[Ramukaka]

I too had the pleasure of owning one. It was pre-face lift Petrol -2009 model. Was with me till 2017. Was joined by Laura 1.8 TSI in 2012.

Did many outstation trips before Laura came in & then obviously highway runs were in the Laura. Apart from one window switch (& of course regular service & Battery), there was no other repair/maintenance cost. I loved it for the stable ride & tank like built.

Sold in 2017, replaced by Octy. Till date regret the decision of parting with her.

[W.A.G.7]

Nice review and great to see such a well-maintained car after 10 years of ownership. The Fabia was an excellent European hatchback, and the 1.2 MPI engine was pretty okay from the maintenance point of view. I also remember, back in 2010; when I bought my Micra, the Fabia was pretty expensive and was considered a premium hatchback.

It was the 1.4 MPI engine which they launched with this car, which gave a bad reputation to this car and Skoda in general and hammered the final nails in the coffin. The 1.4 MPI engine was prone to fail and if you search around the forum, you will find out many problems reported in that engine. Comparatively, this 1.2 MPI engine, though underpowered; was pretty reliable.

[Aakash118]

Really it’s one of the best hatches sold in India ever and highly underrated too, especially given the attention it’s cousin Polo gets. I had the 1.2 TDI for eight years and it was just so much fun to drive, still regret selling it. Here is one memory of her.

[kamleshp]

Thank you for this post @thirugata, your Fabia story mirrors my buying experience.
I bought Skoda Fabia Elegence 1.2 MPI in January 2012, it has been 10+ years and the car still runs strong.





Below is my story of Skoda Fabia.
Cars Considered (recollection from my memory):
- Hyundai i10/i20: Did not like the driving/handling and there were no discounts.
- Maruti Suzuki Swift: No discounts, sales guy did not show much interest.
- Ford Figo: Did not like interiors, found it cramped.
- Honda Jazz: On the way to Honda showroom, we stopped at TAFE Skoda, we saw the car in showroom and were impressed by the interiors, no other car had such premium interiors. The sales guy got the car home for test drive and over that gave a handsome discount making the price way lower than Swift.
Once I test drove Fabia, I did not look at any other car. Bought the top end petrol and the rest is happy 10+ years ownership.
Some nifty features that I got 10 years ago in Fabia are advertised by cars now, e.g. anti-pinch power windows, remote power window, safety lock from inside, etc.
The fabric seats are very comfortable, they became benchmark when I started test driving cars for my recent upgrade.
Colour quality is top notch, my car used to be parked in open for considerable time, but there is hardly any colour fade. It still shines. All the pictures here are from last 1 year.
Driving is best in class; I doubt any hatchback can come closer to Fabia’s highway driving experience. 90-110 kmph is sweet spot, it will give you good mileage as well at this speed on highway. Aggressive driving is so much exciting in Fabia but the mileage drops drastically.
Have travelled to Hampi, Goa, Ooty, Mangalore-Udupi, Lepakshi, and multiple trips to K.G.F., Chennai, Mysore in this car without any complaints.

In recent times have experience ABS (on and off) and air intake issues, but nothing close to major problem.
Service wise it has not been any challenge at all, in fact that one time I gave it to service outside authorized Skoda service center I have had problems.
It will be a touch choice to sell this, I know.

[RJK]

Nice review of a very good car. The colour you have is just too good, Cappuccino Beige as Skoda used to call it. We had bought the 1.2 TDi version in Ambiente Trim as a daily driver for Bombay. It was my first tryst with the brand Skoda, just to check if I can experiment with more money on buying a higher value product.

The 1.2 TDi engine was very good for the city, fuel efficient and with good bottom end torque. The stability of the vehicle was unparalleled for a hatchback, I felt it was better than a Honda city of the same vintage!

However, the chink in the armour was Škoda’s service and ultimately led to us selling the car in 3 yrs of ownership. Nothing against the car but I was done with the dealers.

I hope you have many more fruitful kilometres with the car!

Cheers

[Shreyans_Jain]

Oh man, the Fabia was a gem of a car. A highly under appreciated vehicle that was essentially a full segment above the other hatchbacks of its time, and a couple of generations ahead in terms of engineering finesse. Even today, I don’t think anything other than the Tata Altroz comes close for build quality and ride and handling.

I came extremely close to buying one. Booking was made for the 1.2 TDI, but we had some issues with the dealership and ultimately ended up cancelling. Went for the Honda Jazz instead, another super competent and underrated car.

