Buying a Pre-owned Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI Elegance

I want to share my experience which can be dam useful for Skoda owners, before going ahead, I just want to share my automobile experience, as I am passionate of automobiles which includes cars and bikes. I am driving the car since last 18 years and started with Maruti 800 Dinky, then Premier Padmini, Esteem old model, Esteem VXi Model, Ritz Lxi, Toyota Corolla, Honda City ZX Vtech with CNG and lastly with Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI Elegance.. Wow I never thought of such a big history before writing here so overall this is the 8^th car in 18 years of experience.

Currently I am having Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI Elegance 2009 model, which I bought pre-owned. The reason to buy Skoda Fabia is majorly only two i.e. 1) Diesel Car (economical) 2) Sunroof for my kid as he is very enthusiastic and others like security features like ABS, Air Bags and the last one is size and sturdiness in reasonable price & last but not the least, It's fully imported. I don’t want to buy a new car as I don’t want to spend 1 million only in car so I thought of going for preowned car and my budget was till 5 lakh. Before going for Skoda fabia, I have the other options like i10 Asta (Don’t like the design)/ i20 Asta (Didn’t available that time in diesel)/ Honda City ivtech (pre-Owned Top end with Sunroof costing 7 Lakhs)/ Honda Civic (Low on mileage and ground clearance) and Skoda was certainly not on my list due to high maintenance cost which heard from many people including Mechanics but one day I met one person who is a good friend of my friend who is having Skoda Octavia - estate (L&K) Top end model and I just asked him how come you able to maintain Skoda and I think that was his favorite question. I could see the energy in his eyes to answer me or may be to clear my misunderstanding. He mentioned that no doubt Skoda his bit higher side of maintenance than normal Japanese or Korean cars but those become too much expensive due to Skoda Workshops. The difference between Workshop and after market is more than 50% which makes Skoda Brand maintenance at higher side and he just explained me the work he did it from outside for his car which was just some more expensive than my Honda City. Then I started taking more interest in Skoda where I found the build quality and quality of interior, exterior which is premium as well as my requirement is also getting fulfilled like Diesel with good mileage and Sunroof. So I also started taking interest in Skoda cars. The options available are Laura (Preferable but bit hesitant due to size) /Skoda Octavia (Same size issue) & lastly Skoda Fabia. I choose Skoda Fabia due to following points.

1)      Its size which is just less than 4 Meters (3992 mm) where I compared the same with New D’zire which is 3395mm or Zest so the car is as huge as Compact Sedan – Medium Size

2)      Diesel Engine with Turbo but without Turbo Lag which feels in all Fiat diesel engines (TDI engines are more louder than CRDI but not that affecting in Cabin) – Economical

3)      Heavy and sturdy design like pure German car

4)      Low on maintenance as compare to other heavy engines like Octavia/Laura/Superb

5)      Top end – Airbags, ABS and Sunroof options available

6)      Read reviews on websites

7)      And have someone who can guide me on maintenance part

8)      Car available in 3.2 Lakhs so even if it give me some maintenance cost still I have a buffer

9)      Car has up to date service records

10)   A brand image of imported German/Czechoslovakian car.  

All these reasons are enough to take decision. The car price was bit on higher side but I still wanted to go as such cars are not so many in market and source is reliable, I have other option of 2008 model in 2.4 Lakhs but the service history was not reliable so skipped that option.

I bought the car in 18^th Aug 2016 and overall I am satisfied with the performance of the car. I spend around half a lakh on

1)      New tyres of Good year around Rs. 15,000/-

2)      Rear bumper painting and Power Window Switch Around Rs. 3700

3)      Some mechanical expenses like Bushkits, Clutch plate changed with labour Rs. 20000

4)      Car Mating Rs.650/-

And car was working absolutely superb, I have been to Silvasa by car where I made a full Tank Diesel till Petrol Tank Led and travel around 300 Kms and the Fuel indicator was full till I come back to Mumbai so not able to take out the Fuel economy but should be close to 21Km/ph as refill the tank to full near Vasai and calculated. About the drive, I enjoyed cruising at 155 Kms/Per hour. My Mom and son were in good sleep but didn’t get up due to vibration or engine noise but when I reach near 155 Km/ph, I felt the noise and vibration was heavy so I didn’t cruise more than it but there was a capability in a car. The car was very stable and sturdy at that speed so happy with the performance. I had so many cars earlier, Ritz was the only car while I have driven at 150 but again that was not so stable. About Corolla, it is stable but increase the noise when I cruise above 100 Km/ph and when I check in service station where they said, its normal. Honda City Vtect (Dolphin Model) runs really smooth but 120 - 130Km/ph is good speed after that it became bit unsteady so overall in performance of cruising at high speed, Skoda Fabia is at par.

The things which I don’t like about this car.

1)      No Manual door lock handles/buttons

2)      Wiper and Indicator switch exactly at reverse side, may be all these European cars have this problem.

3)      The bonnet opening notch at Pillion side

4)      The engine noise is quite higher side that New generation Diesel CRDI engine

5)      Spare parts are not that easily available

6)      The Hump between the two rear seats (which is common in all German cars including Mercedes/Audi/BMW)

Hope this detailed experience can be useful for people who are looking out for pre-owned car with same requirement..