Used Skoda Fabia cars for sale

Used Skoda Fabia pros and cons

Is a second hand Skoda Fabia a good car?

The Skoda Fabia is a small hatchback which is probably the most sensible car you can buy. Rather like buying a pair of Clarks shoes instead of Nikes, it’s not the most thrilling purchase in the world, but it will last and prove very comfortable indeed. Other brands of shoe are available, of course. 

The Fabia shares all of its structure with the Volkswagen Polo and SEAT Ibiza, and it’s an alternative to the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris, and Vauxhall Corsa. 

Sticking with Skoda tradition, it looks a lot like the old Fabia — a car which kept going on an ancient mechanical structure for far longer than it should have — but it’s lower, wider, and longer and so a bit more handsome, if not quite as good looking as the Ibiza. That said, the sporty-looking (but not driving) Monte Carlo models add a little more visual pizazz.  

Up front there’s a big grille that draws inevitable Ned Flanders comparisons, but the neat lights and smart alloy wheels give the Fabia a surprisingly upmarket look. 

Inside, the dash is rather more interesting to look at than those of its sister models from VW and SEAT. The Polo and Ibiza have very upright, simple dashboards, whereas the Fabia’s looks a bit cooler, with a slim bar that runs across the middle, and big round air vents at each end. There’s a good haul of cheap plastic in here, but it’s all put together very well, and the large infotainment screen helps to class the joint up a bit. 

There’s plenty of space and comfort in the front seats, with lots of adjustment so that you can find a driving position which works for you. Those seats are very supportive for longer journeys, so the Fabia is more of an all-rounder than you might have expected. There’s even a handy umbrella tucked into the driver’s door. 
The rear seats are slightly less impressive. There’s good space, and handy ISOFIX points for child safety seats, but while there’s plenty of headroom, legroom is a bit tight if there are tall people sat in the front. A Honda Jazz has considerably more rear seat space. 

The Fabia does have a massive boot, though. At 380 litres it’s the most capacious small hatch around, and not only does it beat the boot capacities of the Polo and Fiesta, it’s actually the same size as you get in the VW Golf — a bigger car altogether. Flip down the back seats and there’s 1,190 litres of loadspace to play with, but you’ll only get a totally flat floor if you track down a model with the optional adjustable boot floor panel. 

Mostly, the Fabia comes with a choice of three three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol engines, with either 80hp, 95hp, or 116hp (upgraded recently from an earlier 110hp engine). The two basic engines come with a standard five-speed manual gearbox, while the 116hp version comes with either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed DSG automatic. 

There’s also a rarer 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol, which comes only with the automatic, and if you can find one it makes a great long-distance cruiser, thanks to impressive refinement and fuel economy. 

Around town, the Fabia’s compact size makes it easy to manoeuvre and it’s easy to see out of, aside from the chunky rear pillars which can limit vision when tackling tight angled junctions. The DSG automatic makes life easier in town too, so seek one of those out if most of your miles are urban ones. The Fabia’s turning circle is under 11 metres so it’s easy to park, and higher-spec models come with a reversing camera.  

On motorways, the Fabia is smooth and pretty refined for a small car, and even the basic models come with cruise control. Higher-spec versions even get radar-guided cruise, and sophisticated lane-keeping steering. The suspension is good at dealing with bumps and poor surfaces too. It's not the most thrilling hatchback to drive on a twisty road — get a Fiesta if that’s what you’re after — but it’s fine, and you could always get a Monte Carlo version and just pretend it’s a hot hatch.

What to look for when buying a used Skoda Fabia

VW Group hasn’t been very good at making touchscreen software in recent years, and there have been plenty of complaints about the screens being glitchy and unreliable to use. Even when it’s working, the Fabia’s screen can be quite slow and has a confusing menu layout. Software updates can fix some — but not all — of that.

The DSG automatic gearbox is also a trouble spot, with reports of jerky changes especially around town. It also needs more maintenance than a conventional automatic, with regular oil changes a must for older cars. 

The engines ought to be solid though — they’re all used in lots of other Skoda, VW, Audi, SEAT, and Cupra models and there have been no major problems reported. The Fabia didn’t feature in the most recent Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own survey, but the mechanically-identical VW Polo finished in 41st position, with owners not giving it a great rating for reliability. 

Skoda as a brand finished in 23rd position out of 32 in the overall Driver Power customer satisfaction survey – ahead of both SEAT and VW – with 23% of owners reporting problems with their cars.