2015 Škoda Fabia European Review - Small cars to be for the city. Now they say a small car can work as a great. To find out what's...
Small cars to be for the city. Now they say a small car can work as a great. To find out what's what, I borrowed a current Škoda Fabia, then took another new Fabia on a journey of 400 miles.
I am writing this in a hotel room balcony with beautiful views of the Alps and Lake Wörthersee, paid by Škoda. The company wanted me to see the culture of the tuner at Wörthersee GTI Treffen (more about that in the article later) and some of their concepts. To do this, they handed me the keys to a new Fabia, almost identical to a press tester I drove there is not even a month.
both cars are equipped with hp engine the most powerful 110 1.2 TSI in fairly unlikely (at least for the Czech market) "spec journo" with tons of options (price as tested about 400,000 CZK [MATH ERROR CORRECTED: $16,0 USD] including 22% VAT). The only significant difference except for the colors, is the transmission. The one I was driving home for a week has a six-speed manual transmission. On the trip to Austria I was driving with a DSG seven-speed automatic.
Both are very good. Almost no Škoda made today is bad. But after yesterdays 7:00 drive, I think the automatic is the best option. I never thought I would say that on a small car, but the DSG suits the character of the Fabia much more than the manual. The reasons for this are pretty much what defines and distinguishes Fabia in its class.
To show what I mean, let me digress for a bit. Last week I was driving a current Mazda2 relative poverty spec (rare sight among the journo cars) powered by the engine 75 hp SKYACTIV 1.5 with a price of 311,000 CZK (approx. $ 13,000 USD, including 22% VAT). He was one of the small brightest cars I've ever driven. Yet it could not be more different from Fabia.
The Mazda is playful and dynamic in design, both inside and out. It is enormously fun to drive with the tail-happiness on throttle lift-off and an engine that is just gorgeous, even in its least powerful form. I did not think it was possible these days to make a small naturally aspirated engine rev is so happy, so pleasing to the ear and so joyful to use. But Mazda is also a bit cramped in the back thanks to a very small trunk and doors are a tin noise when closed. Even if we discount the spec for cheap and slow motor, it would simply not be the car you want to take a road trip. Alternatively, around town or on backroads, it is wonderful. It was great on my 100 mile trip into the countryside. But a great car for long journeys, it is not.
The Fabia is the opposite. Its design is not very fun. In a world of aggressive cars today, it's not. It is square. It looks like something Volvo could have - if she was still in the business of making Volvos and wanted to make a small car. And it's no different inside. The interior is clearly that of a Volkswagen product. Of course, the materials are cheap, even compared to the Polo, but the cold German style and accuracy is still there. It looks like a cheap, baby Audi. A nice place to be, but not very fun to watch.
It's the same story with driving. The 1.2 TSI is one of the best examples of downsizing. With reasonable grunt at low revs actually feel like a much larger engine, and with great fuel economy (we made 5.8 l / 100 km on the road here in the European highway speeds fast enough) it is not always fun companion. You can rev, and it seems you have to rev a bit more than the old 1.2 TSI, but there is no pleasure in it. And, in most speeds, there is no point. It looks good, with a nice growl, but it will not excite you as the Mazda. And while the gearshift action is good, the car just feels better with the automatic DSG.
It is the same with the suspension. Mazda is surprisingly agile and flexible, but the Fabia is more stable, slightly better smoothing broken surfaces and feels much more "grown up". With the manual, you can even find some fun hustling around the back roads - especially if you do not drive small cars and regularly transferred from your full-size American sedan. But the setting of the line with the butterfly? Revving the engine just for the hell of it? Nah. There are kid stuff. The Fabia dislikes.
Where it works surprisingly well is on the highway. During the seven hours behind the wheel, it felt like home to both Czech and Austrian motorways. And I felt at home inside - inside was spacious and pleasant enough to spend long periods of time, and my ass just started hurting in the last 30 miles. After all day, I got out of the car not really fresh, but not beaten either.
In fact, the only thing that gave away, I drove a supermini rather than a Focus Golf sized car was the lack of power. Even with the most powerful engine available, the Fabia was quickly lost its punch over 80 mph and trying to follow two 170 hp 2.0 TDI Octavias required floor regularly with the DSG demoting two or three teeth at a time. He may cruise at 110 mph, but even at 85 or 0, every time you brake because of other cars and get up to speed again, the Fabia feels tense. An American, used for large powerful engines as standard on the other side of the pond, or foreign to the idea of having to stage a car and rev to redline, would probably consider unbearably slow with 1.2 TSI.
But we Europeans are different and we even consider the lower engine variant of this engine to be acceptable for Octavias Jettas or more.
Verdict
Fabia is a small car only in size, not character. It is not fun and friendly as a puppy. It is like the child who is all grown up, wants to wear clothes grew prefers to talk adults and hate play kiddy games. It is not fun, and if you want your small car to behave like it, you will not be satisfied. But if your reason to buy a small car is simply because you can not pay a lot, and even if the purchase of that little car is a sign of your status and what you have accomplished in life, it is exactly the car for you.
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