[thirugata]

Originally Posted by kamleshp

Thank you for this post @thirugata, your Fabia story mirrors my buying experience.
I bought Skoda Fabia Elegence 1.2 MPI in January 2012, it has been 10+ years and the car still runs strong.

Well maintained car I must say. So we bought our cars around same time. I completely agree with you, even my car used to be out in the sun in office parking area and didnt have any issue with paint.
BTW, the basement parking looks so similar to the apartment where I live, however I dont recollect seeing a red fabia in our apartment complex.

[anuragbagur]

That is a very well maintained Fabia and I am very happy that you have had a great time with it over the last 10 years! This car's build and ride quality, interior finesse (Ex: the dash had soft touch plastics!), seating comfort was 2 segments above during that time. It was truly a fantastic package for someone who appreciates quality and attention to detail. However, the VAG group failed it give it the required attention in terms of features and engine options. It was definitely a notch above Polo; it deserved all those engines which were plonked in Polo over the years: 1.6 TDI, 1.2 TSI and recent 1.0 TSI. Sad that they pulled the plug on this one. I had the pleasure of owning and experiencing this for a good 8 years (I had the 1.2 TDI Ambition Plus variant) and went bonkers with upgrades, mods and what not! (it was unbelievable that Skoda did not even give a basic HU in INR 8 lakhs car). I wish you many more miles of fuss free ownership and happy memories.

[puchoo]

Great thread and i just had to say a few things also given that i had a 1.6 Black Fabia for a few years and even till now i miss her despite having purchased 2 more cars since.

The car is unfortunately with my ex wife now and probably not getting the care it deserves but for the 3 years i did drive her it was a pleasure - the 1.6 engine was fantastic be it in the plains or the mountains, maneuverability on point and enough space on offer - yes a few bits here and there were dates, it was a little on the expensive side compared to others but you could not help but fall in love.

Had a long active thread on the forum - its still present in fact - detailing out the ownership experience.

Great thread again and thanks for bringing up some great memories!

[GeeTee TSI]

Lovely review of a lovely car, the diligent maintenance throughout the lifetime of the car highlighting that the car was loved irrespective of its age

We had a 2008 Fabia 1.2 HTP Ambiente in the family (first generation) which served till 2019 without any major repairs along its 'light duty' in my hometown. This was a car where VAG missed to carry out cost cutting; what with three 3-point seatbelts in the rear, height adjustable front seatbelts and lovely (super effective) frameless wipers as standard. The replacement to the Fabia that my Father currently drives from 2019 has none of the above listed features, if that's progress

[thirugata]

11th year Report

Odo Reading: 122000
Distance covered this year: Aprox 27,000 KMs

Servicing details:

2 Annual services (As the covered distance is more than 15000 KMs) with avg cost per service at 9,100 Rs.
1 Repair service where following parts needed replacement: Connector Link, Control arm, break disk, mirror assembly, costing 27500 Rs.
2 tyres were replaced.

Thirugata she did:

Bangalore - Mysore - Bangalore - 300 KMs
Bangalore - Kushalnagar - Bangalore - 500 Kms
6 trips to Bangalore - Mangalore - Bangalore with average of about 900 KMs per drive

Bangalore - Panjim - Mumbai - Dadra - Daman - Diu - Gandhinagar - Bhopal - Jaipur - New Delhi - Chandigarh - Jammu - Srinagar - Leh - Shimla - Dehradun - Lucknow - Patna - Gangtok - Guwahati - Itanagar - Kohima - Imphal - Aizawl - Agarthala - Shillong - Ranchi - Kolkatta - Bhubaneshwar - Raipur - Hyderabad - Amaravati - Chennai - Puducherry - Thiruvananthapuram - Bangalore - 18000 KMs.

(If you haven't read the travelogue of this, here it is - (28 State Capitals, 6 Union Territories | All-India Road Trip | Capital Connect)


Some of the photos clicked during this year:

















Conclusion:

It had been the busiest year for her, her average runabout had been about 9000 KMs for first 10 years but this year she munched 3 times the miles and was hungry for more. In the process she took me to places where I had never been to and also to some places where I never thought I would go in this car. At the end of it she didn't even break a sweat & stayed trouble free.

My confidence in this car has gone up multifold this year. Let's see what the year 12 brings.