Fabia the fabulous

 

Updated at 89000 kms.

Actually this review is outdated now. What was offered in 2008 as complete imported assembled car is now produced in India. What is available now is a downgraded version compared to what was available in 2008.

After purchasing and driving first 1000 kms Fabia 1.2 MPI ambiente I would say "NOTHING COMPARES".  The car spells class and trendy looks drive you crazy. After driving Octavia for the last five years I was impressed by the quality skoda has built in. Therfore I did not check any cars and simply settled for a smaller Fabia. A good thing about fabia is its warrantee, two years and unlimited kms. I have faced some problems related to fuel quality, if possible try 93 octane the car's engine performance is enhanced. Skoda recommends 95/91 RON (Registered Octane Number) unfortunately none is available locally. 

Please note that 1.2 MPI is a three cylinder engine and not four as mentioned in Technical specs in Carwale. Spares are not very easily available since the car is built on imported CKD kit. Engine is very responsive, on highway I have stretched engine to 160 km/hr, it does it effortlessly. At local prevailing petrol prices it runs at Rs 4/- per km.

Stereo is good, but no rear speakers are provided by Skoda, however there is provision in rear doors for rear speakers and provision in stereo is there for fader. Aux input jack is also provided good feature you can connect your ipod or any other equipment that supports 3.5 mm stereo jack. 

 The central locking locks the car automatically once it reaches a speed of 15km/hr. So do not worry if you forget to lock the car after reving up. This feature may not be present at the time of purchase you have to tell dealer to activate.

Skoda calls it a rough road pakage and I found that it is really a rough road car. The car has never touched the bottom though driving on extremely bad roads. On the same track Octavia '2003 touches the botom.

A word about the build of the car : thrice people have banged the car from behind, the bumper got scratched but that's it no damage to car.

A word of caution to all Fabia owners: Excercise extreme caution while reversing the car:

1. The car is not as small as it appers in the rear view mirror.
2. Since the roof of the car is tilting backwards the rear windshield is comparitively smaller.
3. Rear head rests and even your own head rest interferes with the rear view.

So I would say that the view in the rear view mirror is not very encouraging. On my inaugral ride I gave a gentle bump to a Santro car and landed with two small scratches on the rear bumper, and every small scratch on the car leaves a big scratch on your heart.

AC chills in no time, rear AC ducts are below fornt seats and very comfortable for passengers sitting at the back seats. The AC fresh air intake filter is inside the cabin and can be easily accessed. Heating is perfect, the temperature setting knob controls temperature perfectly. Check yourself turn the gearshift to reverse and AC air intake automatically changes to recirculation mode. Intelligent feature.

Good space in boot and spare wheel and tool kit is stored underneath.

Interestingly the rear seats in Fabia are more spacious than Octavia. No doubt.

I would say a good overall product. Try it you will know the difference. I may be wrong but I feel European cars are far superior than their asian counterparts.

Good luck and happy motoring.

 

seeing is believing1.4 liter MPI engine would have been better.