29th Jun 2008, 16:09

The best car in the Fabia range is the basic 1.2. The VRS is nippy enough, but the chassis is not up to the job. The heavy diesel engine weighs down the front too much, and the back end is too light and twitchy giving poor handling when trying to push hard.

The interior is like a £50 Burton's suit - cheap and nasty - although a little better with leather. The paint chips easily and general VAG build quality is distinctly average these days.

The Fabia was designed to be cheap and cheerful, and the VRS is a tart-up that doesn't quite come together to form a complete package!

7th Jul 2008, 06:16

'The interior is like a £50 Burton's suit - cheap and nasty - although a little better with leather.'

Leather wasn't on the options list. Drive one/own one/do some research... then comment.

9th Jul 2008, 04:20

The interior is fine for the type of car it is, although I wouldn't call this car fast. It's designed as a city run-around that's good on fuel, its definitely no hot hatch as some owners would have you believe. Power to weight is only 98bhp/ton! 0-60mph in 9.6sec as claimed by Skoda. I wouldn't even call it a warm hatch.

9th Jul 2008, 07:03

The interior is fine, although easy to get dirty - it is MUCH better than much of the competition!! And, yes, leather was offered as an option from late 2006 - the comment was correct.

It is a warm hatch, and consistently quicker than the official 9.6 seconds recorded to please the insurers...

Look at it as a fine Q-car, with good build quality and a decent turn of speed that can be transformed with an ECU power chip to keep up with most hatches.

The vRS is a fine car, and the people who understand it, love it.

Keep your lairy styling, big spoilers and loud exhausts. Understated is best. Thanks.

26th Nov 2008, 09:55

The vRS has more torque than a Porsche Boxster, accelerates quicker from 50-70 than a BMW 330i, and is as quick 20-40 as a Lotus Elise.

Also the 0-60 in 9.6 isn't right, it's far quicker than that as it has been tested by 3 different well known motoring magazines, each getting around 7.5-9 seconds to 60.

Yes the ride isn't great on the vRS, but who cares, complaining about ride on a hot hatch is pointless. Yes the interior marks easily - so what, not a big issue is it?

Its strong points far out weigh its weak points, and the car has now gained a cult following amongst tuners. Some tuners fully modifying the suspension, engine and brakes to new levels. For £12500 it probably was the best car of its type for a time.

27th Nov 2008, 08:46

A Seat Leon FR diesel 170bhp manages 0-60 in 8 seconds, how can this banger Skoda with 130bhp do it in 7.5-7.9 seconds?

27th Nov 2008, 15:57

The Leon is a fair bit heavier, but I do agree in standard form a vRS will struggle to do those figures, should be attainable to get a high 8 seconds. With a remap up to 170bhp in the Fabia, you would expect the sort of times suggested (7.5 seconds to 60).

The Fabia is a decent little car, and with a remap it is pretty quick, but there are a lot of people out there who think it's a rocket, and to be frank the torque makes it feel quicker than it is.

I don't understand why the Fabia is such a heavy shell, book figure is 1315kg, compared to the Ibiza with the same engine at 1236kg?? I would rather go for the Leon than the Fabia as it only weighs similar, looks far better and is a bigger car.

28th Nov 2008, 03:23

It's called power to weight ratio my friend, the same reason as a Lotus Elise with a small engine will run rings around both cars all day long.

Seat Leon 170 FR...1422kg.

Skoda Fabia VRS...1315kg.

That's the equivalent of having a gigantically obese person in the car with you, makes a big difference on the road.

28th Nov 2008, 06:25

The Fabia only comes as a 5 door, hence the extra weight.

28th Nov 2008, 15:36

Not a bad point about it being a 5 door, but I think the Leon kerb weight of 1322kg is in a 5 door and that is a much bigger car with the same engine.

The power to weight ratio of the new Leon (117.63bhp per tonne) vs the Fabia vRS (104.83bhp per tonne) is quite a big difference, so the guys original point still stands, the Fabia shouldn't match it on a 0-60 dash.

