Hi, I've been offered a pre facelift dsg estate for a very good price. I really wanted an SE with cruise control as an option, but there aren't any in the country. So I had a test drive in the SEL hatch, but found the low speed ride quality to be pretty harsh over bumps etc. Is the ride quality on cars with the 15 inch wheels with higher profile tyres noticeably different than those with 16s fitted to the SEL that have a lower profile tyre? Also, is a test drive in a hatchback likely to be representative of what to expect from the estate version?

Cheers

Hi FZSI, yes the ride in the Fabia with 15" wheels is a better ride over the bumps and lumps in the road. We (my wife and myself) noticed quite a difference between the SEL and SE.  We didn't dislike the SEL, but it's just the SE was that bit better for us. Others may feel differently. We decided to go for the SE as you may see from my car description to the left. I've owned and driven both the hatches and estates over the years and the driving experience is very similar in each version. The estate is slightly heavier and does have very minor spring rate differences from what I remember. But the driving experience is good in both types with very good performance and handling. 

I can honestly say,as reported in some reviews online, the Fabia's low speed ride isn't the best. It's not poor by any means but it does dither and get a bit fussy over poor road surfaces. Mine has the 15" wheels and the ride is not as good sub about 35 mph as in my Citigo equivalent, the Seat Mii.

 

But all is forgiven once out on the open road. Lovely car.

 

Harry.

I'd much rather wait until a "newish" trade-in SE spec came on the market rather than go for a new SEL with low profile tyres. I have a Fabia 1.2 90PS SE spec with 60 profile tyres and, whilst my car was being seen to at the Skoda garage, I had a drive in another Fabia with low profile tyres. The difference was very noticeable for the worse. For real-world driving on UK roads stick to 15" wheels on 60 profile tyres. For rallying and racing then use low profile tyres. Larger wheels and low profile tyres are more prone to kerbing and damage to suspension components on our roads with speed bumps and pot holes.

^^^ Except rally cars do not use low profiles even on tarmac rallies.

Oops!

When I received my car the tyres were way over inflated and it took a few weeks for the tyres to break-in. My local roads in Kent are utterly terrible but the Fabia deals with minor bumps and imperfection fine.

 

A Ford Mondeo and big luxury cars are better over harsh bumps though.

Edited 17 July, 20187 yr by Crassus

And the Citroen C3...lol! No one told it the roads over here were terrible.

I have to say that my Fabia rides pretty decently for a small car. IMO it's a good compromise between handling and comfort, the latter of which is very necessary in a commuter car in Manchester!

 

My Fabia rides noticeably better than my housemate's ~2007 Civic, which is very harsh. 

Quite right vc the Fabia is a very good compromise between a soft and hard ride. The Fabia does have a pretty good ride overall and handles nicely too. But I kind of had become a bit VAG'ed about handling and ride over the last 11 years or so that I've had Fabias and hadn't really tried the competition until recently. Mostly only did that because my wife is finding the Fabia very harsh over the rough Essex roads and she does have a health condition which isn't helped by a bumpy ride. Hence our planned change over to the Citroen as it's just so different and yet it still handles ok. There's a video on Youtube showing a French car tester driving fast (probably 30-40mph) along a very rough road for a few miles in the Citroen C3. The cameras in the car show the ride inside the car is almost completely unaffected by the potholes and bumps in the road. The tester comments how the suspensions ability to do this doesn't affect the cars handling ability, yet my Fabia would reduce my speed to about 10mph under those conditions. Interesting.