Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Sat 2 Jan 2021 12:46

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - PurplePeter

Hi,

I'm new here but I read some of the post's and articles and I can see that community here is really helpful and trustworthy. I'd like to ask for a small advice myself.

I need to buy a car, but I don't really know much about them and don't want to end up regretting my purchase decision. I don't need need it for much as I'm working from home atm, but It would be helpful to have a car for shopping, visiting friends, weekend joyrides and most importantly moving myself if my company will decide to move me across the country (It might happen at any given time). So after some research I decided that Skoda Fabia Estate would be perfect choice for me, as it's still fairly small, but larger and more likely to fit most of my stuff than anything else for the money.

So here comes my first question, is it a good choice? I read only good things about this car, but I'm always willing to listen to advice of someone more experienced than myself. Maybe other recommendations for a small, but not too small car, fairly cheap to run and maintain?

Other thing is, as currently I'm living away from my friends and family and have no one who can help me with car advice so I'm really not comfortable in trusting used car's dealers, it would be really easy to screw me over with anything really. So I think my only option is either to get a new car with PCP finance, or get a 2-3 years old from official dealers, as it's checked by their service and with some guarantee right?

What would you advice, especially when it comes to that skoda or other recommended by you car? Brand new or slightly used from official brand dealer? My main concern is being able to trust that it will be fine with no costly repairs in the span of 4-5 years, and re-sell value after this time.

As with either option I would like to go with PCP for 3 years, buy it at the and and then sell it after 2 more years or so. You think it's a good strategy, or it's better to just take PCP for 3-4 years and not being bother with buying and selling later on?

Sorry if all of this questions sound basic, but I never own a car before and I'm new to all of this.

Cheers,

Peter

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 13:16

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - badbusdriver

Well the good news is that as long as you are going for a petrol engine and manual gearbox, the Fabia is a cracking little car. The 'supermini estate' is very much a niche market for which I think Skoda is the only option. You used to be able to buy a Renault Clio estate, a Peugeot 207 estate, and a Seat Ibiza estate too, but thanks mainly to the rise of the small SUV/crossover, only Skoda (in this country anyway) still offer a supermini estate.

The 1.0TSI petrol is the one to go for, either 95 or 110bhp offering more than acceptable performance (esp the 110) coupled with exceptional economy.

As to the PCP aspect, that isn't something I have looked into myself, but reading various threads where they have cropped up, it seems that they only make financial sense (though by no means always) on a new car where the manufacturer is subsidising it in some way. Otherwise you are simply renting a car for however long the period is, usually at not very good interest rates. Seems that a personal loan would almost certainly work out cheaper on a used car, assuming you don't have a terrible credit rating.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 14:11

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - skidpan

We intended to buy a Fabia Estate just over 2 1/2 years ago but after looking at the hatch close up and borrowing one for the morning we found that it met our needs easily, no need to spend extra on the estate.

The Fabia is a cracking car. We bought the 110PS in SE-L trim and it never fails to amaze us what most would consider a small hatch can do. In truth its exactly the same width and length as a Mk2 Golf, a car that was considered to be a family car back in 80's so we should not be too surprised, just shows how cars have grown.

The car we had for the morning was the 95 PS version and it was absolutely fine but at the time another £600 got you the 110 PS version which in addition to the extra power (and a considerable amount more torques) also got you a 6 speed box and rear disc brakes. Tried one of those for about 10 miles and to me it was worth the money but if it had been a 95 PS or nothing the 95 PS would have been fine.

We bought ours from Carfile.net (like 2 other recent purchases) simply because there is no hassle and they seem to be nice people and use a good Skoda dealer (North Midlands but will deliver). They work in the way a good broker should, all they do is introduce you to the dealer who takes your deposit and delivers you the car, job done.

We got ours on a PCP with £2500 deposit contribution but paid it off with a week and kept that money, that is what the rules allow. We had the cash to do it but nothing to prevent you from getting a low APR loan and using that money, if it saves its better.

