Our new (to us) Fabia

[penguin17]

I picked up my wifes MY 15 Fabia 1.2 TSI SE L yesterday, 16K miles on the clock and one previous owner.  In all it was a fairly straight forward deal.  Perfect transaction for the dealer, I phoned up asked some questions and paid a deposit with the caveat that I could have a full refund if the car wasn't as described. No leg work from them required.   Heritage (formerly Blade) Skoda in Weston Super Mare was the supplying dealer.  I'm more than happy with the service I received and preparation of the car.  It was refreshingly exactly as described (possibly better) and more importantly, Mrs Penguin is very pleased with it.  Good deal and better than anything I could find locally. 

 

Despite the 9 hour round trip to collect the car I wasn't prepared for just how good the little Fabia would be on a long journey, even the 90PS TSI was a pleasant surprise; I know they are peppy around town but it never felt under powered or laboured whilst eating up miles of M roads and it feels like a much more substantial car.  Refinement was spot on and even in some pretty horrendous weather the car suppressed quite a lot of wind/road noise.  I would have liked some lumbar support from the seats but that's subjective.  In all it feels a quality product.

 

To add some context; one of my wifes previous cars was a 125ps Fiesta Zetec S (lease car).  It was a hoot to drive (as most Fords are), a perfect town car but I'd always try to avoid using it on any journeys that required more than 10 miles of major roads and/or motorways.  I driven it 200 miles once and I was broken at the other end.  The Fabia is a complete contrast to that and I was half expecting my return journey yesterday to be purgatory.  It wasn't. 

 

Pro's:

Refinement/quality - feels like a much bigger car.  Feels as well put together as my Superb. 

Engine - more than capable and refined.  None of that reported 1.2 TSI knocking or similar.  Feels like more than 88 bhp.  

Cabin layout/ergonomics are (almost) spot on (see below) 

Design - subjective but I think the Fabia is a handsome car, sitting in between the bland Polo and more adventurous Fiesta. 

Economy -  I don't drive like I stole it but nor do I hypermile.  I haven't worked out how accurate the computer is but I averaged an indicated 52.5 MPG yesterday. My wife will likely get that closer to 60.  That's pretty impressive IMO. 

Space - It's almost tardis like; much more room/light on the interior than the exterior packaging would suggest.  One of the only small cars that I'd be comfortable putting our dog in the boot. 

Stereo - The pseudo surround/sub with a media source plugged in is very nice.  

 

Cons: 

 

Gear lever - too low and with the arm rest down it feels like your trying to avoid an obstacle in order to change gear.  Reminds me of the old Audi A3 where the arm rest completely obscured the handbrake lever.

Mirrorlink - no Apple carplay on the early gen/MY15 cars but there's little more work involved in just using a USB/lightening cable and using your iPhone as a media device. 

Electric windows - should be one touch and rears should be electric, especially as the SE L is meant to be 'top spec'.

Drivers seat - again subjective but adjustable lumbar support would be nice. 

Auto wipers - I understand there's 2-3 different sensors that can be fitted behind the rear view mirror and a rain sensing one hasn't been.  Again for a top spec car, why not?

 

 

On the whole I'm mightily impressed with the Fabia 3 and it's a massive step forward from our previous Fabia, a Mk1 vRS.  I can see my missus being really happy with it.  I've got an order from SuperSkoda and various add-ons inbound so I'll be making some slight mods soon.  When the weather improves I'll also spend the day machine polishing and give it the Carlack treatment.   Despite the dealer fitting brand new Falken Ziex front tyres I'll also be looking to fit all-season tyres soon; my wife commutes on minor, rural roads which are historically bad in Winter so the extra confidence of all-seasons is worth it. 

 

I know you've all seen what a Fabia looks like but I'll upload some pics once I've given it a good once over; after 280 miles in heavy rain, it doesn't look the same car I collected yesterday morning 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 15 August, 2019 by penguin17

[peter3197]

I have the same engine in SE combi guise and over the last 2 1/2 years it's performed almost impeccably at an average of just over 50mpg, which includes a fair bit of town work. A great car for virtually any use. 

[Eccles]

Had mine since new, agree with everything Penguin says, best car I have had since parting with my Mk 2 Golf a while back. Now live in quite a hilly location since moving three months ago and I continue to be surprised at how well it pulls up hills in 4th (and watch others drop away behind me). In fact since it has probably now completed the running in process, it has actually got better in power and MPG. Some bloke at Skoda central told me that the now three cylinder jobbies are better still but I have my doubts and will be holding on to this motor for few more years yet.

[vc-10]

I went from a 2016 Fabia 1.2 90 to a 2019 Ibiza 1.0 115, both manuals. The new engine isn't quite as nice to drive, but has been amazing on fuel. My long term average is about 51 mpg at the moment, which is far better than I ever got the Fabia.