My wife and I are thinking of buying our first car. I've been a driver for a long time, but never owned my own car, and therefore never really learned to maintain one properly.

I read in many places that Skodas are so reliable now, but do they, and do Fabias in particular, require much maintenance? Not having a garage or tools, I'm hoping to get something that doesn't need much fussing, and the lists of things to check on sites like HonestJohn (check out the Fabia page here: Honestjohn Carguides and pick Skoda Fabia using the drop down lists) are a bit worrying, like leaking head gaskets and propensity for overheating.

Another question: being a lowly PhD student, my budget is tight - I'm hoping to keep it to £3000 or probably even lower. The Fabias I see for that price tend to have very high mileages; is it still worth it to get one?

Of course Plan B is to get another model; I saw that I can grab a Felicia for less that a thousand quid; I'm going to start another thread to ask similar questions about it.

Last question: I live in Newcastle Upon Tyne; does anybody living in the Tyneside area know of a decent garage that I can rely on for repairs and servicing, and that possibly wouldn't mind checking out the cars I'm thinking of buying?

Thanks in advance to everyone!

Hi there.

I wouldn't worry too much about honest john's website.

They mention just about every possible fault on a car and make it seem like they all have them. If you read reviews of just about anything on there you'll see a similar list of faults.

The head gaskets/overheating thing certainly isn't something I've seen mentioned on here much at all for example.

As far as servicing goes , the Fabia will need looking at every year or 10000 miles , whichever comes first.

At a main dealer this would be a couple of hundred quid , assuming no other faults make themselves known , and potentially half that cost if there's a local independent specialist in your area.

The trouble is , for your budget you are looking at the first fabias with quite high mileage and any car - even the reliable ones - can develop faults at this stage that can be expensive to fix.

The Felicia isn't as stylish or modern as the Fabia but they were good , reliable and practical transport as I'm sure the many owners on here would agree. Given that you are on quite a tight budget as a student it may be worth looking at one of the last felicias. It'll be cheaper to maintain and will cost you a lot less than a fabia to buy.

Something like this for example

eBay.co.uk: 1999 SKODA FELICIA GLXI RED, 1600 CC, IMMACULATE, ASNEW (item 270091709611 end time 01-Mar-07 20:17:58 GMT)

has plenty of life left in it and would do very nicely , as well as leaving much of your money safely in your account should anything need attention later on

The trouble is , for your budget you are looking at the first fabias with quite high mileage and any car - even the reliable ones - can develop faults at this stage that can be expensive to fix.

I understand, that was my instinctive reasoning too. Is there a sort of threshold, beyond which it's better not to bother?

Or, to put it in a slightly different way, is it a good idea to buy a Fabia that's worth 3000 quid?

If you 'filter' the Honest John Fabia report, the main problems seem to be pre 2003 and then mostly on the petrols.

We have a vRS but will soon be looking for a car for my daughter - up to

Hi there.

I wouldn't worry too much about honest john's website.

They mention just about every possible fault on a car and make it seem like they all have them.

That said, some cars do have them all, mine for example has had just about every single "known" fault on a Fabia and has cost a fair old bit to sort out.

So, when you go to see the car, listen very carefully for knocks from the front, make sure your air-con is working, even if it's a cold day. The one thing you probably won't be able to check, unless the car is outside and it's recently been raining, is if the footwell is wet from leaking doors. If the car is outside though, feel the bottom of the door cards, if they feel damp, the car leaks.

The best thing is, sort out a good warranty and point out all the known problems, see if the garage will agree to cover any such faults found within X miles/months of you getting the car.

EDIT: Oh, and if you don't need Aircon, I have to say, the Felicia is a less complex and more reliable choice, "Pinky" was mine, she now has a new owner, 11 years old and over 140k on the clock and still going strong. So yeah, a bit biased.

The more time passes and people post, the more I am considering a Felicia .

In the meantime I found this Fabia on eBay:

eBay.co.uk: 2001 SKODA FABIA CLASSIC 8V GREEN (item 200083482013 end time 01-Mar-07 00:38:42 GMT)

it's an auction, but has a Buy It Now price. Worth it? Is the mileage too high to make it a reliable second hand buy? How much should I bid?

And by the way, are there any garages in that area (Doncaster) that you would reccommend? My plan is to contact one of those garages and make an appointment to bring the car there for a quick inspection. This would also give me the chance to see it running on an itinerary not chosen by the seller

My first Skoda was a Felicia diesel. A good honest car which didn't claim to be anything it wasn't, and just got on with it. Larger load area than a Fabia, too. Just check for evidence of leaks round the sunroof. Relatively late-model Felicias ('R' reg onwards) with VW engines should be relatively cheap to service at a small garage, using good-quality parts.