Just looked at a couple of reputable brokers sites and Carfile still has the lowest price still. A 1.0 TSi 95 SE (the most popular spec) in estate form would cost you £13262.40 after contributions plus any extras you desire. There is no better and more spacious car for the money.

But there is one down side I have spotted on all the sites I have looked at, the 110PS version seems to have disappeared, I think they probably want buyers to move to a bigger more expensive motor if they want the extra gear and power, that is a big shame.

As for running costs, ours has averaged a true calculated 50mpg during our ownership and other than 2 services (bought on a plan when we got the car) has not needed a garage visit.

Very happy.

Originally intended to keep it just 3 years but I think the wife would kill me if I swapped it in the near future. Considering we could possibly not get another 110PS version its a keeper.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 15:10

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - Bromptonaut

I have a 2016 Fabia Estate in Monte Carlo trim. It's an 1197cc 4cyl petrol, I think 90PS. There's been a minor facelift and change of engines since then - I think the current models are 3 cylinder as seems to be the rule now.

Bought just over a year ago, a distress purchase as my previous Roomster had been written off. I looked at a Ford B MAx, nice but pricey and a Toyota which I think was a Yaris, harsh 3cylinder engine note I didn't like.

The Fabia's certainly got plenty of space, the interior is very similar to my son in law's Octavia in spite of being two models lower down the Skoda range. Much smaller driveway footprint than the Octavia. The only disappointment is there's very little leg room in the back.

Because of the pandemic it's had far less use than I anticipated, less than 4,000 whereas I'd normally cover nearer 10k. Average fuel consumption on mostly urban (shopping and until March commuting) has been 44.1mpg based on brim/brim measures and the car's odometer. Absolutely nothing to report mechanically, just been serviced after 12 months in my ownership. It's stop/start and I think the battery is going home. The stop start operation is usually absent due to 'high electrical load' and this morning it warned me that the battery was low and that I should remedy this by driving.

It's nothing special, the Roomster had a bit of quirkiness about it, but as a 'white goods' type car it's pretty good.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 15:32

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - Heidfirst

I don't need need it for much as I'm working from home atm, but It would be helpful to have a car for shopping, visiting friends, weekend joyrides and most importantly moving myself if my company will decide to move me across the country (It might happen at any given time).

Just a thought but would a car-sharing club work for you or even hiring as & when necessary?

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 19:53

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - PurplePeter

Thank's for the responses, I see I choose my desired car wisely and will be going for it. Sadly only 95PS option is available everywhere I was checking so far, but I think it'll be enough for me. Reliability is much more important for me as having some additional power, and both versions seems to be good for the price.

I decided that getting new one will be a better option for myself, last think I still don't quite know is how to buy it. I checked couple of broker's websites and got offers as follow:

Coast2Coast - £12.776 on PCP

Autoebid - £13.026 on PCP

Carwow - £13.500 on PCP

Carfile - £15.762 on PCP

All of them are 1.0 TSI SE version

Only Carwow showed me offers from specific car dealerships, I don't really know from where the rest of them took their prices nor any specifics (like APR, my deposit, PCP length or potential final payment). I don't really know if I can trust these sites, or it would be safer to go to a dealership and try to haggle price down using these offers (or to go to one's that Carwow gave me offers from, and just strike a deal directly).

What do you think?

And while idea with carpooling might be the wisest one financially, I don't wan't to share a car with no one. It would be way to inconvenient and bothersome to negotiate going to a longer holidays or whatever. That's not for me.

Edited by PurplePeter on 02/01/2021 at 19:58

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 20:17

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - skidpan

You obviously have not read my earlier post.

The Carfile price is £15,762 less £2,500 making it £13,262, not quite the cheapest but having bought 3 cars from them since 2013 I can tell you that Jonathan is 100% honest and having bought 2 Skodas from him I can tell you they are a good dealer. In November this year I bought a pre-reg form the dealer taking my Skoda tally to 3.

