2005 Skoda Fabia vRS from UK and Ireland - Comments

No faults to date - Small vibration rattle from windscreen ticket clip.

Picked up Boris (all my cars have a pet name) a New Fabia vRS on a bright Saturday morning this September

Over the next three weeks Boris and I bonded well. I was covering around 350 miles per day whilst working away. The fuel consumption was amazing; Boris was sipping away at an average 49 mpg.

Whilst the performance was good I found the 5th 6th gear roll on to be okay, but far from exciting, I was not so much as disappointed, but from what had read to date my expectations of a Fabia’s vRS performance, were not being met.

Spent a couple of weeks looking at tuning upgrades which there seemed to be an endless selection all boasting amazing results.

Eventually I took the plunge and called a tuning company in Bicester who spent plenty of time explaining to me what they actually did to the PD130 engine.

The following Tuesday I was at AMD's premises and two hours later the upgrade was completed.

The technician showed me the plot from first run on the Dyno. Surprisingly the Plot showed a BHP output of 140.2 BHP and 240 ft/lbs torque. I queried this output as the car is specified as 130 BHP. I was informed that Skoda is very conservative with output pecifications.

The next Dyno plot I was shown was after the CPU remapping had been completed, quite frankly I was astonished, the upgrade plot showed 179.8 BHP – 299 ft/lb of torque at 2830 rpm.

I was not totally happy with this result, fearing early engine and gearbox damage.

I queried the output and asked was if there was a danger of engine and gearbox damage? I was informed, the PD engines they had tuned for racing without mechanical modification were producing in excess of 230BHP and 350 ft/lbs of torque without any sign of failure.

In all they had modified many hundreds of PD engines new and old without problem, however AMD did state that they would not re-map very high mileage engines (in excess of 60,000 miles) or cars that did not have a well maintained service history.

The AMD Technician also stated as all re-mapping was done live on their Dyno, adjustments to CPU Mapping changes are made individually to ensure optimal running.

Each CPU Re-Map they completed always required individual settings no two engines being the same.

My cars maximum power output had been reduced from a possible maximum output in excess of 195 BHP to ensure optimal driveability and maximum reliability.

Whilst still slightly wary I accepted Boris back, after receiving further assurances that if I was not happy with the modifications I could come back and have the outputs pegged back.

The AMD Technician reiterated that the output he had set was in his opinion the ideal optimal settings for my particular car.

Start-up & tickover was very obviously quieter and much smoother on moving off the throttle response was instant.

So I let in the clutch from virtual tickover and then floored it. “Savage,” that’s the only way I can describe it, boost from the turbo started building from 1500 rpm, at around 2000 rpm I was hanging on as the tachometer shot round without pause to the red line and I grabbed the next gear same again unrelenting thrust all the way to the redline.

After a month I have to say my Skoda is now a genuinely fast, responsive Q-Car. Third gear acceleration out of a tight country road corner is seriously quick with an instant kick in the back with anything over 1800 rpm on the tachometer.

On the motorway 70 mph to 100 + is superb, no noise, vibration just a seemingly endless flow of silky smooth thrust. At 100 mph prodding the throttle again see’s the car rocket away.

At sensible cruising speeds your foot is barely touching the throttle; fuel consumption is 2-3 mpg better. Using full performance see’s the fuel consumption drop to the mid 30th‘s With the performance available I am not complaining.

Boris is without doubt smoother, quieter more tractable, revving smoothly from tickover to redline with ease.

I get a real buzz of anticipation every time I get into Boris, from a £12,500, 5 Door Hatch I could not wish for more., nothing under 16K gets close.

Boris is now booked in for the fitment of a full Miltek Stainless Steel Sports Exhaust System, which adds another 10-12 BHP I’ll let you know what transpires!

I would be wary of further power. It is not the engine or gearbox that will go first, but the clutch, the torque will quickly have it slipping.

You can of course upgrade the clutch, but it is starting to get expensive overall.

Enjoy!

I have had my fabia vrs re-mapped to 180bhp and 310lb/ft torque. It keeps pace with my friends 330td 2004 BMW and eats all the silly boy racers in their halfords specials including a lot of cars costing twice the price. The clutch is not liking the torque but I have an AP racing clutch ready to fit.

