Just bought a Fabia VRS - Wow

B

Beancounter1980

Active member
:D

I was driving past a garage and one caught my eye. The dealer told me it had been remaped to 180bhp.

Once i took it for a testdrive i was sold. The wifes Astra 1.4i was PX'ed and the Fabia was taken home. All friends and most family are like why did you by a skoda!!!!! Little do they know how much the brand has moved on.

Great car, great economy (wife drives 120 miles round trip to work a day). The acceleration aint "brutal" and it does not do 0-60 in 3.5 secs like some claim, but i'm happy... :driving:

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I quite like its style. It's better than other French hot hatches, and It's still part of VW group.
 
I think the interior is really no different from VW Polo/Golf, apart from the badge on the steering wheel.
 
ksher said:
I think the interior is really no different from VW Polo/Golf, apart from the badge on the steering wheel.
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We've got a Polo (2004) and a Fabia (2007) and while the interior style is similar you can tell which one you're in with your eyes shut.

The plastics might look the same, but the Fabia sounds thin & brittle, whereas the Polo gives more of a thunk and feeling of weight. Even the 'rubbery' dash feels different as the Polo has a depth - almost a cushioning - to it that the Fabia simply doesn't have. The same goes for the sound when you close the doors or have a little rattle from something in the boot or glove compartment - the Polo seems to deaden the sound more than the Fabia.

I'm not complaining, as the Fabia of similar spec to the Polo was about £5k less (£8k compared to £13k), but they have to save costs somewhere to make those savings.
 
I quite like them my neighbour has the diesel VRS version or whatever it is.

Don't like then new Fabia though looks to tall for one.
 
Good choice - my wife changed from a 1.6 Astra (51-plate model) to a Fabia vRS over a year ago. Perfect car for her - quick enough, economical, classy enough without drawing attention, and handles "OK". Personally I think the suspension's too soft with too much roll though...

Just watch the clutch: the standard one can only handle up to 300lbft torque, anything beyond that and they'll slip at low revs. Bascially it's best not to floor it at low revs if you're on a big remap - 180bhp is likely to be accompaied by over 300lbft (my Cupra TDI - same engine - was 158bhp standard with 245lbft, so I left it unmapped to save the clutch!).

Bring on the vRS's :D

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Excellent engines yes, just watch out on corners, they're pretty woeful for understeer!

My Ibiza wouldn't even oversteer with no back seats, over 100mph, when hitting the brakes on the adverse camber of Craner Curves at Donnington Park! :(
 
a11y said:
Good choice - my wife changed from a 1.6 Astra (51-plate model) to a Fabia vRS over a year ago. Perfect car for her - quick enough, economical, classy enough without drawing attention, and handles "OK". Personally I think the suspension's too soft with too much roll though...

Just watch the clutch: the standard one can only handle up to 300lbft torque, anything beyond that and they'll slip at low revs. Bascially it's best not to floor it at low revs if you're on a big remap - 180bhp is likely to be accompaied by over 300lbft (my Cupra TDI - same engine - was 158bhp standard with 245lbft, so I left it unmapped to save the clutch!).

Bring on the vRS's :D
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Nice one.

Her Astra was bordering on dangerous sometimes due to the lack of power. Overtaking was dangerous at times. Also the chain and cat was needing to be replaced and the ecotec engine drank way too much oil for my liking. So we got rid...

EdButler said:
Excellent engines yes, just watch out on corners, they're pretty woeful for understeer!

My Ibiza wouldn't even oversteer with no back seats, over 100mph, when hitting the brakes on the adverse camber of Craner Curves at Donnington Park! :(
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I'm already looking at getting the suspension tweaked and the seats trimmed in leather by Seat Surgeons in York. The Fabia is very top heavy, probably due to the heavy PD engine.

I had the same issues in my previous B6 Audi A4 1.9Tdi...
 
EdButler said:
Excellent engines yes, just watch out on corners, they're pretty woeful for understeer!

My Ibiza wouldn't even oversteer with no back seats, over 100mph, when hitting the brakes on the adverse camber of Craner Curves at Donnington Park! :(
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Oh I got oversteer aplenty in my wife's vRS, unexpectedly: wet roundabout, depths of winter, crap/plastic rear tyres, a fraction too quick on the approach :oops: , a tad of trail-braking that put the weight forwards and it soon popped out at a far lower speed than I'd ever expected the car to behave like that at.

But yep I know what you mean - my Ibiza was shocking for understeer when the front tyres were below 3mm tread on a wet road.


Obviously my wife doesn't know I had the arse out on her car :oops:
 
My mate had a Furby Vrs chipped to about 170bhp and on the open road it used to really chomp on the Z4's ass unless you were really trying to keep it on the boil. The mid range torque was tremendous. Cracking little car that used to achieve close to 60mpg at a steady 70 ish on the motorway.
Flooring it from about 30-50 in 3rd and 4th used to catch some seriously more upmarket machinery un-awares! He managed to tame the understeer by fitting 17" wheels and wider tyres from an octavia vrs and a coil over suspension kit.

He traded it in for a Focus RS which has now been remapped with an exhaust and induction kit to 300 bhp and that blows the z4 into the weeds. If I didn't need two cars (4x4 for towing duty) I'd be seriously tempted to get one. that 5 pot 2.5 litre sounds mental and I doubt there is a better fwd chassis out there other than the focus rs

still, he is now spending nearly 3x as much on fuel on the Focus than he did with the Furby.
 
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