hello everyone and welcome to the skoda fabia super mini and i know what you're thinking doesn't
sound like the most exciting car in the world well hold your horses and put your preconceptions
to one size because this is actually one of the best value for money cars you can currently buy
based on the same platform as the vw polo and sayat ibiza the fabia aims to offer a
value for money option without skimping too much on outright quality or space in fact
the fabia is one of the roomiest cars on sale today and should be high on the shopping list of
anyone looking for tardis-like practicality before i get started on the review however please don't
forget to subscribe to the parker's cast channel and turn your notifications on so you never miss
another video at the time of filming the skoda fabia has a straightforward selection of engines
all of which are petrol and range from a 65 horsepower naturally aspirated one liter
through to a horsepower turbocharged variant available exclusively with a six-speed dsg
automatic gearbox so one of the reasons that the fabia comes in cheaper than the ibiza and the polo
is because the cabin isn't quite as plush you'll notice some cheaper feeling plastics dotted around
and the design is airing more on the side of function rather than form however that
doesn't mean it's nasty in here it's far from it actually it just feels like you'd probably expect
a small car to whereas the ibiza and the polo are perhaps a level or two above there's tons of space
in here even if you are quite tall and the driving position is spot on with plenty of adjustment just
bear in mind that if you want adjustable lumbar support on the front seats you need to go for
the se comfort trim or higher and if you want an arm rest you need to get the s-e-l trim or higher
and also check this out you've got actual dials for the heater the air conditioning and
the climate control which is fantastic because it means you don't have to go into the screen
to just make things a little bit cooler but then the more detailed settings are in the screen but
we'll get on to that in a second this particular fabia is fairly highly spec'd in the sel trim
and that means you get the 9.2 inch infotainment screen if you go for some of the lower spec fabias
you get a 6.5 inch infotainment screen which is obviously a lot smaller and it also doesn't come
with built-in sat-nav however the fabia comes the standard with apple carplay and android auto so
even if you don't have the sat nav fitted to the car you can just use
the mapping software on your phone and it will be better than the fabia's own navigation system
and actually this car has wireless apple carplay and wireless android auto fitted and it's also
got a wireless phone charger so you don't even need to plug the phone in to get the car play
and the android auto functionality however if you're going to do a longer journey i would
recommend plugging it in because you might find that the charger can't charge the phone up fast
enough to offset the loss in battery from using android auto or apple carplay so longer journey
you're using the functionality just plug it in it's easier going back to the infotainment system
and you've got these nice shortcuts down the side which great because you can go to menu you can go
to home phone nav car that sort of thing and the screen itself is very clear and bright it
can sometimes be a bit laggy it's all right now but it can be a bit laggy when you're doing more
in-depth tasks and also when you go through to a menu shortcut it doesn't always then give you
the menu options that you think you're gonna get so the ui could be improved and hopefully
that won't count against me when we do hope's car olympics later on you can also get the virtual
cockpit digital dashboard try saying that five times fast on this car either as an option like
we've got here or a standard on the color edition or monte carlo models and although
it looks nice and premium because all expensive cars now have screens instead of dials
i got to say that it's not as good as the full fat audi virtual cockpit system so to be honest you're
probably just better off saving your money if it's not coming as standard on the trim
level that you want to go for meanwhile storage space in the fabia is pretty much as good as the
passenger space because there's tons of cubby holes and pockets where you can put all of your
odds and ends so up front here there's a place for your phone then there's the wireless phone charger
there which is optional on this car decent space underneath the armrest if you've got that fitted
hidden cubby here big door pockets massive glove box i mean check that out it is absolutely huge in
there and also a couple of cup holders and a place to put some change there i mean you could honestly
lose things very easily in this car finally i'm also a fan of lots of the nice hidden little
touches on this car which is supposed to make your life easier and they're part of skoda's simply
clever features so there's a usbc point up near the rear view mirror which i assume is there for
your dash cams you don't have the wire trailing down there's also a ice scraper in the fuel
filler cap and you've also got an umbrella hidden in the door in case the weather
comes over all british i mean that's a very very good idea as alluded to earlier the fabia comes
in a range of trim levels the cheapest is s then s e comfort sel colour edition and monte carlo
all models get standard equipment including led headlights a dab radio central locking and aircon
with a number of gadgets quickly increasing as you go up through the trim levels
climbing into the back of the fabia and i reckon you'll be pleasantly surprised with just
how much space there is back here there's more than enough room for two full-sized adults one
of those three might be a little bit of a push it is still possible on short journeys
you've got lots of knee room foot room and headroom even with this optional panoramic roof