Carfiles Skoda dealer also deals with CarWow so I would expect the prices to be close.

Drop Carfile an e-mail, you will not be disapointed. You have nothing to fear.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 20:39

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - PurplePeter

You obviously have not read my earlier post.

The Carfile price is £15,762 less £2,500 making it £13,262, not quite the cheapest but having bought 3 cars from them since 2013 I can tell you that Jonathan is 100% honest and having bought 2 Skodas from him I can tell you they are a good dealer. In November this year I bought a pre-reg form the dealer taking my Skoda tally to 3.

Carfiles Skoda dealer also deals with CarWow so I would expect the prices to be close.

Drop Carfile an e-mail, you will not be disapointed. You have nothing to fear.

Aha, so this is the price after this Skoda contribution. Got it. I wouldn't mind paying extra if from trustworthy source anyway tbh. These prices are low anyway and feel kinda sketchy to me (sorry, this is the way I was raised, to expect the worst from sales people).

Only thing I don't get with Carfile in comparison to CarWow, is who I'm buying the car from? Are they just haggling with dealers, and then taking their margin from them after I sign an agreement with dealership or it's straight with them? I would prefer to avoid the situation in which I would be unable to see/try the car before making my mind.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 20:52

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - skidpan

Buying via Car file is exactly the same as going direct to the dealer. You sign their order, pay them money and drive away the car. But you save money.

If that does not appeal pay more at your local dealer.

Your choice.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 22:29

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - SLO76

Perfectly decent wee cars. Regarding deals, I’d shop around for online broker prices as you have done then I’d call dealers within range, starting with the local and I’d offer them the chance to match the broker price. You’ll often find they’ll do it and shift a unit that’ll count towards their volume bonus. This also gives you a local face to face contact to deal with pickup and any issues. I did this with a contract hire Honda CRV a number of years ago, the one and only time I leased a car. The deal I gained was excellent.

Make sure you compare finance rates too as they may be sneaking money into their side of the deal via a higher APR. PCP’s only make sense when there’s a subsidised manufacturer backed deal on the table, otherwise a personal loan will be cheaper.

Edited by SLO76 on 02/01/2021 at 22:31

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 23:07

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - Smileyman

two comments as you are purchasing a brand new car.

Firstly, don't just research purchase price also research insurance. get some quotes now so that when you come to collect the car you have this sorted. Don't let it become a last minute afterthought, it may well cost you more. This is even more relevant if you have never held cover before, you won't have a "no claims history" to declare.

Secondly, as you probably are aware, new cars depreciate in value quickly. After 12 months if the vehicle is written off or stolen insurers will only pay "market value" for a car - which will be considerably less than what you paid. Research "GAP" insurance cover, so that in the event of your car being lost you are covered and put in the position (or at least better placed, depending on level of cover purchased) to replace with a new car. Hint, car dealers' cover is usually more expensive than found elsewhere, such as as advertised on a web site like this one.

Regarding your choice of car, I drive a similar, slightly larger hatchback car from SEAT, the car is comfortable, reliable, and cheap to fuel, Skoda shares the same parent company and many components' eg engine, if I replaced my car today the Skoda Fabia Estate would be top of my list.

Edited by Smileyman on 02/01/2021 at 23:12

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 08:40

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - RT

two comments as you are purchasing a brand new car.

Firstly, don't just research purchase price also research insurance. get some quotes now so that when you come to collect the car you have this sorted. Don't let it become a last minute afterthought, it may well cost you more. This is even more relevant if you have never held cover before, you won't have a "no claims history" to declare.

Secondly, as you probably are aware, new cars depreciate in value quickly. After 12 months if the vehicle is written off or stolen insurers will only pay "market value" for a car - which will be considerably less than what you paid. Research "GAP" insurance cover, so that in the event of your car being lost you are covered and put in the position (or at least better placed, depending on level of cover purchased) to replace with a new car. Hint, car dealers' cover is usually more expensive than found elsewhere, such as as advertised on a web site like this one.

