Skoda Fabia Review & Prices

The Skoda Fabia is the Ned Flanders of small hatchbacks. Just like the character from The Simpsons, the Fabia is sensible, family-friendly, reliable, and has a moustache (well, a grille anyway). It may not be much fun, but gosh-darn-diddly-arn it, it’s as practical as they come.

You won’t find much evidence of passion nor excitement in the Fabia’s styling. Like Ned’s green jumper and sensible slacks, it’s been designed under the auspices of rationality, not thrills. That said, it’s a crisp and broadly handsome car, and one that looks mildly sporty if you get it in Monte Carlo trim, with the contrast black roof and racier alloy wheels. It’s also notably nicer to look at than its stablemate, the Skoda Scala, but while the VW Polo (identical under the skin) and SEAT Ibiza could hardly claim to be more exciting, a Renault Clio does offer a more stylish alternative.

Oddly though, the Fabia’s cabin actually looks quite posh, with big round air vents bisected by a trim section that runs the full-width of the dashboard. Okay, so it’s no Rolls-Royce Phantom, but it’s a more aesthetically pleasing look than the plain and blocky cabin of the VW Polo. The downside is that the Fabia doesn’t quite have the VW’s sense of hefty quality — there are too many cheap plastics around the place for that.

Still, you get a decent touchscreen (8.2 inches as standard, 9.2 inches if you’re prepared to pay more) and the front seats are very comfortable, with lots of adjustment, and ditto for the steering wheel, so you’ll be able to find the right driving position for you. Being an older design, the Fabia is also one of the remaining cars that uses buttons for functions, rather than lobbing everything into the touchscreen, so it’s a lot easier to use than some more modern cars.

The back seats are only tolerably spacious — they’re roomy by the overall standards of the small hatchback class, but if you want some proper grown-up-sized space, you’ll need to consider a Honda Jazz instead. However, the Fabia does have one of the biggest boots when compared with alternatives. In fact, at 380 litres, it’s a match for the likes of a bigger VW Golf or Mazda 3. It was the outright biggest boot of all small hatchbacks until the Renault Clio came along and bested it by 10 litres…

The boot extends to 1,190 litres when folding the rear seats down – but you’ll need to buy the optional variable boot floor for a flat space which comes as part of a ‘Simply Clever Plus Package.’

If you’re buying the Fabia as a family car, the good news is that there are now three ISOFIX points as standard — two in the back seat and one in the front passenger seat, the latter of which was previously an option.

The Fabia comes with a choice of two engines, both petrol-only — there’s a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine, which you can have without a turbocharger, in 80hp MPI form, but that’s only for those happy with a 0-62mph time on the wrong side of 15 seconds. More sensible are the 95hp and 116hp turbocharged versions of the same engine, and the more powerful version comes with the option of a seven-speed dual-clutch ‘DSG’ automatic gearbox.

At the top of the range is a four-cylinder 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine, developing 150hp, which comes only in automatic form. It’s a smooth engine, and pretty economical too, but the best choice overall is the 116hp three-pot with the manual gearbox.

The Fabia is at its best in town — it has a tight turning circle so it’s easy to swing around in tight spaces, and it rides comfortably over bumps. The turbocharged engines are also zippy enough to allow you to slot easily into gaps, and the boot’s big enough for anyone’s weekly ‘big shop’.

Motorway driving is fine too — wind and tyre noise are kept fairly well under control, and the engines — basic 80hp version aside — have enough pep to make long journeys easy, while the suspension soaks up the worst surfaces. It’s only on a twisty back road that the Fabia feels like a bit of a let-down. It’s not bad to drive or anything, just lacking in a sense of fun.

As long as you’re not looking for a wannabe-GTI, though, the Fabia is still an excellent choice for a well-priced small hatchback. Don’t expect the latest in technology, but do expect plenty of space, decent quality, and solid value for money.

If you want to see how much you could save, check out the latest Skoda Fabia deals, or browse Fabia lease deals. You can check out the latest used Fabias as well as other used Skodas available through our network of trusted dealers. You can sell your car through Carwow, too.

The Skoda Fabia has gone up in price of late, just like everything else, but it remains solid value for money. Against its cousin, the VW Polo, a basic Fabia costs a bit less, and even a SEAT Ibiza is slightly pricier, although it does come with the punchier engine as standard.

