Step inside the ever stylish, spacious Skoda Fabia

Published on 6 March, 2022

Overview

In such a “frying pan and fire” world, talk of new cars and motoring awards is the farthest from many people’s minds; and rightly so.

Yet what is happening in Ukraine will affect all our pockets as well the state of our minds.

Technology might get better but the human ability for evil has never gone away.

Then, of course, there are the inspiring tales of survival, fortitude and bravery.

Parents, children, aged aunts and the family dog packing into a small car and travelling from war zones through long days and nights to safety, not knowing if they will ever return and, if they do, what will be there for them.

You want to do something. I was a glass of wine away from booking my flights to Poland’s Rzeszow airport last week and then crossing the border to fight.

The next morning a clearer head knew I’d probably be more hindrance than help and that money should go instead.

It’s good to see the way the world is trying to make Russia a pariah state. Even the European Car of the Year organisation which announced its 2022 winner last Monday said it had suspended the votes of its two Russian members.

The all-electric Kia EV6 took the award, closely followed by two other EVs, the Renault Megane E-Tech and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which shares so much of the technology and underpinnings of the winner.

In fact, it is the first time a Korean brand has won the award.

I think the Ioniq 5 is probably more family friendly, a view echoed by Michael McAleer of The Irish Times who is this country’s only juror after replacing that paper’s much-loved motoring editor Andrew Hamilton.

Michael gave his top vote of eight (from 25) to the Ioniq 5, saying its “futuristic styling, smart performance, family spaciousness and a battery range that tends to live up to its promise combine with competitive pricing to make this a winner”.

In giving the EV6 six points, he remarked that it had “marginally sharper handling than its Korean cousin – perhaps due to the lower stance.

“The Hyundai has the more practical cabin and futuristic looks, however, to give it the edge.”

The others on the seven-strong shortlist were the Cupra Born, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Peugeot 308 and Skoda Enyaq iV.

My colleague Eddie Cunningham of the Irish Independent is on the World Car of the Year jury which begins its report next week.

Amazing that it was 16 years ago this month that Andrew died from a heart attack as he approached his 65th birthday.

He had served on the European Car of the Year Jury since 1980.

While overall, new car numbers are down 4.6pc this year, mostly because of supply issues, sales of EVs are galloping ahead with 4,320 new electric models registered, compared to 1,782 in the same period last year.

The Korean duo of Hyundai and Kia have a massive dominance of the top-five places in EV sales in 2022.

The Ioniq 5 took a commanding lead, with 820 units sold, followed by the EV6 with 454, the Volkswagen ID.4 at 449, the Nissan Leaf at 447 and the Kia Niro, which will be replaced later this year, at 287.

Away from all this electric chatter, it was good to be testing a very honest, small hatchback last weekend. Skoda is now becoming well known for — and making a lot of money from — its range of SUVs like the Kodiaq, Karoq, Kamiq and the aforementioned Enyaq EV.

These sell well alongside the large Octavia and Superb hatchbacks beloved by taxi drivers and families alike.

Yet for more than 23 years, the Skoda Fabia has been plugging away towards the bottom of the market offering an entry level car with value for money, low running costs and impressive space.

Now the fourth generation model has been put on the Volkswagen Group’s modular MQB-A0 platform, some five years after the Seat Ibiza and VW Polo were developed on it.

The time has been well spent. The car is unbelievably spacious for what, even at 4108mm, is still a small car. In the test model, there were great supportive seats, a massive — class leading — boot with even a spare wheel and rear seating that was easy to access.

It all looks rather good and has a nice array of safety equipment.

However, while the all-petrol range starts at €19,150 for the 65hp Active model, you really need to put in another €4,000 at least for the 95hp Style model and then even another €2,000 plus of optional extras.

You then have a car that will take you to 100kmh in 10.6 seconds against 16 seconds and a fair bit of style inside and out. Of course, you are then at a different price level where there is an awful lot of competition. But, as I said, this is an honest little car that drives competently, doesn’t over promise but gives good standard motoring.

There are downsides: the manual gearbox should have six gears instead of five and woe betide you if you try and overtake without changing down quite drastically; you hear a lot of road noise, which would be very annoying on a long trip and the infotainment system looks nice but is very much a curate’s egg, good, then very annoying.

Yet there is a lot of style in this car and is a very refreshing change from all the SUVs that are out there, including the ones from Skoda.

The Czech car-maker has never been afraid to put the odd touches of prestige on its vehicles.

The Skoda Fabia has really come of age and couples and families wanting good, solid well-built motoring should consider it.

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A reader called Dan, rightly suggested that I should pay tribute to Mitsubishi after the company withdrew from selling here.

It was run by the Frank Keane group from premises off the Naas road for years. A girlfriend many years ago was very proud of her little Colt which was massively popular.

There were also generations of Pajeros (with their 12 wins in the Paris-Dakar rally, seven in succession) which gave a true workhorse to the 4x4 community, the excellent Outlander PHEV and of course, the Evo — quite some performance car.

Mitsubishis were solid, thoroughly reliable cars bought by a legion of loyal followers and sold by a great dealer network. They will be missed.