Test Drive Skoda Fabia Hatchback since 2010 Hatchback
Serious baby
Wonderfully transformed Czech company Skoda AUTO A.S., for some other years ago, formerly a typical socialist enterprise without special perspectives, today conducts aggressive policies in the European market. Of course, under the wise leadership of its new German hosts from Wolfsburg. Each model is found by buyers with undisguised interest: it was both with an affordable Felicia, and with a roomy octave, this happens with Fabia. The last novelty of the brand for the year was separated by a circulation of 100,000 copies, but this figure is artificially limited by the opportunities of the enterprise in Mlada Boleslav, because in a number of countries, the demand for the car still exceeds the supply.
But there is one important difference between Fabia from its neighbors in the conveyor, and it is how the car is presented.
If earlier the rate was done on an attractive price that did not imagine, however, nor the quality, nor perfection of the structure, now the technical advancement of the car is put forward to the fore. For which, naturally, you have to pay. For example, the highest level of passive and active safety is confirmed during the next series of tests conducted recently by the EUROnCAP European Committee. Thus, two airbags and belt pretensioners are included in the standard Fabi package, and in case of triggering, the sensor automatically turns off the fuel supply. Anti-lock braking and traction control, electronic differential lock and side airbags are included in the list of options. All fitted to the vehicle gasoline engines meet environmental standards Euro 4, will come into force only in 2005 - such an achievement can today boast of very few manufacturers! The fully galvanized body is given a ten-year warranty against rust perforation.
Skoda Fabia is built on a corporate platform A, that very, which will basically be the basis of the future Volkswagen Polo V and Seat Ibiza III. The car has been launched in a series in August 1999, and today is offered with five-door bodies of the type of hatchback or wagon, with one of the seven engines to choose from and in three sets: basic Classic, Comfort and Elegance. Russian dealers have live cars in a sufficient assortment appeared only in the current fall (it is about hatchbacks, since the receipts of universal should not be expected before spring), the prices have stabilized at this point, therefore it is time to talk about the car in more detail. Let me imagine: Skoda Fabia 1.4 MPI performed by Comfort. Very serious tries to look like this baby. Strict all such, business. Like, I don't have any toy on wheels, pleased with the role of the second or even the third car in the family, I am a real car in which you will be easier to move around the city. Indeed, if you take a photo of Fabia to the profile and close the short nose and row with hands, then the imagination itself telesses the engine compartment itself to the central part of the body and a high trunk of a decent size of a sedan. But, as it turns out later, a spacious interior is hidden for a few unusual proportions of the machine, it is a little inferior to the sedan itself.
A certain conservatism and angularity of the appearance, developed by the style team led by Dirk Van Breckel, displays the design of the machine from under the influence of changeable fashion and will allow her for a long time not to obstruct. What should not only come to taste the clientele of middle and old ages, but also save funds to regular cosmetic updates, which now became a necessary means of survival in the struggle against the army of competitors. Another feature of an adult design is a block headlight covered with simple polycarbonate glasses. True, they scratch them easier than ordinary, they should not be wicked by rags, so the presence of headlight washers is very desirable (in the Classic configuration they are not provided). Washers Here, the most modern: in non-working condition are hiding from dirt and vandals in the front bumper, and if necessary, headlights are pushed with powerful jets.
And as Fabia goes piercing red rally! No, he will in no way forgive the car and does not make it frivolous, but he managed to dispel her excessive seriousness, not disturbing the innate nobility of the hell at the same time. In such a color, Fabia seems to know, becomes animate. And, of course, before this color, not to preserve peace of mind of any woman that we observed throughout the trip in the city.
A great impression was made by a car interior. He caused the association with an expensive costume - impeccable cut, strict, but stylish. Clean lines and flat surfaces are predomined in the design of the interior: neither a single fetaned part, indispensable mold monolith and functions. Reminds Hi-End Household Electronics. Take at least ventilation deflectors: they work on the principle of the blindness, that is, in a fully closed state form a flat surface. In general, the breed is felt, and the breed is German. More precisely, Volkswagenovskaya, because many design solutions applied in Fabia are familiar with the representative of Audi A8, standing in the car hierarchy for four steps above. Ergonomics of a driver's seat is good. A comfortable hard seat with tangible lateral support is equipped with three adjustments, including height, a nice steering wheel with a thick rim also can also move up and down, and the regimen of the adjustment stroke is provided. In general, a person of any growth will be able to find a comfortable pose. One comment is a few crowded pedals, but in consolation there is a large platform for the left leg, healthy in a long road. The layout of the car best affected visibility: there are no so-called blind zones. A short nose and practically lacking rear sinks allow you to quickly realize the dimensions of the machine, and after a few minutes it is confidently park in the most cramped conditions. A competently organized dashboard combines two dials with intelligible scales, two pointers and two displays. Her illumination is light green, the shade is close to branded Skodovsky. Massive steering wheel switches look very reliable. However, the right responsible for the operation of wipers seemed overloaded buttons and levers.
