Car question: Fabia vs Jazz

[Gromit]

We're in the throes of weighing up the pros and cons of these 2 little motors, but are slightly unsure which to go for. We've owned our C4 Picasso for 4 years now and whilst it's been a brilliant family hold-all (it really fulfils the 'family car brief' perfectly) since the turbo went west 10 months ago (fixed at great expense) the car's not one I would trust any longer. More horror stories surrounding the DMF and sticking EGR valve etc are hammering the nails further into its coffin.

We basically want to down-size to something cheap(ish), reliable, petrol-powered and solidly screwed together. The car only does short journeys - which is why a Diesel is a no-no (especially a DPF one) and the occasional long family trip. We have a 2nd car in the shape of the little Pug 107 (which is fab) and if it wasn't for the tiny boot and only 4 seats it would probably do us as it is. Performance is very low down on the list (I've got the Blackbird to get my kicks on for that) but solid build and reliablilty - and ease of use - are high up. The two Gromettes are only aged 2 and 8 so even keeping this car for 6 years or more we wouldn't be out-growing it.

I drove a 1.2 Fabia (12v/70bhp) a couple of years ago and quite liked it - slow, yes but it was quiet, comfy and felt well put together. Not driven the Jazz yet - we'd probably go for the 1.2 with that. There's also a 61 plate 1.2 TSi Fabia (approved used at our local Skoda stealer) which we've quite liked the look of - the TSi motor is still a bit of an unkown for us though. Any horror stories? 85bhp out of a blown 1.2 litre isn't a high specific output but I'm hearing all sorts of negative stuff about the more powerful TSi engines, especially the 170bhp 1.4 litre Golf lump.

Thanks as always for any input/info/shared experience of the above.

[Dai wiskers]

Have a look at a fiesta cheap to run good to drive just booked mine in for a main dealer service and mot £133 mine's a zetec sport diesel

EDIT Remember with the Fabia you will be paying VAG prices for parts and servicing the Honda will be reliable untill it goes wrong then will cost an arm and a leg to put right.

If you don't fancy a Fiesta there's always the Focus

Nearly forgot road tax on mine is £30 for twelve months.

My Ann has a Hiundai[spelling] I 10 again £30 tax nice little car but very pedestrian and servicing is a lot more than mine almost double, and they have you trapped with the five year warranty

EDIT 2 Don't know if you know this but i do a bit in a local garage and my car goes to the main dealer it's good for the book stamp and i would only save £30 doing it myself

[Hayden]

Hi Richard

A few of the lads at work run Skoda`s, no one has a bad word to say about them, reliable and well put together seem to be the general opinion, I wouldn`t say no to one when our Saab finally dies.

From what I can gather `reliable and well put together` would be expletives used for Honda`s also, I think either would be a good choice, just down to personal preference when you test drive them.

trawling through the motoring press on-line, car reviews etc will give you a general `feel`, but as I say from what I gather both are good cars.

Nieghbour of ours has just past 200K on his Civic ( damn thing still looks new) and a couple of Octavia`s at work have 180 and 220K on them, no problem, its all about how there looked after I suspect?

have fun choosing..

Steve

[Gromit]

Thanks fellas

The Fiesta does look a very good car, a couple of workmates have them, but the boot isn't quite large enough for us unfortunately which is where the Fabia scores well - its boot is nigh on as big as that in a Focus. The Jazz's boot is huge, especially so with its clever rear seats folded.

The Honda does come up quite pricey for servicing which is one thing which puts us off although one could argue that all it will ever need is regular servicing, rather than regular repairs. Our local Skoda garage (in Lincoln) has an excellent reputation, according to friends who use them and has looked after their needs well if there has been a problem.

Bottom line is that I have absolutely no brand-preference when it comes to cars - perceived image is of no importance and any car we do buy will be from a purely objective standpoint. Mrs Gromit doesn't always think that way however.

Dai - we looked at the i10 when we bought the Pug 107 and I was really impressed with it. A very tightly built, and neat little thing which we were very close to having as a 2nd car. Way too small to have as our 'main' car though.

[Dai wiskers]

How about the Ford Fusion best described as a Fiesta estate

[ned1]

I've had my Honda ( civic) for 7 years without a problem, s**t mot next week, (must keep mouth shut)) I had a
VW golf before ( a Skoda with a different suit on) that was trouble from 8 months old until I part ex it at 4 years the
wife had a VW fox, trouble on first MOT + they wanted £50 to adjust the hand brake, now she has a Honda Jazz and loves it.
Both (Honda) cars are well put together and do what it says on the tin but I wouldn't call them cheap, but after the two VW I'm happy
as you can be with a car.

Ned

[Boxered]

Hi Richard, I had a civic 1.6 3 door for 5 years from new, brilliant little car that never ever had a fault or a recall, only ever went back to the dealer for servicing once a year, I now have a golf 2.0 tdi estate, which has so far been excellent apart from a minor, but annoying , electrical fault which was eventually sorted out by a dealer, my local dealer (vw liverpool) are a complete bunch of tossers, so much so that I almost sold the car, but a nearby dealership were excellent and sorted the problem in a trice. The car has been perfect since and now has 30k under its belt.
I guess it comes down to which dealership near you that you trust, but I would not hesitate to go for another Honda, they are boringly reliable, and a bit dull to drive but that is what i require from a car. A mate has had a Skoda octavia from new in 05 and absolutely swears by it, his dealer is also excellent if not cheap, although there are many indy service ctrs around for the whole vw group.

