Faults:

Camshaft position sensor failed.

Rear parcel shelf fell to bits.

Front suspension started to clonk badly.

Aircon/climate control had a mind of its own.

Windows steamed up badly.

General Comments:

This review is for the wife's first Fabia, a 2008 bottom of the range model, bought as her first ever new car.

When new, the car was great, but when the new car smell faded, it became easy to see that the Fabia had been built down to a price.

Firstly, the interior was very flimsy, the rear parcel shelf broke its mountings off the plastic panels inside the boot, twice. The dealer claimed something heavy had been placed on the shelf; the only thing on the shelf was a stuffed toy, not impressed. The heater was supposedly manual climate control, no hot or cold as such, but numbers that presumably corresponded to degrees Celsius, however it really required a lot of fiddling, so in no way was it any better than a normal heater. The air-conditioning was frankly rubbish, which brings me onto the steamy windows; at the first hint of damp weather, they would steam up and the aircon wouldn't even begin to clear it. The blower on full power would clear the windscreen, but the side windows would need clearing with a cloth.

One nasty habit of the Fabia, is that driving in heavy rain, water flows across the side windows obscuring the mirrors, and coupled with the steaming, it makes motorway overtakes in wet weather a bit of a lottery.

One day, the engine management light came on and the car ran a bit funny. It was taken to the dealer, who found no fault and turned the light out, it lasted 3 miles before it came on again, and once again, the car went back, no fault showed up and off we went. This time it lasted about 100 metres before we had to go back. Cue much head scratching from the dealer. They updated the software in the ECU and once more we departed, another 100 meters and the light came on. By this stage we were ready to burn the car in the dealer's showroom, but this time the machine had recorded the camshaft sensor was dead, that was replaced and all was well.

As the miles mounted up, the car aged quickly, motorway driving was a chore as at the legal limit, the wee engine was screaming its head off; a relaxed cruiser, it isn't.

It wasn't exactly easy on fuel either, averaging around 40 MPG in mixed use, so when the 3 year finance deal was over, we were glad to get shot, then she went and bought another one...

Faults:

Periodic rattle from nearside front passenger door.

General Comments:

Bought this to replace a smaller supermini, but mainly because I wanted an auto.

This was a great little car, which had a very grown up feel about it; it felt bigger than it actually was.

Good stuff first --

Good boot size, which managed to fit our boxer dog in fine, and roomy interior with a good driving position and very comfy seats. Found the ride great, really absorbed bumps well on the twisty back roads I take to work, and as it had the 6-speed auto, it turned over at low revs when cruising, so was pretty refined. Build was good, apart from the annoying rattle mentioned above, and performance was OK, especially when kicking down to overtake.

One area it was great in for a supermini was spec -- electric windows and mirrors, climate control, iPod compatible stereo, cruise control, trip computer, rear parking sensors, 16" alloys, not many have much more than that!

Bad points --

Never got the mpg I expected, 34 being the average, though I did drive it hard, and the cornering reminded me of old Citroens (I had a BX once); too much roll and an uncertain feel on the limit, though it did have ESP.

Not overly keen on the looks front, OK from the front, but a bit dumpy at the rear, and the auto box was always too keen to kick down a gear, even without being in sport mode. Gotta say as well, the engine made a right racket when revved hard, it's an older design as I understand it. And why is it always old people you see driving these things?

Anyway, overall left more of a positive impression than not, and only went to get a 4x4 for the crap winter we had!