Regarding your choice of car, I drive a similar, slightly larger hatchback car from SEAT, the car is comfortable, reliable, and cheap to fuel, Skoda shares the same parent company and many components' eg engine, if I replaced my car today the Skoda Fabia Estate would be top of my list.

When considering GAP insurance, remember that many Fully Comp insurance policies cover "new-for-old" in the first 12 months - so if you have that cover, arrange the GAP insurance to start from month 13. - no point in double cover, the won't both pay out.

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Sat 2 Jan 2021 23:22

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - Avant

Re the disappearance of the 110 bhp Fabia - out of interest I looked on Skoda's website, and these are 'availble from stock only'. I agree it's a shame: my daughter has one, an SEL, and it's excellent.

I think the reason may be something to do with winding down this model with a new model approaching later this year. I believe the 95 bhp model has just had to be tested for emissions to comply with Euro 6, and they may have decided to save on WLTP testing.

But if you can find a 110 in stock, there may be a good deal to be done on it. If you don't do many long trips, the 95 bhp model has only a 5-speed gearbox but is lively enough, if it's anything like the A1 courtesy car I had once.

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 07:10

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - daveyK_UK

Rear leg room is the main negative with the Fabia estate , likely one of the reasons it’s never appealed to the taxi trade despite the Octavia price creeping up and the Rapid no longer in production.

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 10:32

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - badbusdriver

Rear leg room is the main negative with the Fabia estate

Not sure it is actually. The Fabia is a supermini, the second smallest class or category of car. they exist for folk who neither want nor need anything bigger. If you want or need a new Skoda bigger than a Fabia, there is the Scala, Octavia, Superb plus various SUV's.

And i suspect the main reason the Fabia hasn't appealed to the taxi trade is the same reason they don't generally use Fiesta's, Corsa's or any other supermini, i.e, because they are supermini's.

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 11:03

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - SLO76

Rear leg room is the main negative with the Fabia estate

Not sure it is actually. The Fabia is a supermini, the second smallest class or category of car. they exist for folk who neither want nor need anything bigger. If you want or need a new Skoda bigger than a Fabia, there is the Scala, Octavia, Superb plus various SUV's.

And i suspect the main reason the Fabia hasn't appealed to the taxi trade is the same reason they don't generally use Fiesta's, Corsa's or any other supermini, i.e, because they are supermini's.

I’ve seen a few in Glasgow with taxi plates. Surprised me but then the Dacia Logan isn’t that unusual as a taxi these days thanks to the lack of other realistically priced new cars. The Toyota Avensis is gone, the Corolla hybrid is nearly £30k, the Skoda Octavia is now too expensive and the Superb is up at the sort of money a premium German exec should be.

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 17:02

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - skidpan

Until a couple of years ago there were a few Skoda Rabid's/Seat Cordoba's locally but they all disappeared to be replaced with Berlingo/Doblo type vehicles most have which have tail lifts. But I cannot see why the Fabia Estate would be less suitable than the Rabid since internally they are the same pretty much, its just that the Rabid was based on the earlier platform. The main issue I would expect with both is the width, there is no way 3 hefty people could sit comfortably in the rear for anything but a very short distance.

When we walked through town yesterday the taxi rank was entirely Berlingo/Doblo except for 2 which were a Passat estate and an E class Merc.

Have only seen one Dacia Logan locally but have also seen only one Tesla Model S.

Superb is up at the sort of money a premium German exec should be.

As for that comment have you looked at broker prices recently. A brand new Superb 1.5 TSi SE is available for just over £19,000. What other brand new German exec of that size will that money buy? When we PX's our Superb in October the dealer was suggesting it would possibly be going to a Taxi company since many were looking to adopt petrol and wit its low miles and perfect condition would be perfect. Never saw it advertised and it was taxed a few days after we left it at the dealer thus it went pretty quick, probably for about £13k. What 3.5 year old German exec could you get for that?

