Spending as much time as they have behind the Iron Curtain, you’d expect Skoda from the Czech Republic to be, well, not quite as up-to-date as the rest of the “Free World”.
But this is not a bad thing if being “backward” means coming out with something like the Fabia.
There’s nothing archaic about this Skoda, definitely not in terms of the technology because it uses the latest bits from Volkswagen.
Cutting-edge metals aside, the spirit of the Fabia definitely feels old-skool, harking back to the time when hatchbacks were honest, just the right (snug) size, didn’t weigh a tonne and handled like carefree little puppies.
Fabia cabin is useful and tough, but short on flair.
The Fabia is all these and then some, even if you can’t possibly have guessed from looking at its no-nonsense face.
The Fabia looks so unexciting that it must have been deliberate.
There are interesting styling cues like the Mini-inspired black front windscreen posts, A-shaped C-pillars not unlike the Suzuki Swift’s, and the short rear overhangs that visually tighten the design.
But all hints of playfulness go firmly out the squarish rear window when we see the front end, where a big and broad, chrome-laden “face” saddles the Fabia with a sombre look that would be more at home on something bigger and serious like an Octavia.
To further dilute any hint of funkiness about this little car, the Fabia is offered here with the most boring palette since Henry Ford famously declared his iconic Model T to be available in any shade “as long as it’s black”.
The loudest colour choice for the Fabia is red.
The alternative will be grey, silver, black or white – hardly heart-stirring stuff and Skoda really isn’t pretending it to be anything else, staying clear of any fancy pseudonyms marketing people love to make up.
That refreshing candour is also reflected in the cabin.
Fabia’s green instrument lighting brings to mind the Lambo Murcielago, which is actually a distant relative.
For too long, we have been conditioned to confuse quality for choice of materials and to equate hard plastics with inferiority.
We have also come to associate green instrument lighting as being less upmarket than orange.
The Fabia’s interior is finished in mostly unyielding resins, far less appealing to touch than the surfaces you’ll find in a VW or an Audi, but they do feel rugged enough to withstand hard use.
And keeping to Skoda’s traditions, the dials light up in the same shade of green as the Lamborghini Murcielago in the pre-LP640 era – which has nothing to do with the perception of quality, of course, but Skoda owners will probably enjoy that fact.
No-frills hi-fi lacks remote switches on the steering wheel, but is iPod-ready.
There are the usual creature comforts to enjoy in the cabin.
They include a full-feature digital trip computer, a leather-bound armrest, steering that adjusts for both rake and reach, and height adjustments for the front seats; even though it’s a wonder why the levers have to poke out as much as they do.
The rear is pretty spacious for passengers, while the parcel shelf has a second-tier setting, giving added flexibility to how the boot can be used.
As simple as it looks, the head-unit can be hooked up to an iPod using the standard auxiliary input jack.
Turbocharged 1.2-litre engine gives the Fabia great mileage and decent performance.
Perhaps the only gripe about the on-board equipment is not having a steering-mounted remote control for the stereo.
But the Fabia’s attraction is really more than skin deep.
The pressures to incorporate the latest active and passive safety features haven’t been lost at Skoda.
On top of having a tough safety cell, the Fabia carries the full complement of airbags, which is a class-leading battery of six, giving occupants the best chance of walking away from something disastrous like an errant SUV or their own inattentive driving.
The price for all that super-toughness, luxuries and spaciousness is paid at the scales.
The Fabia isn’t a sub-tonne car; then again, few modern hatches are these days.
Going towards negating the effect of the mass is the strong-pulling 1.2-litre turbocharged engine paired to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, the same arrangement we sampled on the Volkswagen Golf as well as the Polo TSI.
The Polo 1.2 TSI is the Fabia’s closest kin.
Fabia’s 300-litre cargo hold is a bit bigger than the VW Polo’s and has a cleverer parcel shelf.
Other than the engine and drivetrain, its chassis is also basically the same as the VW’s.
This gives rise to the mystery why the Fabia takes 0.5 second longer to get to 100km/h on paper than the Polo, despite weighing almost the same.
Maybe VW or Skoda’s stopwatch was faulty but whatever the case, the Fabia feels no slower than the Polo on the road.
If anything, the Skoda feels marginally friskier and alive to drive spiritedly; the higher tyre sidewalls giving the car a wee bit more bounce in its step while preserving the ride comfort that makes the Fabia a good car to take the baby home with.
Skoda Fabia 1.2 (A)
ENGINE 1197cc, 8-valves, inline-4, turbocharged
MAX POWER 105bhp at 5000rpm
MAX TORQUE 175Nm at 1500-4100rpm
POWER TO WEIGHT 90.2bhp per tonne
GEARBOX 7-speed dual-clutch with manual select
0-100KM/H 10.2 seconds
TOP SPEED 189km/h
CONSUMPTION 18.9km/L (combined)
PRICE INCL. COE $73,800 (as of August 2010)
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