'No hot hatch and boat like handling'. Hmm. I guess you've probably never driven one, then. It may not be the fastest car on paper, but the in gear acceleration thanks to all that torque leaves most petrol cars floudering in its wake, especially up hills. And the handling is never worse than mild under-steer in my experience; generally the levels of grip are excellent. Oh, and the only reason French cars like the Saxo and 106/206 etc are 'quick' is because they are made of fibreglass and metal the thickness of pepsi cans. I think the recent Top Gear survey shows just how good the French cars are eh? Oh, and who was in 2nd place? Case closed.

Hi everyone, I'm from Malta and I have an astonishing skoda Fabia with a 1.8lt engine powered by a T61 turbo and which produces a breath taking 350bhp on wheels and considering that no changes have been done to pistons,rods and valves it's just the beginning and even if it's a small car it is very solid built with no noises at all except the roar produced by the engine when pushing the pedal to the metal and the trust against the seat is amazing.

I used to have a Fabia vRS. Not all that quick balls out (24 seconds from 0-100), but they feel it, thanks to the surge at 2000 rpm and the torque that pins you back to the seat.

It may not beat a SportKa on the track (which frankly I am surprised about), but these are road cars, and not track cars, and believe me, the vRS will obliterate a SportKa on the road.

First off the Fabia vrs will not cover 0-100mph in 24 sec, I think you will find its nearer 31sec. Yes it has plenty of torque, but it only has 99bhp per tonne. Which quite frankly is very poor.

In reply to comments of 31st Jan 2005, Figures quoted from Autocar long term test, Issue 12/10/04 0-100 23.8. Figures quoted for identical engine in Seat Ibiza TDi Sport (tested 17/04/02) 0-100 24.4. Comments of 30 Dec 2005 are correct.

Sorry, my previous comment should read in reply to comments of 31 Dec 2005 not 31 Jan 2005 :o)

0-100mph is around the 30 sec mark for the vrs 0-60 mph in 9.7sec. Evo mag tested it and commented on how it isn't as fast a engine figures suggest! Also power to weight is pathetic.

I'm more inclined to believe what I read in Autocar than Evo Mag- not that I believe a lot of rubbish in car magazines anyway, especially the latter. These are actual Autocar test figures. Auto Express did a test with similar results. When, in everyday driving, are you going to 0-100? It's completely irrelevant. I've also read a lot of negative comments on this site, not just aimed at Skoda, but other makes and models along the same lines as this. I suspect the majority are from one individual and I find it a little sad. All I can say is, continue to slag it off all you like; there are plenty of happy owners with the VRS and nothing you say will change that. You obviously have more of a problem with the badge 'diesel cars' than the owners do. Perhaps you'd like to share with us what car you drive. I assume it's a Ford Street Ka. Never mind. Enjoy anyway.

Completely agree with the comments above. No one is trying to say the VRS is a 'Hot Hatch' in the vein of the Civic Type-R or New Focus ST. But it gives you a lot for its 12 grand asking price. Also whats all this about 0-100 times and power-to-weight? Unless you are entering a drag racing competition 0-100 is irrelevant. Diesels are all about in-gear midrange grunt, and the VRS has plenty of that. Additionally, as acceleration is a function of torque, not horsepower, it does not matter that 130hp in a relatively heavy seems low as it has over twice the torque of most of its rivals (310NM). And it'll still return 50 MPG - not many petrol hatches of equivalent power could boast better than about 35 MPG.

You know what, who cares what it says I what magazine. Go to a dealer and test drive one. That's the real point. When I did that very thing, was vastly amazed by the car. In terms of value for money performance, have not driven a better car. At the time I had a lupo gti, and it felt slow in comparison with the VRS, when I stepped back into it. At the moment I have a Zafira GSi, and I'm still thinking about getting rid of it for a VRS. How many people in their regular driving scenario,floor the car, to see what 0-60 time they can achieve? not many, but a 20-50 time is a much more realistic everyday driving scenario and the VRS is only beaten by the type R in that aspect.

The matey who keeps on popping up in an attempt to curse this car, listen hear, you are quoting what other people say (magazines etc).. here people are talking from their own experiences and out of the thousands of cars featured in this great website, only a handful of vehicles can one feel the passion for the car, when the owners are writing about them.