A basic Renault Clio, with a 90hp turbo engine, is actually slightly cheaper than the Fabia, while a Dacia Sandero — with the same engine as the Clio — is a whopping £5,000 cheaper. The Fabia has a massive advantage over a Honda Jazz, though; it’s almost £10,000 cheaper than the Honda.

The Skoda Fabia is easy to drive and very comfortable for a small car, although it isn’t that fun to drive quickly

In town

Small cars can feel a little lumpy over poor road surfaces in town, but the Skoda Fabia just soaks them up, making it very comfortable at slow speeds. You also get decent visibility with large windows and wing mirrors that show you exactly what’s going on.

Okay, so the manual gearbox is a little notchy but the clutch is light and the accurate steering makes it easy to place the Fabia on the road. The optional DSG automatic can feel a bit slow-witted at times, around town.

Parking is a doddle and the Fabia comes as standard with rear parking sensors. Want some more help? Then the Convenience Package (which costs just over £800) adds front sensors and a reversing camera.

On the motorway

The Skoda Fabia is great on the motorway for a small car. It’s got good sound insulation from road noise, there’s not too much wind noise, the seats are comfy and generally it feels like a much bigger car than it is.

If you’ll spend your time driving up and down the country, the optional Assisted Drive package could be a wise buy. With it fitted the Fabia can accelerate, brake and steer itself on the motorway and in queues of traffic, which helps take the edge off long drives. All Fabias come with basic cruise control as standard, though, which helps on motorways if you don’t fancy paying up for adaptive cruise.

On a twisty road

In corners, the Skoda’s steering wheel doesn’t communicate how much grip the front tyres have but that doesn’t matter in a family hatchback. It goes where you point it and handles pretty well, you don’t have to deal with loads of body lean and the little Skoda has got plenty of grip. It’s secure, rather than fun.

The Skoda Fabia has loads of room for a car this size, but you will find some evidence of cost-cutting

All Skodas have a decent driving position and the latest Fabia is no different. It has loads of adjustment for the steering wheel and the driver's seat so getting a comfortable driving position isn’t an issue. All models come with front seats that move for height and have lumbar adjustment, but only top-end versions have a front-centre armrest and it isn’t adjustable.

Want to stay nice and toasty in the depths of December? Then hit the button for the Winter Premium Package on Skoda’s configurator – it adds heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated windscreen and an indicator for the washer fluid reservoir.

Keeping the interior looking tidy should be easy, too, because there are plenty of smaller storage areas scattered around the cabin. You get a storage space under the front centre armrest with a 12V charging socket, plus there are two cupholders in the centre console and a tray for your phone with two USB-C plugs and optional wireless charging as part of a pack that also includes more powerful USB-C sockets. SE L models get ambient interior lighting but all Fabias have Skoda’s trademark handy feature – an umbrella hidden in the driver’s door for emergencies.

Okay, so the glovebox is an average size but all four door bins are huge, they can hold a large bottle of water, and there's a small lidded cubby below the steering wheel which is perfect for hiding keys and change. You also get vanity mirrors behind the sun visors.

Space in the back seats

The Skoda Fabia is surprisingly big for a small car. It’s about 100mm longer between the front and the rear wheels than the car it replaced many years ago, and you feel every one of those extra millimetres in the back seat where tall adults get decent head and legroom.

That length in the Skoda’s body also means you get plenty of room behind the front seats to fit a baby’s seat, plus the ISOFIX points — two in the back and one in the front passenger seat as standard, now — are easy to locate and don’t have the annoying removable covers that you’re bound to lose on other cars.

In terms of handy features, the Fabia’s back seats doesn’t come up short. Depending on what model you go for you can have a rear-centre armrest with moulded cup holders, two USB-C plugs (part of the optional Charging Package, which also includes one built into the rear view mirror for plugging in a dash-cam) and map pockets on the backs of the front seats that have a smaller pocket for your phone.

Boot space

The Skoda Fabia’s 380-litre boot is the second-biggest you’ll find in this size of car – a Renault Clio has 390 litres, but the Fabia easily beats a Polo’s boot, which holds just 350 litres, while a Honda Jazz only offers 304 litres. Skoda has sprinkled the boot with handy features like hooks for keeping your shopping upright and you get a smaller storage space that’s handy for smaller items like a bottle of screenwash.

