Skoda Fabia: First Drive

Date: 13 February 2007   |   Author: Guy Bird

Skoda Fabia interior

Price: £8000-£12,000* Category: Supermini Key Rival: Vauxhall Corsa

Given that 'design' is often cited as the main reason for purchasing a supermini, it's a miracle Skoda sold any of its first-generation Fabia model.

Luckily for the resurgent Czech brand, other key factors include boot space, interior room, equipment levels, price and economy. With the Fabia having largely cracked these areas of consumer perception - it gained a worthy 51st place in our top 100 models by sales last year - the new goal for the second-generation version was to inject a little design flair. It's worked up to a point.

The new car has a fuller, more shapely front end with curvier lights and grille, and most significantly - in terms of standing out from a large crowd of rivals - a pretty distinctive 'clam-shell' floating roof effect made possible by making the A- and B-pillars black. It's a good look and gives even the most basic models a sporty profile.

The new model - on sale in the UK May 17 - is also taller (by 47mm), longer (+22mm) and a fraction narrower (-4mm). The wheelbase remains unchanged as does the platform, but, says the Czech brand, clever packaging results in class-leading interior room and min/max boot space of 300/1163 litres - only the Citroen C3 comes close (291/1155 litres).

Unfortunately, the seat folding procedure is still old school, involving headrest removal, yanking up the slightly flimsy seat base up to meet the front seat back (revealing raw foam underneath) and pushing the seatback very firmly downward to get it to fold flat - which still leaves a sizeable lip between boot and folded seat.

Some nice touches in the boot make up for it, though. There's good height below the parcel shelf due to a low load floor, two hooks that flip out of the sidewalls for bags, and a curved and perforated piece of plastic that clips into the boot side to create a secure space for fragile shopping.

Back inside, room for all passengers is good - even the tall ones in the back. Base models (the new simplified trim '1') will get hard-touch materials while mid and high trims (2&3) will feature softer-touch plastics and rubber, and tasteful matt chrome effect accents on everything from interior door handles to air vent surrounds. Nothing feels cheap.

Four petrol and three diesel engines will be offered. The 105PS 1.6 petrol is new to the Fabia as is the 86PS 1.4 petrol, which is expected to take most sales alongside the 80PS 1.4 diesel. Both the latter are noisy when pushed hard (the diesel is noisy full-stop) but both have enough punch for most driving manoeuvres. The thrummy 70PS 1.2 petrol three-cylinder is arguably the most fun of the lot, with decent poke and frugality (140g/km CO2 and 47.9mpg).

Ride and handling is predictably 'VW reasonable' if unspectacular.

UK prices are not finalised but Skoda says they will be slightly above the old range. Without whole-life costs for the Fabia, the Corsa is our pick for now - due to a better overall package than the only 0.1 pence per mile better Yaris.

---

Subscribe

For the latest news, tests and analysis, sign up to the BusinessCar daily email:

---