1999 Skoda Felicia GLX review from Portugal

When I bought the car, there were a lot of things to dislike with it.

Rust points, especially on the roof and near the rear window rubber.

Loose gear box (but still working perfectly).

Old tires that affected wheel alignment and brakes, causing a lot of vibrations at high speeds.

Bad maintenance, with the interior and exterior being not very clean and well treated.

I bought it to do a lot of trips. Since I had it, I add at least 1000 Km/week.

It was a cheap buy, only 2000 Euros, so I had some money to spare on repairs.

I bought second-hand Pirelli tires almost new for only 135 Euros. You can get them even more cheap from other makers (it uses 165/70R13 tires).

The loose gearbox feeling was caused by a broken gearbox connection. I've found a replacement for only 60 Euros (again in used parts), and now everything is perfect.

Metal and painting maintenance was also home-made, so I’ve only had to spend about 100 Euros on that.

With that all sorted, I could finally enjoy my piece of Czech-engineering. Mechanically it's great (VW-based) and it will go on forever.

Not a particularly racy car, but it has the needed torque to hold easily 4th or 5th gear in all conditions. I've achieved 180Km/h as a top speed, and acceleration is around the 15-16 second mark.

The stiff seats make it, strangely, very comfortable for long trips. High steering wheel position gives a strange feeling at the beginning, but you get used to it.

It's very cheap to run (5,05L/100Km since I’ve bought it), and as you can see, to sort out when something go wrong.