Want more features? Then the £195 Simply Clever Package adds smaller storage spaces, a pull-out cover that protects the bumper from your dog’s claws, storage nets and a boot floor with a wipe-clean side.

Drop the back seats and you get a maximum capacity of 1,190 litres, although loading isn’t helped by the nasty hump in the floor that you’ll have to lift longer items over when you’re sliding them into place. The optional Simply Clever Plus package solves this issue by giving you an adjustable boot floor, but it’s a feature that comes as standard in the Volkswagen Polo.

The Skoda Fabia has a smart interior with a good touchscreen, but some of the materials are pretty cheap

The Skoda Fabia has a neat interior with a variety of shapes and surface finishes that keep things looking interesting. Even the hard plastics on the tops of the doors and the dashboard are textured so they look cool, although they don’t feel great.

You can have neat features like copper highlights and a band of fabric trim that stretches from the centre of the dashboard to the passenger side, although we’ll not mention its wonky stitching. On the upside, you get flowing interior door handles which look cool (although they’re not that easy to hold) and a smart two-spoke steering wheel (three spokes for the Monte Carlo model) with controls for the car’s infotainment and safety features. They’re proper buttons which are much easier to use than the touch-sensitive controls you get on cars like the Volkswagen Golf or indeed the Skoda Octavia.

The 8.3-inch or 9.3-inch touchscreens which are fitted to the Fabia are decent, but they can be a little unresponsive to use, so it’s best to side-step the inbuilt system and use your smartphone’s menus via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto which are both wirelessly connected as standard.

You’ll also like the Skoda’s proper ventilation-system buttons, which are a lot easier than having to trawl through infotainment menus just to turn up the heater, and the touchscreens are a little less info-dense than more modern systems, so at least they’re a bit easier to find your way around.

All Fabias come with a digital dashboard display which makes the interior feel that bit more modern, while you get the bigger 10.3-inch screen in Design versions and above.

The Skoda Fabia is available with a choice of four variations of two petrol engines – a 1.0-litre with 80, 95 or 116hp and a 1.5-litre with 150hp. The 80 and 95hp models get a five-speed manual gearbox as standard, while the 116hp model has a six-speed manual, with an optional seven-speed twin-clutch automatic. The 150hp car is automatic as standard.

The 80hp Fabia is the cheapest to buy and makes sense if that’s your priority. If it’s not, it’s worth jumping a couple of levels to the 110hp petrol engine, which is just as cheap to run and a lot quicker – getting from 0-62mph in 9.9 seconds versus the 15.5 seconds it takes the 80hp version.

Sure it sends a few vibrations into the cabin at low speed and can get quite raucous under hard acceleration – but it’s quiet at a cruise and gives the Fabia plenty of performance.

That the 80hp engine is underpowered is reflected in the fact that it actually has higher emissions than the 95hp turbo engine, because you’re working it so much harder, which means that beating the 50mpg mark can be tricky. All-round, the Fabia actually has slightly high CO2 emissions (no hybrid, remember…) so tax prices are a bit chunky.

The 150hp petrol is the only four-cylinder (the rest have three) so it’s smoother and has hot hatch-worrying performance with 0-62mph taking eight seconds. If you want a true hot hatch experience, though, in this small hatchback class there aren’t many options anymore, other than the VW Polo GTI and the electric Alpine A290.

The Skoda Fabia should be one of the safest small cars on sale because it was awarded five stars when it was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2021.

Standard safety kit includes automatic emergency brakes, a lane assist that gently nudges the car back into lane if you cross the white lines and E-Call+, which can automatically call an ambulance if you’re involved in an accident.

Skoda generally scores well in owner satisfaction surveys and you’d expect the new Fabia to be no different, although it’s too new to say for sure. Having said that, there have already been a couple of recalls for the passenger airbag and one for the right-hand rear seat backrest. All Skodas come with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty. The Skoda Fabia wasn’t included in the most recent Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own list, but the mechanically identical VW Polo finished in 34th position, with a middling ranking for reliability and quality.