Obvious Machine - Lowly located microclimate control unit, for incomprehensible reasons giving way to a nest under the radio and shelf with rubberized coating. To communicate with him, it is necessary to break a look from the road for a long time, which is not safe. Plus, the rotating handles of the block are small, and the average, asset the speed of the air flow, and is less. The air conditioner refers to custom equipment, but at Fabia besides its direct duties, it will cool the glove box and the drinking room from the driver. The glove box deserves a separate mention: with backlight, roomy, and two cup holders are molded in its lid and there is a holder for a fountain pen. Long, but shallow pockets in the doors will be able to hold only small items, and a small shelf at the wheel is perfectly adapted for storing documents.
The comfort of the rear passengers is one of the undoubted trump cards of the machine. The problems where the legs are actual for many cars of this class, here simply does not exist. Whole due to the considerable distance between the rows of seats and lathes under the knees in the backs of the front armchairs. And this is despite the fact that on the back of the rear seat you can leak - it has a convenient angle of inclination, while on other machines for saving place it is almost vertically! There are not so many spaces over your head, however, you still do not reach the ceiling. For complete happiness, it is not enough unless the folding armrest. But then it is not so easy to go out: prevents a short and high threshold, because of which the legs have to literally borrow from the car. It's time to look into the trunk. He, like a gas tank hatcher, opens from the driver's seat with a lever located on the floor on the left. The castle of the back door works surprisingly softly and clearly, and his handle is arranged in such a way that in a rainy day you can not be afraid of the palm.
The volume of the trunk is small - 248 liters, because a lot of space eats a full-size spare place, however, with a fully folded back of the rear seat (for which it is necessary to remove headrests) its volume exceeds the cubic meter. We are completely talking because it is possible to disassemble the back to transport long items in a 1: 2 ratio.
Remember, at the beginning of the article we were talking about the compliance with the EURO4 requirements? Well, practice once again proved beaten truth: miracles does not happen. The fact is that Fabi has an electronic gas pedal, that is, there is no tough connection between the actions of the driver and the power system. This allowed engineers in the name of achieving the maximum smoothness of the supply of fuel to make some delay in the accelerator algorithm. As a result, it turns out like this: move the gas pedal and wait until the engine itself is gaining the desired turnover.
With a sharp gas reset, everything happens up to the opposite. As you understand, it becomes quite difficult to touch from the spot, considering the fact that the clutch works at the very top. The first time with inappropriate is the gas pedal, the motor is spinning stronger than I wanted, and run from the scenes with the slip of the leading wheels. Probably you can get used to this, but there is another solution. Dealers offer environmentally disappointed Russian buyers to put a simple gas cable, but then the fuel consumption will increase somewhere on one liter for every 100 kilometers of the way. The 68-strong engine does not shine a special dynamics, even if it is spinning to a limiter, configuring the tachometer arrow to the red zone. It can be assumed that the tenders of the Shkhodovtsev influenced the setting of the gearbox in order to meet EURO4 norms. The speed set occurs very smoothly, without pickups and failures. But the work of the gearbox is great: the moves of the lever are small, switching lungs and clear. Pleased and brakes - effective and very informative, allowing to thoroughly monitor the process of deceleration.
In the standard modes, the electrical steering amplifier creates a clear return force, and when maneuvering at low speeds, the steering wheel turns out to be very easy, and with a growing speed it is noticeably much. However, in the tense turns of the reactive action, sometimes lacks. Fabia reacts quickly on the rotation of the steering wheel quickly, but not nervously, with minimal bodies rolls and perfectly writes the trajectory that on the track, in which the considerable merit of low-profile tires. On the bold the machine and shows the neutral ratio rather than the insufficient turning, when the gas is added very neatly and predictably leaving the outward path, and under the discharge of the gas confidently resisting the occurrence of drift. It seems that the skid here can be called the only way - apparent provocation: after preliminary counterposage before the turn itself, the gas pedal is sharply. Well, the smoothness of Fabia should be recognized by exemplary. At least for a car of such sizes. The long-time suspension of the car (by the way, the front suspension is assembled on the subframe) famously copes with any small irregularities, and even on semi-per-end tram moves, gently shakes the car, without showing the slightest tendency to break. Shaking no even on large pits. The only types of coating defects, in the literal sense of Fabia from equilibrium, transverse waves and tubercles, on which a small bunch of body arises. The highest estimate deserves noise insulation, reliably protecting the ears of seds from extraneous stimuli. Only one sound she passes inside - the voice of the motor. And on high speed it is pretty loud. We will not be convinced to buy Fabia - it is useless. Useless because such cars our fellow citizens most often buy not at the call of mind, but in the call of the heart.
Like, and even kill. Or do not like, and even even kill. But the time of such equipment will come very soon. Already today, the city is choking on the number of cars, and in extreme conditions of the metropolis, a small yurch car with a large cabin will become a real find. About prices. The most basic Fabia is $ 9,500 today. But in it you will not find a two-color trim of the cabin, headlight washers, adjustment of the seat in height and other useful trifles. And the car you see in the photos will cost $ 11,300. The choice is yours.
A source: Magazine "Wheels" [№44 / 2000]
