Skoda Fabia 2015 Review

There’s a charming lack of pretention in Skoda’s offerings and that goes across its entire range. That’s not to say the Volkswagen Group’s Czech offerings are without luxury or comfort or quality, because they’re not.

The humble, family oriented Czechs just want to make sure that the functionality takes priority with everything they make before they start talking about some of the more airy-fairy details.

The third-generation Fabia is another in Skoda’s long line of practical beasties, which includes the quirkily styled (and now discontinued in Australia) Roomster, the cubbyhole-laden Yeti and the elongated Superb.

This time, though, it has even more space, more practicality and it’s been slightly removed from its former twin, the Volkswagen Polo, to the point that it’s now more of a half brother.

That’s because the Czechs have made the Fabia slightly larger and taken on some of the features of the larger Octavia’s MQB modular architecture, including its electro-mechanical power steering and stiffer steel sections in the bodywork.

It’s also bigger inside, with Skoda boasting 330 litres of standard boot space or 1150 litres with the rear seats folded down (but not flat – there’s still a step up to where the backrests hinge).

The front-drive car is still nearly a year away from its Australian introduction, though, with Skoda scheduling it for early in the second half of 2015, so it’s not locking itself into pricing yet.

However, the European models, spec for spec, are just €120 dearer than the Gen II cars, and you can expect it to significantly undercut the Polo in Australia while delivering plenty of tech and spec.

There are five variants in Europe and all the engines are new, though a lack of interest in diesels in little cars means we won’t be taking most of them. Instead, we will get the 66kW version of the four-cylinder petrol engine and an 81kW version of the same powerplant to top out the family.

There’s a five-speed manual transmission for the base engine, while the “bigger” powerplant will come with either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Both long-stroke motors use direct fuel-injection and that helps the base version to hit 160Nm of torque between 1400-3500rpm on its way to its 66kW peak at 4400 to 5400rpm. The “grunter” version has 175Nm from 1400rpm to 4000rpm and revs slightly higher, reaching its 81kW of power between 4600 and 5600rpm.

While not a rocket ship, the Fabia’s performance is more than strong enough for the category, with the base car reaching 100km/h in 10.2 seconds and the 81kW DSG and manual models both touching the mark in the same 9.4 seconds. The base car hits a top speed of 182km/h, while the stronger model reaches out to 196km/h, both of which are largely academic numbers.

More importantly, the 61kW manual and the 81kW DSG both deliver an NEDC combined economy figure of just 4.7L/100km for a CO2 output of 107g/km (or 109 for the faster engine).

There are some odd things to contemplate with the gearing of the manual versions, though, with the 61kW Fabia being overdriven in both fourth and five gears, while stretching out to an indicated 160km/h in third gear, making it a kind of 'D for Drive' cog at 1.28:1.

The top three gears in the 81kW Fabia’s six-speed manual are overdriven as well, and though the strength of the little motor in its midrange usually hides this, you can spot it if you short change from third to fourth gear on uphill sections of road.

More variants are in the pipeline, too, including an ultra-frugal Greenline version (which, at 82g/km is just about the best non-hybrid out there), plus a Monte Carlo (for early next year in Europe), which will look sportier but won’t be any quicker.

Its overall length (3992mm) is a touch shorter, but its width (1958mm), longer wheelbase (2470mm) and lower height have given it a stance that seems elongated, with a long-ish front overhang, but at least its VisionC concept car-inspired design makes it more chiselled, creased and substantial looking than its blobby predecessor.

All of its bits and pieces add up to 1034kg for the 1.2-litre 66kW version, while the extra gear (in both senses) in the 81kW model adds 20kg. The DSG is 25kg heavier again, at 1079kg.

And in case anybody gets confused about where the Fabia sits next to a Polo (and, given that they share plenty of engineering and the same engines and gearboxes, that’s forgivable), the interior has gone in a completely different direction.

Where the Polo is all soft touch and squishy-backed cloths and plastics, the Fabia has hard surfaces pretty much everywhere. The doors, apart from the armrest, are hard, contoured plastic and so is the dash.

