Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £8,950 to £13,730
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 majority of owners seem delighted with their purchase, though there were early reports of easily-damaged paintwork, electrical problems, poor brakes, ABS and air con faults, minor quality defects and head gasket trouble with the 1.4 8v engine; all these issues should now have been sorted, and the Fabia generally performs well in satisfaction and reliability surveys.
All Fabias have a cable-free drive-by-wire throttle, which was disconcerting and dead-feeling to many drivers at first, but this has now been improved.
It has relatively low repair, service and parts costs. It also feels well screwed-together, with a nicely-finished cabin upholstered in decent fabrics and pleasant plastics - it certainly isn't cheap and nasty.
