hatchbacks including the VW Polo, Hyundai i10, Hyundai i20, Audi A1 and the Mini Cooper. The Golf, A3 and 1-Series were ruled out because they were too big for our needs.

 

Convincing my other half to set a foot in a Skoda dealer wasn't easy as she is a brand snobb but once saw the Fabia in Race Blue she was intrigued. An in-depth walk-around and test drive a week later, and she was converted - and so was I!

 

I have driven lots of cars the past year, including some that are 10 times the price of the Fabia, and I can honestly say that it's one of the most well rounded cars I have ever driven. It's simply awesome and astonishing value. 

 

FYI: The 90PS is fine on the motorway unless you need flexibility in overtaking between 50-70mph.

 

 

Wow it looks Fabialous! Well chosen,enjoy

Well done on the purchase!

The Fabia is a very good car, and you will love it more as time passes I'm sure!

A great colour combination as well!

Great choice of colour.... but I would say that..  it is what I chose lol..

 

just come one back from Bath in mine, round trip of 250 miles, had no issues cruising at 60 - 70 mph, very smooth and quieter than I expected. Nice to drive, on the way down to Bath I even managed 61mpg which surprised me.

 

On the way back I thought I would test how it handled normal motorway speeds and Was surprised hoe easy it got up to 9....  err I mean 70 ish....  

 

Very impressed so far

 

Great choice and I hope you enjoy Margot.

 

 

19 hours ago, pshed said:

Great choice of colour.... but I would say that..  it is what I chose lol..

 

just come one back from Bath in mine, round trip of 250 miles, had no issues cruising at 60 - 70 mph, very smooth and quieter than I expected. Nice to drive, on the way down to Bath I even managed 61mpg which surprised me.

 

On the way back I thought I would test how it handled normal motorway speeds and Was surprised hoe easy it got up to 9....  err I mean 70 ish....  

 

Very impressed so far

 

Great choice and I hope you enjoy Margot.

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

What's the brand of your tyres? Mine are Bridgestone and despite the suppleness and stability on the motorway, I find the tyre roar to be loud - certainly compared with my X3 which is on run flat. Hopefully the roar will be quieter as the car get broken in. It's not a big problem as the car will spend minimal amount of time on the motorway, but it stains an otherwise lovely car.

Mine are Dunlop Sportmaxx ...  road noise not too bad, but I can only compare to my previous A3 which was quite isolated from road noise.

 

But tyre roar on the Dunlops is not too bad, not too noticeable on reasonable road surfaces. Parts of the M25 have horrible surfaces, and the road noise is horrendous but this was the same in the Audi on Pirelli P6's, so cannot blame it on the Fabia or Dunlops......

4 minutes ago, pshed said:

Mine are Dunlop Sportmaxx ...  road noise not too bad, but I can only compare to my previous A3 which was quite isolated from road noise.

 

But tyre roar on the Dunlops is not too bad, not too noticeable on reasonable road surfaces. Parts of the M25 have horrible surfaces, and the road noise is horrendous but this was the same in the Audi on Pirelli P6's, so cannot blame it on the Fabia or Dunlops......

 

 

The car is very quiet sound insulated in town but the second I drove on to the A3 and hit 40mph I noticed the tyre roar. On the M25 it was no quieter and the surround sound system not good enough to deafen the roar.

 

Given that the car will mainly cover shorter journeys on urban roads and is brilliant in many areas, I won't bother spending money on quieter tyres.

Try reducing the tyre pressures. Mine had terrible road noise over 50 mph at first but reducing tyre pressures to around 30/32 psi has cured it completely.

15 hours ago, hgb said:

Try reducing the tyre pressures. Mine had terrible road noise over 50 mph at first but reducing tyre pressures to around 30/32 psi has cured it completely.

 

Perfect. I will give that a try.

I have the 15" alloys with Eco tyres on them. The pressures are set to the recommended (quite high) rating of 35psi all round, but they are pretty quiet and no complaints. I've found Bridgestone tyres seem to be the worst tyres for noise on our previous Skodas.

