2000 Skoda Fabia Comfort from UK and Ireland - Comments

Poor quality Skoda badges on bonnet and boot which kept coming apart. Badge on bonnet replaced once whilst badge on boot was replaced twice.

Knocking noise began to come from rear seats after only a few days whilst car was being driven. Noise stopped after spraying WD40 into the interior of the back-rests.

Boot of the car had an intermittent habit of partially opening by itself when the car was in motion. After the third attempt the problem seems to have been rectified by the dealer.

Faulty head gasket only became apparent nearly a year after car was purchased. This took nearly 3 months to repair as parts were unavailable.

Windscreen washer pump failed during the winter. This also took 3 months to repair due to unavailability of parts.

An air-lock developed in the cooling system after the head gasket repair. After numerous attempts, the problem could still not be rectified by the dealer.

A fault also occurred with the water pump for the cooling system. Although the pump was replaced on 3 occasions it still kept leaking coolant and this fault together with the air-lock could not be resolved by the dealer.

Faulty cover on engine had a hair-line crack which slowly dripped engine oil into the engine compartment. After two attempts of pointing this out to the dealer a new part was fitted.

Very intermittent clattering noises were sometimes apparent from the engine when it was revved. This was never resolved.

The gearbox became difficult to work at times and refused to engage second gear on many occasions. This was pointed out to the dealer who claimed there was nothing wrong.

Front seats began to creek a little after a few thousand miles. This stopped by itself.

Lack of power evident when air conditioning turned on.

Despite its poor reliability, the Fabia is a well built little car.

The interior plastics are of a very good quality and sturdy. The workmanship and assembly of the car is also very good. These are factors which place the car well above all the others in its class.

Poor performance is notable from the 1.4 8v engine which is sluggish and returns a poor economy. The car could do with a better and more reliable engine.

In general I found that the support from the dealer could have been better in rectifying my problems. The support from Skoda customer services was even worse.

Having encountered an unbelievable number of problems/faults with the car, and the number of times I have had to visit the dealer, I have little faith in Skoda at the moment & have traded-in my Fabia for a car from a different manufacturer.

I bought a Fabia Comfort Sept 2000 and have just traded it in for a new Fabia Comfort 100 bhp this week. I have had a 46000 mile trouble free ownership with no lack of engine power whilst using the air conditioning. Everything still works as new and the paint work is still lustrous dynamic blue. I can still get over 50mpg on the open road at 65mph. I have driven this marque for over 14 years and found that properly serviced Skodas are OK. With the exception of our present car all the others have been driven over to the Czech Republic and have never let us down.

I have recently purchased a one year old Skoda Fabia 1.2.

Unfortunately, I am having great difficulty driving it owing to the height/angle of the accelerator pedal. Also, because the pedal is too far from the inside wall of the car, it is not possible to gain any relief from an aching foot by resting the foot against the wall.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone else who has encountered this problem and to learn how they have overcome it (if this is possible).

The dealer has informed me that the pedal cannot be adjusted.

Thank you.

I have owned my Fabia for the past eighteen months and must say overall I am quite happy with all aspects of the car.

However, I do have one concern and that is to do with losing engine coolant, which my dealer informs me it is due to a faulty fan switch mounting. This has occurred on two occassions when the dealer has repaired under warranty.

...The fan mounting is VW's fault, they changed it to plastic when the early skodas used metal mountings!

I bought W reg Fabia in April 2008 and it seemed brilliant. God knows what the trader and whoever he dealt with did with the car but after 3 weeks or so, or you can say after a constant run everyday things really started to show up.

First the Power Steering light came on intermittently and at times Engine Warning Light too. Also on full U-Turn steering felt too hard. I took it to number of garages and after diagnosis various faults were found which still haven't rectified the problem.

1st, I had the spark plugs changed

2nd, the mechanic advised to change coil on the engine

3rd, computer found MAP sensor faulty, which was replaced.

4th, power steering oil was topped up as was almost empty.

5th, you wouldn't believe but engine oil level was 4 times higher than its maximum limit AND

6th, the coolant was almost zero.

After sorting everything and got it serviced. The power steering and engine warning light still comes up. Now the headlights and rear lights flicker a lot which is embarrassing whilst driving at night time.

God knows, what the problem is... but these beeps I hear everyday has really made me grouchy.

BUT on the positive note. IT DRIVES BRILLIANTLY ON MOTORWAY!!!

Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Mr.Habib

(manzone91@yahoo.com)