Moved house, changed lives and driving habits completely. I the new life we do LOADS of short errands, like 5-6miles with the rare 500miles trip. Run an Octavia mkII 1.6Tdi until the EGR died and became uneconomical to patch up.

I am not a racer by far and the Octavia's EGR peril stands as a strong warning sign for me for engine choice. Shall I go all the way down in simplicity to an MPI engine and pick a 1.0 MPI Fabia? Or the 1.0 TSi can survive the myriads of short trips reasonably on the long term and could go a size bigger with the 1.0 TSi Scala?

Also negotiating legroom for the rear seats, never sat in either car. So far we're all shorter than 6'/180cm in the family but some comfort would be appreciated for the occasional twice a year several hundred miles long trip.

We made a similar move a month ago. Went from a 1.6 tdi Octavia to a 1l petrol 2022 Scala.

At 6'3" I can have the drivers' seat all the way back, and then sit behind the drivers seat comfortably. The cabin space is slightly smaller than the Octavia. But for us, a family of 4 not prohibitively or overly noticeably so. The big difference is the boot size. Lets be honest, the Octavia has a massive boot. We went on a city break for half term last week and the Scala's boot was ample for a family sized suitcase and a few bags etc.

In 4 weeks, we have driven a mixture of motorway and shorter trips. The car has been efficient and comfortable on both shorter and longer journeys.

It's the first time owning a car with the 1.oTSI engine, and I'm impressed. Seems efficient, but can also handle the motorways.

Have you also sat in a Fabia, for size comparison?

1 hour ago, WildGoose said:

Have you also sat in a Fabia, for size comparison?

Yes - the cabin is much smaller. Less leg room in the rear & the boot is probably smaller. The Fabia is no good for us with a family of 4.

The Scala is well worth a test drive.

@WildGoose Why a Fabia MPI and not a TSI?

IIRC the older Fabia Mk3 1.0 MPI had weaker manual gearboxes, not good for a car used on short trips as proportionately there are more gear changes so clutch and gearbox wear but a lot of that wear can also depend on the driver and how they operate the controls. Plenty of info on 1.0 TSI with DSG, some get used to the combination and some others don't.

On 25/02/2026 at 18:36, nta16 said:

IIRC the older Fabia Mk3 1.0 MPI had weaker manual gearboxes, not good for a car used on short trips

That's a good point. Since 2021 it's mk4, anyone knows if the gearbox have been improved in the new version? Eyeing at 2024, maybe even 2025 makes.

We have an 2022 Ibiza FR 1.0 as a runaround - really good little car. That said, we also have several other cars - if it was the only one, I’d probably look at a Golf sized car.

The Ibiza is perfectly useable for rear passengers, but while I’m 6 1”, my parents are 5 4”. Similarly, while very good, the boot isn’t quite as good as the A3 it replaced.

That being said, as a driver/front passenger, aside from the cheaper materials, it’s a really good little car. Sure, it’s not my vRS or the BMW, but it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s done one or two motorway runs when my car has been incapacitated, and I was pleasantly surprised.

My only question would be around a loaded Scala with the 1.0 - the Ibiza does really well but I remember my first car, a 2013 1.0 110ps Focus, being a bit laborious to drive sometimes. If it has ACT/CoD, I’d look at the 1.5 Scala… my 1.4 ACT Leon FR was amazing on fuel.

16 hours ago, WildGoose said:

That's a good point. Since 2021 it's mk4, anyone knows if the gearbox have been improved in the new version? Eyeing at 2024, maybe even 2025 makes.

Have a look in the Fabia Mk4 forum, or ask, Derek and others are very informative.

Another manufacturer but on AutoTrader only I've seen a couple of pre-registered 2025 (25 plate cars) last one with 10 miles on it.

Edited 1 March1 Mar by nta16
end bracket in wrong place.