8th Feb 2009, 09:55

If you check www.angeltuning.com, you will see that if you spend £300 on a remap, Angel Tuning claim that the vRS will do 0-60mph in just 7.18 seconds at 180bhp. Now it ain't a super car, but for a £12,500 'TD' it's bloody quick. In fact it's as quick as remapping a Golf GT-TDi with more BHP. So why spend all that money on the Seat? The only thing it has better, really is size and looks. Who cares for the thousands of pounds you'll be saving?! Anyway, anyone with half a brain knows the vRS is just a just a VW with a Skoda badge. Get over it.

9th Feb 2009, 11:38

If I was going to buy a pd130 engine, I would buy it in the Leon or Ibiza (last shape) shells, as the price difference isn't that much and the Ibiza weighs a lot less (as pointed out by someone else, it's around 100kg lighter), so would be more impressive on performance and looks, whilst the pd130 Leon looks better than both and is noticeably bigger, but should match the Fabia in performance if remapped etc due to weighing the same. Probably wouldn't even consider the Golf due to the premium they demand.

Would even consider a ZR TDI, and just put some different injectors and a remap on it to give me 150bhp or so, and 0-60 in somewhere just under 8 seconds. Granted the build quality won't match the VAG cars, but it looks better and is far cheaper (but just as reliable).

6th Apr 2009, 09:13

7 July - "Leather wasn't on the options list. Drive one/own one/do some research... then comment." Err, actually I've had one and so has my partner, and leather was on the options list for both. Perhaps you should take your own advice.

26 Nov - "The vRS has more torque than a Porsche Boxster, accelerates 50-70 than a BMW 330i, and is as quick 20-40 as a Lotus Elise." True, but very selective figures. In the real world, the VRS will be whipped by both.

8 Feb - Angel Tuning £300 remap. Despite their claims that chip tuning won't adversely affect the longevity of an engine, why do the more reputable tuners not want to tune PD engines with over 60k on the clock? Common sense tells you that tuning places more stress on engines.

Also, all you people who think a remap is discreet and don't tell your insurers - you ain't insured! You have a medium+ prang in a turbo charged motor then there's every chance that unless you're a 70 yr old granny in a Panda 1.3 Multijet, we will interrogate your ECU and knock back any claim you make when we find anything other than the manufacturer's map. The company I work for knocks back 100+ claims per year for exactly that reason. Many are from diesel company car drivers who modded the car without their employers/lease company's agreement. I know that in many cases, those employees lost their jobs.

Some of you people need to lighten up get over it! You need to get a life and recognise that limited figures on torque or 20-40, 50-70 times etc are of limited value, and stop trying to argue why your Fabia is better than a 330i/Boxster/Elise. As I said at the start of my comment, both myself and my partner owned a VRS each. Decent enough cars, but ultimately mildly upgraded shopping trolleys.

11th May 2009, 06:28

I bought a Fabia vRS, and its great. Cruising long distance, round town, driving for the sake of driving... all a joy in the Fabia. And the seats are spotless! (6 months on)

Makes me laugh when people try and argue the fact they want to buy this car and that car, because it's 100kg lighter or because it's got 3 more hp. Haha, who actually cares, you're not in a touring car championship!!

Slow down a little, and just enjoy the drive.

26th Oct 2009, 15:59

Don't argue about leather not being on the options list. It was added as a £1300 extra in 2006. Look on autotrader and in dealer used Skoda site and you will see 06-07 cars with full black heated leather, some with red/green stitching and piping.

4th Aug 2010, 03:45

I've owned the Fabia 1.2 for years now. I took it to Paris and back fully loaded, sat at motorway speeds and it didn't miss a beat. Only now at 70k+ am I having slight engine stuttering and that's due to general wear and tear. The upside is that it only cost 550 pound to have 17 year old put on insurance.