It’s a cabin design strategy that, Skoda insists, has the dual benefits of differentiating it from the Polo and being hard wearing and easy to clean, but still a bit stylish. A bit.

As it is with the Yeti (now, thankfully, positioned safely and more naturally beneath the Volkswagen Tiguan rather than above it), it’s the interior practicality that sets the megamini apart from the rest of its segment mates. It’s about as practical as they come and if the ability to manage day-to-day living is more of a focus than image projection, you’ll struggle to look past it.

The front door pockets can swallow 1.5-litre drink bottles, the glovebox is a handy size (and can take another drink bottle), there are handy pockets in the side of the front seats to take a phone or wallet and even the rear door pockets can hold drink bottles. And there are proper cup-holders up front. It’s fluid central in here.

The foldable front armrest hides another cubby hole, there’s yet another (uncovered) one ahead of the gearshift and there is plenty of room for big men to sit behind big men, with good forward and side visibility and well thought through space for feet, knees and the outside elbows, though five up would be a squeeze if all five are adults. Kids, maybe.

Then there’s the cargo area. It’s deep, with a slightly high loading lip, but it’s well considered. There are bag hooks on either side of it, protected areas behind the wheel-arches and folding the rear seats down is the work of one hand and a couple of seconds.

Up front, the Fabia delivers much of the Polo’s new electronic gadgetry and some of it safety stuff, all brought over from the Golf 7’s MQB architecture. That includes autonomous braking in urban situations when it senses a crash is coming and there are parking sensors at both ends now, where the last generation had only rear sensors.

Sadly, the flagship MirrorLink system, which simply takes what’s on your phone and shows it up on the multi-media screen, doesn’t accommodate Apple products and so Skoda Australia isn’t taking it.

They expect this hiccup to be overcome by the end of next year so here’s hoping, but until then the Fabia won’t (can’t) be sold with satellite-navigation. Even as an option. Get a dash mount for your smartphone instead or go old school and hand the printed map book to your co-driver and hope for the best.

There’s enough to amuse yourself up front without MirrorLink, though, with Skoda’s SmartGate apps that let you get almost techie levels of information about the car’s systems and behaviour.

It starts without a key (bewilderingly, though, you have to push a button that sits where a key would normally fit into the steering column) and the touch-screen multi-media system for everything from the audio system to the car set-up and the lighting systems.

It’s a nice place to spend time, with plenty of visibility, a straight, clean driving position and all of the controls are nicely weighted and easy to operate.

It’s not a sports car, but you wouldn’t expect that, because that’s not what it’s for. It is, though, wonderfully competent and utterly unflappable, even under ridiculous levels of provocation.

There is plenty of body lean in corners and the steering doesn’t exactly feel like a Cayman’s helm, but it's consistent and quick in the steering and you’ll be able to put anybody in it and feel entirely comfortable that they’ll come back happy.

It will carry a lot of mid-corner speed on its 16-inch wheel-and-tyre package, too -- more than you’d imagine would be possible. But the ride quality is perhaps sweeter in the 61kW Fabia than the faster version.

In tight corners, faster corners, on highways or over bumpy city streets, there’s nothing much that will fluster a Fabia, except for the occasional flared jerk of the DSG on a light-throttle shift in its lower gears.

Both engines are lovely, sweet things, but the less powerful model feels just a touch sweeter in the way it spins and the package feels just a touch more complete.

A lot of people will be swayed by the extra urge and the self-shifting capability of the 81kW powertrain, though, and they’ll not be disappointed. There are no gearshift paddles, which wouldn’t be a problem if the DSG’s sequential shift worked the right way (forward for a downshift), but it doesn’t. Leave it in Drive and let it go its own way.

Because for all of its Volkswagen ownership, going its own way is precisely what Skoda has done here. And it’s done it very well. Again.

2015 Skoda Fabia pricing and specifications:
Price: TBA (similar to outgoing model)
Engine: 1.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 66kW/160Nm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel: 4.7L/100km
CO2: 107g/km
Safety rating: TBA