HTH
Steve

[oyster]

I had a Honda Civic for 12 years after relative owned it for the first six years. I can not praise it enough. Well built and lasted well with my regular servicing. Body rot got to it; engine + gearbox were still perfect. I now own two VW; the Passat petrol tank, 35mpg but the most comfortable ride I have owned and a 130 TDI Golf which can offer over 55mpg. Both reliable and well built. In time I will trade the gas guzzler for a 1.4 petrol Jazz. Of the modern diesels, beware of the DPF. They can be programmed out for about £250.

[Gromit]

Great input guys - much appreciated.

Steve - good points re dealers, we were lucky to have an excellent Citroen dealer when we lived in W London (Broads of Chalfont) but Lincoln Citroen are pretty useless to be honest. When our fubar'd turbo was fixed* they blamed a leaking injector for the cause but when another injector seal went more recently they said the car would be ok to drive and wouldn't do any damage. Bell-ends.

A good dealer can make (or break!) a car IME.

3 of the guys at work run Skodas - one an Octavia, the other 2 have Fabias - and they are always chuffed with the service provided by Horton's Skoda in Lincoln.

The Jazz appeals from the point of view that it's a funky little thing, the Skoda because I like the almost stark simplicity of its interior.

Oyster - very true re DPF-equipped Diesels. Didn't realise they could be de-activated though, if I'd known that I would have had our Shitroen done ages ago. Trouble is, ours only does 5 miles or so to work (Ann uses it more than me) and hardly warms up, but I do try to give it a good run up the dual-carriageway section of the A17 near us once a week to blow the cobwebs out. Can never tell when the DPF is going through a re-gen though, as it clearly needs to do this regularly to keep it happy. Thing is, the sooner we can get rid of the car the better. A shame though as for the job it's designed to do it's been brilliant.

*I'd list the parts which were replaced but I don't think we have the bandwidth.

[tanneman]

The thing about the VAG cars is that is a relatively easy car to maintain, relatively cheap to source parts depending on the model of course and easy to tune. There is many specialists for the VAG cars although you have to choose you service centre wisely as always. For parts use http://www.thetradepartsspecialists.co.uk/ . It is the retail part of VAG and very reasonable. It does help that the cars are overall reliable. Skoda nowadays have a good reputation. Don't have any experience with Honda or Ford but the Honda Jazz gets good reviews. Avoid the automatic.

[herrman]

3 of the guys at work run Skodas - one an Octavia, the other 2 have Fabias - and they are always chuffed with the service provided by Horton's Skoda in Lincoln

That would be good enough for me, Add in the fact that folks would say but its a SKODA and thats me buying!! Not really the way to buy a car I know but I do like to be different. In the past Alan has had Skoda's, Wartburgs and even a Lada--They all did the job but maybe didn't impress the neighbours

I'm sure either the H-nda or Skoda will do the job, Its got to be your choice in the end.

Peter.

[Twinspark]

I'm unashamedly a VW Group fan - I've had a late 90s Passat 1.8 Turbo, a 55 plate Passat 2.0TDI (this was a company car) and currently run a Golf 1.4 TSI-160 as my company car.

However, I have a deep distrust of the TSI engines, after mine melted a couple of pistons on just 18k miles. Allegedly it was due to me running it on normal rather than super unleaded, and single-charged engines aren't affected. But I just wouldn't touch one with my own money.

I do love my Golf, but someone else picks up the maintenance bills on it!

On the other hand, I spent my own money on a cheap as chips, high mileage, Mazda MX5... which hasn't missed a beat in 18 months, despite doing around 10 track days and going to Berlin and back via the Nurburgring this summer.

Therefore, if you want rock solid reliability, I'd buy the Jazz.

[Dai wiskers]

Another very good small car that would be on my look closely at list would be the Toyota Yarris

[Gromit]

However, I have a deep distrust of the TSI engines, after mine melted a couple of pistons on just 18k miles. Allegedly it was due to me running it on normal rather than super unleaded, and single-charged engines aren't affected. But I just wouldn't touch one with my own money.

Owch! I'd have thought that a modern engine would be able to detect imminent piston meltdown, or at least the knock sensors would prevent such a thing happening. That's truly scary.

I also know of two VAG 2.0 TDI's which have gone bang (they threw rods) at around 80-90k miles. One was my bro-in-law's (a Passat) the other was a mate's car, a Skoda Octavia vRS. Others though seem to go on forever.

The 1.2TSI Fabia certainly appeals - it's another chain-cam motor (hurrah!) like the 3-pot one but the blower must be quite gentle with it only giving out 85bhp. I believe it's an 8-valve sohc as opposed to the dohc/12v in the triple. Emissions aren't too bad either.

[Twinspark]

Just to provide a balanced view - the guy next door has a Yeti 1.2TSI and loves it.

However, it's only about 6 months old, so I can't comment on the reliability.