Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £8,625 to £13,570
Space, ride comfort, value, feels more expensive than it is.
Overlight steering at speed, a little stodgy to drive, underpowered economy-price engines best avoided.
This roomy Czech-built supermini is great value for money without being cheap and nasty.
The Skoda Fabia shares its basic platform (chassis, floorpan and essential underpinnings) with both the Volkswagen Polo and the Seat Ibiza, and most of its engines are common to those ranges too. It's the most family-oriented of the three, however, coming in roomy five-door hatchback, conservative four-door saloon or load-lugging compact estate form (the Polo and Ibiza only come as three- and five-door hatches). Model for model, it's also the cheapest, though to treat it purely as a cut-price Volkswagen rather undermines its appeal in its own right.
There's plenty of variation in specifications, from entry-level models nearer the Skodas of old in terms of creature comforts right up to fully-loaded, well decked-out top-end versions.
