Nearly a month after teasing us with its exterior and interior design sketches, Skoda has finally taken the wraps off the production version of the fourth-gen of its compact hatchback, the Fabia. The new Skoda Fabia is underpinned by Volkswagen's MQB-A0 platform. It has grown in length and is wider than before, with a longer wheelbase for more room inside. The new Fabia gets sleeker styling and packs more technology inside. Skoda will offer the Fabia with a choice of five petrol engines in international markets, two 1-litre MPI three-cylinder units with 63bhp and 76bhp, and three TSI EVO engines putting out power ranging from 91bhp to 148bhp. The new Fabia will be offered in three trim levels, namely — Active, Ambition and Style.
The new Fabia makes use of Skoda's latest styling philosophy. It gets a larger, wider hexagonal grille upfront that is flanked by sleeker LED headlights. The front bumper has gained a more angular piece of black trim on both ends which houses the fog lights. From the side, the new Skoda Fabia has a few extra creases on the doors with a shoulder line that runs full-length and there's also a kink under the rear windows. These factors make the new Fabia look lower and longer than its predecessor. The rear gets narrower tail lights which wrap around for a wider look and the Skoda lettering. The optional premium package adds in darker highlights like black mirror caps, black grille and a black roof. Depending on the variant, the new Fabia sits on 14- to 18-inch alloy wheels.
The new Fabia also gets aerodynamic features like active cooling shutters in the front bumper and aerodynamically optimised wheels to aid efficiency. With a drag coefficient of 0.28 the new Skoda Fabia is the slippery-est car in its class.
Inside, the new Fabia gets a complete overhaul with a modern and minimalist design, like all new Skodas. The new dashboard is flanked by a pair of circular air conditioning vents and at the centre of it sits a big infotainment touchscreen. Below it lay the central vents and manual HVAC controls. The new Fabia gets analog dials as standard, but for the first time buyers have the option to spec a fully digital drivers display. The infotainment screen measures 6.5 inches in entry-level cars but higher-spec variants get a bigger 9.2-inch unit which Skoda calls Amundsen. Similarly, lower end Fabias come with a 3.5-inch driver's display but more expensive variants get a larger 10.25-inch 'Virtual Cockpit' unit. The new Fabia gets Skodas new two-spoke steering wheel, which we first saw on the new fourth-gen Octavia. The top-end 1.5-litre TSI model gets the traditional three-spoke steering wheel with paddle shifters for the DSG transmission though.
The interior is highlighted by copper colored trim panels and stitching on the upholstery. The new panoramic roof also brings in more light making it feel roomier on the inside. Optional extras include configurable ambient lighting, heated windscreen and a heated steering wheel.
The new Skoda Fabia gets an option of five petrol engines. These include an entry level 1-litre three-cylinder nat-asp MPI Evo in two states of tune — 64bhp and 79bhp, both engines produce 93Nm torque. The more powerful 1-litre turbocharged three-cylinder TSI Evo comes in a state of two power tunes as well and produces — 94bhp with 175Nm and 109bhp with 200Nm respectively. The range topping engine for the new Fabia is the 1.5 TSI turbo-petrol four-cylinder which produces 148bhp and 250Nm torque – identical to what top spec Kushaqs will get in India. Engines up to the 94bhp mark come equipped with a five-speed manual gearbox, the more potent 109bhp variant gets a six-speed manual transmission as standard with an option to upgrade to the seven-speed DSG which comes standard on the top-end 148bhp TSI EVO.
Being underpinned by the highly modular MQB-A0 platform has made the new Fabia more spacious on the inside. The new Fabia has exceeded the 4m length mark for the first time, it is 111mm longer than its predecessor, and has its wheelbase increased by 94mm. Width wise it is 48mm wider and all this translates to more room on the inside. The new Fabia gets 380 litres of boot space which is 50 litres more than the previous model and is also claimed to be the largest in its segment.
The new Skoda Fabia is all set to go on sale in Europe later this year. The big question is: will it return to India? Afterall, It is now based on the MQB-A0 platform which is localised and adapted for Indian conditions and shares engines with the Kushaq which will launch in June, so Skoda shouldn't have any problems with production. But the Fabia is now longer than 4m, unlike all of its rivals which strictly remain under 4m. So it remains to be seen if Skoda will bring back the Fabia back to India after a generation gap with alterations, though we suspect that it might.