Skoda Fabia review

The Fabia is a relentlessly sensible drive – if it was a person it would be the designated driver at a party. It’s stable and sensible on the motorway, brisk over a flowing country road but sure not to enjoy itself too much.

The controls are all firmly and evenly weighted – even if the mechanical link between your foot and the oily bits of a car gets further away with every generation of car, the Skoda at least does a good job of pretending. There’s a satisfying weight to the pedals and the steering is consistent all the way through a turn.

There’s very little in the way of tyre or wind noise, while we also found the lane assist system (standard on all models) to be highly competent – helpful on motorways, while not too intrusive on country roads. Thumbs up from us.

What engines are available?

There are many engine configurations currently available so bear with us. Up first is a 1.0-litre 3cyl unit in a few states of tune. You can have it without a turbocharger and 79bhp if you so wish, and that comes paired with a five-speed manual gearbox

What you really want though is the turbocharged TSI version with either 94bhp or 114bhp. The former of those two gets a five-speed manual gearbox, while the more powerful latter can be had with either a six-speed manual (the one you want) or a seven-speed DSG (the one you don’t want – more on that anon).

Finally, at the top of the range is the only four-cylinder - a 1.5-litre turbo unit. Go for a Monte Carlo and that makes 148bhp. The 130 ups output to a dizzying 174bhp and brings the 0-62mph sprint below seven and a half seconds. Unless you're downsizing from something bigger we wouldn't recommend spending the extra cash just to get one more cylinder - the Fabia isn't really a rewarding enough drive to justify the higher power options.

If you don’t mind being late for everything, the weediest engine gets the Fabia to 62mph from rest in a whopping 15.7 seconds. The 94bhp unit drops that to 10.7 seconds, while the 114bhp with the six-speed manual gets the job done in 9.3s, or 9.7s with the DSG option. That's numberwang.

It's probably worth reiterating here: don’t keep your fingers crossed for a proper hot hatch. Because it’s not happening. 

Is it efficient?

In terms of economy, the less powerful engines are officially rated in the mid-50s for mpg, while fitting a DSG gearbox to the 114bhp 1.0-litre unit decreases that to around 53mpg. That almost matches the larger 1.5-litre engine, so that shouldn't hit too hard on the wallet after the initial purchase.

In real world driving, we managed around 50mpg in the 94bhp TSI with the five-speed manual gearbox and similarly in the 114bhp TSI with the six-speed manual, though those with a lighter foot may be able to achieve slightly higher. We even saw the warmed-over Fabia 130 reach 47mpg without too much effort. Long gearing really helps here, though it also means power delivery isn't the peppiest.

What’s the combo to go for?

We’ve driven the 94bhp and 114bhp 1.0-litre options and both are solid all-rounders. One thing to note here, however – where the manual gearboxes play on the thrummy character of the 3cyl engine, we've found that the DSG makes for an oddly remote driving experience.

While the six-speed ‘box offers eco flexibility on the motorway, you don’t feel like you’re missing out with just the five gears in the 94bhp iteration. The start-stop system is also very rumbly on the DSG, registering maybe a four or five on the Richter Scale, and it's occasionally sluggish to pick up the power, even in Sport mode. In other words, we’d definitely recommend opting for the manual gearbox. Go for 109bhp and the six-speed if you want the ideal combo.

The 130 is a charming warm hatch which isn't too jarring on UK roads and feels friskier than you might expect when pushed, but there's no doubt that you can buy perkier, more exciting cars for £30k. It's a better all-rounder than the dearer, flat-footed VW Polo GTI, but you might be tempted by a used Hyundai i20N still under warranty, instead of a brand-new but half-baked vRS-wannabe.