The first thing on collecting any car, new, used, hire is to see what the tyre pressures are, and set to suit and reset the Tyre Pressure Monitor.

The number of vehicles especially Skoda leaving dealers with the tyres still as delivered from the factory and not set at the PDI is ridiculous now.

 

Crassus, please report back what pressure you have been running about with in the tyres since you collected the car.

4 hours ago, Crassus said:

 

Perfect. I will give that a try.

Aye keep up posted please

I have bridgestones and find them noisy 

I just got home from a visit to the petrol station and have a few interesting bits to share. 

 

The pressure at the rear was 2.5bar/36.2psi and.............2.6bar/37.7 at the front! To say that they were over inflated is an understatement. I changed the pressure to the recommended 2.1bar/30.4psi all around. Here's how the car has been affected.

 

-Previously it was smooth but crashy over sleepy policemen and deep potholes as if the car had 18 inch alloys. Now, the tyres soak up the unevenness and it's overall a smoother ride. A lovely improvement!

-Tyres noise is noticeably lower on some roads, but on rougher roads the tyres are still disappointingly noisy even at 20mph. 

 

I wonder whether it's a wheel arch insulation issue. The roar could be quieter but I want to refrain from comparing it against more expensive as compromises have to be made somewhere in order for the price to be accessible.

On 03/04/2017 at 20:02, Crassus said:

I just got home from a visit to the petrol station and have a few interesting bits to share. 

 

The pressure at the rear was 2.5bar/36.2psi and.............2.6bar/37.7 at the front! To say that they were over inflated is an understatement. I changed the pressure to the recommended 2.1bar/30.4psi all around. Here's how the car has been affected.

 

-Previously it was smooth but crashy over sleepy policemen and deep potholes as if the car had 18 inch alloys. Now, the tyres soak up the unevenness and it's overall a smoother ride. A lovely improvement!

-Tyres noise is noticeably lower on some roads, but on rougher roads the tyres are still disappointingly noisy even at 20mph. 

 

I wonder whether it's a wheel arch insulation issue. The roar could be quieter but I want to refrain from comparing it against more expensive as compromises have to be made somewhere in order for the price to be accessible.

After reading this I checked my tyre pressures....

 

All 4 were at 45 PSI !!!

 

It would have been more comfortable taking the tyres off and driving around on the rims...

 

Could not believe they were so high....  changed them to the recommended 2.1 bar... have a 250 mile round trip tomorrow so will see what difference it makes.

 

I have to say I am shocked that this is not covered under the PDI.. I mean what did they check.. that is had 4 wheels attached and that was it !

 

Now I know why the car seemed so unsettled over poor road surfaces, I thought it was just the way it drove, may have to drop an email to the saleswoman asking why this is not checked, it has certainly reduced my new car enjoyment, even on the short drive back from the petrol station I noticed how different it felt... 

 

7 hours ago, pshed said:

Now I know why the car seemed so unsettled over poor road surfaces.

 

I thought the same thing. It wasn't uncomfortable but wasn't dealing well with the harshest of bumps or sleeping policemen. It's a smoother ride now. Sadly dealers don't care about tyre pressure and don't even check it when a car is in for service. 

 

Needless to say it's shocking that your pressure was 45psi all around.

Be sure to get an Email & phone call off to the Dealership Principal Dealer because he / she needs to know an employee is putting unsafe vehicles out from the PDI & handover, and not just the Technician or fitter but their manager in the workshop and the sales person is allowing it.

I have just dug out the copy of the Maintenance List for the PDI of my car.

 

It states:

 

Tyre Pressure of both front wheels: Check ..  the tech wrote 30...  (half payload) Ticked as Completed

Tyre Pressure of both rear wheels : Check ..  the tech wrote 30... (half payload) Ticked as completed.

 

So either:

 

The technician can't read a tyre pressure gauge so needs re-training

 

or

 

The technician did not perform a check and just wrote what it should be and therefore is not doing his job and needs disciplining

 

or

 

the tecnician is just incompetent and needs sacking.

 

I will be putting this in an email to them once I have double checked the current pressure at a different garage as a confirmation that the first machine was reading correctly.