News about Skoda Fabia making it to India has been going on for about 6 years now and finally the second generation 2007 Fabia has come to us now in 2008.

While bookings have been open for quite some time, cars are now being delivered to the buyers. My neighbor was one of them and I got a chance to look around.

Fabia Impression

Design wise, Skoda Fabia is definitely a looker. Its quite long for a hatchback (almost 1-foot longer than Maruti Swift) and very well proportioned. Looking around, my admiration of this Skoda’s looks grew with each of its design details – its wonderful headlights and grille, the prominent bonnet ‘V’ thats carried onto its bumper, all its wonderful curves and character lines.

Getting in and sitting in the drivers seat, if anything had doubled my appreciation for the Fabia. With all the storage spaces and high quality plastics, the interiors were top class. The steering wheel, gear stick, door levers were all very contemporary. There I was sitting inside, getting all hopeful and dreamy, unable to find anything to complain about.

And then, without closing my door, I started the car. The engine came to life, I got out and *pop* went my bubble. I was like “what the F*@*!” the sound from the engine was pure cacophony. It was grating on the ears and what bothers me even more is the fact that its a friggin’ 3-cylinder PD diesel.

And then he told me it’d cost 8.3 lakhs on the road for the Ambiente variant. All the enthusiastic wait for Fabia to make it to India and whatever praise I’ve had left for it went up in smokes. Now, I doubt if I’d even wanna consider Fabia an option, if I were looking to buy a hatchback in the Indian market.

Skoda Fabia Variants

Fabia for India is being offered in 4 variants. Starting from the base variant Skoda calls them Active, Classic, Ambiente and Elegance. Airbags, air-con and height/reach adjustable steering are standard on all the variants. Leaving the minor details out, following are some of the important feature differences between the all the versions.

• Skoda Fabia Active: This base variant is stripped out of power windows and cd/mp3 audio system.
• Skoda Fabia Classic: Second in line, this variant quite obviously has power windows and audio system.
• Skoda Fabia Ambiente: feature differences on this version over the Classic include front fog lamps and alloy wheels on the outside. Inside its got height adjustable driver & front passenger seats and dual-tone onyx/grey interiors. On the safety side, this Fabia gets ABS and remote key-less entry.
• Skoda Fabia Elegance: This range topping version has sunroof, projector headlamps and rear parking sensors with inside display.

Skoda Fabia Engines

As of now, there are 2 engine options – a 1.4 petrol and 1.4 diesel.

• The 1.4-litre diesel engine is no modern day marvel and is a disappointment in terms of refinement. Its got no VGT nor is it a common-rail and it has only 3-cylinders! with 2-valves! per cylinder. But, according to many testers this noisy engine is quite famous for its frugality and averages a 17 km/l. Its maximum power and torque are rated at 69 bhp at 4000 rpm and 155 Nm at 1600 – 2800 rpm. Fabia with this engine does the 0-100 km/h run in 15 seconds and can reach a top speed of 163 km/h.
• The 1.4-liter 16v petrol on the other hand, supposedly returns a fuel efficiency average of 12 kmpl. Max power output is 86 bhp at 5000 rpm (torque is 132 Nm at 3800 rpm) about the same as the Suzuki Swift but with all its safety features & luxuries is heavier than the Swift. Fabia with this engine takes 12+ seconds for its 0-100 km/h dash and can reach a top speed of 173 kmph.

Right now the 1.4 petrol is offered only on Elegance variant. The word is Skoda will introduce another 1.2-lire petrol in addition to the above engines.

Skoda Fabia Prices

On road Mumbai price for Fabia petrol offered in Elegance trim is 7.9 lakhs. Here are the Indian on road prices of Skoda Fabia diesel in lakhs INR.