USED Skoda Fabia Hatchback (00 - 07)

My car

I have a 6 month old new model. It has had a fault on the cooling system which resulted in a warranty repair. There was a loose pipe on the cooler in the glove department.

Dealership aftersales was terrible.

My car

We bought this 1.4-litre base model three months ago as a spare car and for out-of-town members of staff to use when needed. I've given it five stars overall as although it's not perfect, you won't find a better little car for the money!

My main gripe is the tacky non-OEM CD player/radio. This was also the reason my wife didn't want one herself a year ago, as she said 'it looks like a second-hand car already'.

Overall, it's a nice enough little car - it's comfortable and about the only car in the fleet where I don't need the seat as far back as it will go.

The engine needs a lot of revs and might have been better with eight valves and more torque. The power steering is brilliant and the air-conditioning has coped with the 40-degree temperatures of Cyprus.

I'm hoping my wife might reconsider the new model (which I've seen) next year, which is basically the same, but a bit more classy - and 17% more expensive!

My car

My Fabia is now almost six years old but has done only 42,000 miles. A recurring fault has now resulted in complete loss of power steering and since the reason for this could be: ECU or pump or sensors (garage speak). It looks as though the costs to sort this out could be astronomical.

The original problem was that the power steering light kept coming on, so the car went back and forward to the garage to have fluid levels etc checked, but there was no problem with this. Computer checks came up with no definitive answer as to what the problem(s) was. What is the use of electronic computers if they don't identify specific faults! It has just cost me £250 to find out there is a problem - somewhere.

Checking website reviews, it looks as though the Fabia is prone to electrical faults so anyone considering buying one should beware.

I am not happy with my car, and I will never buy another.

My car

unlucky ? as my local skoda dealer suggested when i'd taken my car back to garage for the sixth time to have various faults rectified, irritating things such as rear washer refusing to work i could tolerate that,returning the car to have lambda probes replaced after 4 months and finally after limping back yet again to the garage to be told there was a fault with the ignition coils this was a car barely 6 months old,it was constantly stalling particularly on hill starts i was informed that this was something you eventually got used to,did i get rid of it? yes i did, and would i consider another skoda,? no under no circumstances.I now have a ford 1.8 focus diesel which is great and not a moments problem.