Good Hatch, but corners cut.

Exterior

It's a very European design and everything about the design, detailing and materials used is top notch. The engineering is excellent and the car looks good from almost all angles

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort)

The best material's in the segment, thoughtful touches, great space, comfort, ergonomics and starting from the classic model, it seems to have all the things we are used to in the segment. You would always find a good driving position, dash is easy on the eye and gives a big car feel

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox

Engine: Noisy, so please test drive two to three different cars for at least 5 kms to understand if you can live with it, you are never going to love it though. Economy is around 15 with the AC. Something wrong with the final drive or second gear ratio, new drivers would stall the car frequently, so its not good to drive in slow traffic. Give it an open road and the second gear would pull up to a speed of 60 before upshifting. It becomes a different car given the open road and I would rate the performance factor as Good. 110-120 feel like 70-80 and torque from 2000-3000 rpm is very good. Gearbox is best in business.

Ride Quality & Handling

This is the Feel good factor area and compensates for the rough engine. Excellent Ride, precise handling, no oversteer and very less and predictable understeer. Feels almost like a rear wheel drive with no jerk transmitted to steering and no torque steer.  Braking is very different from Maruti's and very less servo, you you need to press the pedal hard, but it can be very dicey.

Final Words

Great Car, at a very good price now. Engine needs improvement (in a big way) and I wonder what VW engineers must have felt when they designed this PD engine. It's like " we know it's not good, but if you need a cheaper Skoda, live with it." Call it typical European mentality towards the Indian market. The European carmakers take a lot of time to learn and by the time they learn, either the model is old and gone or the Japs and Koreans dish out an ideal car in the segment. Peugeot Failed, Fiat collapsed with the Uno, recovered with Palio only to fail again and third time lucky with Punto. Ford escort never really took off and the Opel had three engine changes in its short life. Renault ended up being the "Meru Cab" and Ford, though on the right track, has taken Fusion buyers for a ride by repacking the same as a Figo and pricing it much cheaper. Skoda and VW need to learn from this, they make good cars but need to be committed. They need to connect with the public, once they are in the lower segment.

Areas of improvement  

It's difficult to change the engine, but refinement and insulation can be worked upon. If they now change to the VW's more refined engine it shall be good for Skoda, or simply it wont sell in comparison to the Polo. This drop in sales would lead to a cascading effect and eventually it may turn up to be another phased out European model. The Gear ratio can be looked upon and the car be made more drivable. Skoda has too many dealers and too little sales, so after sales experience is very discouraging, more so for a brand like Skoda, so if you also own a Toyota you would be shocked. Spares are very expensive and a little bumper shunt can set you back by 25,000 easily. Parts are imported, but if you can sell a car made of the same parts for 4.5 lacs, you don't need to price your parts 6-7 times of Swift parts.

So buy this car only if you love Skoda or VW. It's a good car that could have been much better. If you want status value it's  a good buy, unless Skoda sits up and listens. The dealers need to be bigger, service and part costs much lower, parts costs need to be transparent, otherwise maybe Polo would eat up the Fabia, or maybe the Figo, the i20 the Jazz, Swift, the Ritz, the soon to be launched Toyota mid sizer, Nissan Micra and so on. So would Skoda Fabia die a slow death, or is a premium car maker like Skoda committed in the lower segment needs to be seen. 

So, I have to live with my Fabia because I bought it from my heart, think with your mind and you do have many more practical choices, unless Skoda gets serious about Fabia.

 

Suspension, build quality, A/C, Audio SystemSound Insulation, Rough Engine, Gear Ratios