Think you need to update yourself on the current prices.

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Sun 3 Jan 2021 23:25

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - Avant

"....the taxi rank was entirely Berlingo/Doblo...."

There are some local authorities that insist on taxis being able to accommodate a wheelchair with the person still in it. Would that be a reason perhaps? Last time I took a taxi in Edinburgh it was a Peugeot - like a Partner but next size up; and the driver said the new ones were all like that, for that reason.

Necessary no doubt, but you'd think a few on each operator's fleet would be enough.

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Mon 4 Jan 2021 00:38

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - SLO76

“ Superb is up at the sort of money a premium German exec should be.

Think you need to update yourself on the current prices.”

£19k isn’t too bad, though I still think there’s a lot of money to lose at that. A quick look around on Autotrader and there’s loads new starting around £25k and some approaching £40k! which is quite frankly ludicrous. Anyone who spends that sort of money on a Skoda (no matter how good the car is) will be looking at a huge loss when they decide to sell it on. The days of Skoda offering solid, simple and robust cars at sensible money are over it seems and taxi fleets are responding accordingly. But yes you are probably right, I do need to accept that prices have gone up hugely in recent years. I certainly won’t be helping them rise further myself however, I doubt I’ll ever buy another new car again. The decade old Toyota I have now runs without fault despite costing a fraction of the insane cost of a similar sized new estate, even one from Eastern Europe and the six year old XC60 swmbo runs cost less than half its new price despite its low mileage and perfect condition. Both will hopefully remain on my drive for many years to come, bypassing the huge depreciation of new cars. I just need a wee fun car of some sort to complete the fleet.

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Mon 4 Jan 2021 08:15

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - skidpan

Anyone who spends that sort of money on a Skoda (no matter how good the car is) will be looking at a huge loss when they decide to sell it on.

I live in the real world and accept that when you buy a car, run it for 3 years and then sell it you will loose money. Its always been like that and always will be. I try to buy with minimising that loss as part of the decision making process but there is no point in buying a car that may be a tad cheaper in depreciation if you hate it for 3 years or more, that would be false economy.

When we bought the Superb back in March 2017 we paid just over £19000 at Carfile which included a couple of options (metallic and rear tints) and 3 years 8 months later the same dealer gave us £11000 PX against a heavily discounted 3 week old Superb iV. That is 57% of the purchase price, an excellent figure. And its not like the iV is a model that is filling up the dealers forecourts, when I looked on Autotrader this dealer was the only one who had stock, factory orders were predicted to take about 6 months. We will almost certainly loose more ££££'s when we come to sell on the iV but who knows, if the prediction that EV's and PHEV's will hold their values better as they become more desirable comes true the opposite may be true, need new batteries in the crystal ball.

Looking at the prices of a Superb compared to a "German exec" competitor the price differences are huge. The cheapest petrol 5 Series is the 520i SE which has a retail of £40560, Carfile list it at £36812. The closest Superb is the 2 litre 190PS SE-L which retails at £31260 which Carfile list at £24953. Those are huge price differences and if you are capable of overlooking the badge and are prepared to run a "communist" car the Skoda is every bit as good and generally beats the BMW's in all the reliability surveys. Even if the BMW did achieve better residuals later in life it would never loose less ££££'s than the Skoda.

I don't want to run 10 year old near bangers, too much of a lottery. I ran such cars when I was 17 and think I deserve something better after working hard all my life.

But it takes all sorts.

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Wed 6 Jan 2021 20:40

Skoda Fabia Estate - New car advice - mark999

The tsi 110 estates are available from stock only, there are plenty knocking around.

At the moment Skoda are offering £2500 deposit contribution (for PCP) 2 services for £99 and you can extend the warranty to 5 years for £325.

Hope this helps, Mark

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