and actually if you had the previous fabit or if you ever rode in the previous fabia
then that was a very roomy car but this has got an extra 94 millimeters between the front and the
rear wheels so that's quite a big big difference and you really feel it when you're sitting here
there's also neat touches such as a couple of very useful air vents to keep it cool back here
and also some pockets on the back of the front seats finally isofix points you've got one on
the outer rear seat one on the other outer rear seat and also one on the front passenger seat so
you've got three isofix points in what is actually quite a small car boot space is the fabia's party
piece it boasts a ginormous 380 liters of capacity that's 50 liters more than the old fabia and the
same volume as the far more expensive vw golf you can also get additional features such as
netting and handy boot storage compartments as well as hooks for your shopping bags
alternatively cars fitted with the comfort package basic get an emergency spare wheel and variable
height boot floor so we've come to the part of the video where we usually do something called
hopes car olympics it's a usability test where you have to fold the rear seats down
tune the radio into absolute fm and set the sat nav to buckingham palace and it's usually
done by our presenter hope helen unfortunately she's not very well today so i've had to step in
and i'll be doing hope's car olympics so wish me luck it's my first time right count down
go right okay i've got to go into the back seat to fold the seats down because you can't do it
from the boot go around here fold this down here and then they're done that was really really easy
now into the driver's seat ignore the beeping it's quite annoying but it has
that on all modern cars we go to the radio and then we can go to station list really simple
it's alphabetical absolute radio bang nav quickly oh dear what is that what is it doing
it comes up when you go to nav it comes up this really weird screen it's not what you'd expect
where's the menu no it's not there oh dear this is a bit oh there it is right so um there we go
buckingham palace monument start come on come on and we're ready so that wasn't too bad at all
the rear seat's super easy to fold down two little levers and you're done really easy anyway it could
have been easier if it could have done it from the boot but that's fine as it is radio again super
simple the sat nav it does a weird thing where you click on the nav and then it gives you something
which doesn't actually resemble the map it just shows you like a circle with lots of other circles
and where you've been which isn't helpful but then once i got to buckingham palace and they entered
the poi it was pretty good so i don't know i'll give it a seven or eight out of ten good efforts
so the fabia i'm driving here has a one liter 110 horsepower petrol engine and a six-speed manual
gearbox and if you're the kind of person that does a lot of motorway driving this is a great
choice that's because it's got plenty of go and also has the added benefit of a sixth gear which
not every car in the range has and that's perfect for motorway cruising you can get a
dsg automatic six-speed gearbox which is pretty good but actually i wouldn't bother the manual
is really nice and easy to use slick changes and is obviously a little bit cheaper moving on to
comfort and the fabia is one of the best riding small cars out there it absorbs the majority of
bumps and ruts and even at high speed delivers a respectable ride cars with larger 17 and 18 wheels
are the firmest but they're still more comfortable than many rivals another thing that i've noticed
is that the soundproofing really does seem to have been improved over the previous generation fabia
because there's less wind noise there's less road noise and there's also less engine noise
as well so while you still get that quite nice and characterful offbeat three-cylinder warble
it doesn't feel too intrusive so you can go on a long drive and still feel very relaxed at the
other end which for a car this size is brilliant the flip side of this impressive comfort is that
the fabia isn't the most exciting car to drive and it doesn't have that same handling magic as say
the renault clio or the ford fiesta yes there's plenty of grip and you won't feel unsafe in it
but it rolls into corners and the steering doesn't have as much life or feel however when it comes to
low speed handling such as around town it's extremely easy to drive and it's also very
simple to park mainly due to the big windows and the small thin pillars and also if that's
not enough on se comfort trim upwards you get rear parking sensors fitted as standard
if you're looking to buy a skoda fabia but you're not quite sure which one to go for
then here's our top three choices for the cheapest one available you want the s-spec
65-horsepower naturally aspirated car and it's the same story actually if you're a company car
driver but just bear in mind that if you do lots of motorway miles you'll probably want a slightly
more powerful engine such as what we have here which is the 110 horsepower model finally if
you want a hot hatch a fast version of the fabia then sadly the vrs version no longer exists but
you can get monte carlo spec in 150 horsepower 1.5 liter petrol form and that is plenty fast enough
the skoda fabia is a brilliant small car that delivers space equipment and comfort
in a well-priced inoffensive package that'll no doubt appeal to a broad spectrum of customers
so this might not be the fanciest or the most expensive car that i've ever driven but it doesn't
make it any less impressive it's so so easy to drive yet it often feels like a bigger car
chiefly because the amount of space in here and how smooth and refined the overall drive is if
it was my money i'd get the sel trim with either the 95 or 110 horsepower one liter petrol engine
and make sure that i spec the winter package the comfort plus package and the safety package
you