I'm new to this forum but hoping for some advice.

I'm interested in getting a Fabia and probably the 1.4 engine, but have read different advice on the 8v vs the 16v engines.

The majority in the price I can afford - no more than £2500 - seem to be the 8v but is this an old engine with poor fuel consumption and should be avoided in favour of the 16v.

Any advice gratefully received as well as any tips when looking at these cars.

Chinaman

Ive just bought a skoda fabia 1.4 8v classic, its honestly not that bad at all, ive noticed round town it uses abit more fuel but if your on a steady run at 60 it hardly uses any just sipps it! its also quite nippy for what the engine is, if you had the money though would probably be better to get the 16v

The only problems with the 8v (MPi) unit are the head gasket (should have been replaed under warranty by now), and relatively poor power output and fuel consumption. Other than that they're quite torquey (useful for when SWMBO forgets to change down to 1st to pull away from standstill!) and pretty bomb-proof; not least because they don't have a cambelt.

The 16v unit is more efficient and supposedly more powerful (although seems to suffer from VTEC-like gutlessness at lower revs), but quite often suffers from severe piston ring wear, which is very expensive to fix.

The 8v is a pretty good 'cooking' engine, whereas IMHO if you're after something with better economy and poke, you might be better considering the 100bhp turbo-diesels if you can stretch to getting one...

Just my 2ps...