Archive review: 2013 Skoda Fabia vRS - The Supercharged & Turbocharged Pocket-Rocket!

This is an archive review from my previous website. Please enjoy and feel free to leave a comment!

Launched in 1999, the Skoda Fabia was a base-price car with Volkswagen underpinnings, and to those who didn’t mind the badge snobs (unfairly) looking down at them, this was a good little car with German engineering and the reliability that goes with it. Today, the snobbery has (almost) subsided, but for those still being idiotic about a small plastic badge – you can’t exactly argue with the Fabia’s global sales of over 1,500,000 to date (2013).

Right, so although it’s a big seller and decent little car, the standard Fabia is not exactly an exciting proposition for those with petrol running through their veins. But wait, there’s something lurking in a dark corner of the showroom – the black sheep of the Fabia family, pushed away for its lust for speed and thrills over sense and sensibility. I coaxed a stray Skoda Fabia vRS hatchback out of the dark with a pint of super unleaded, to see what happens when you bolt both a supercharger and a turbo to a 1.4 litre petrol engine, in a car weighing the same as a box of cereal.

Exterior. Butt-ugly or beauty?

Aside from cooler models like the Monte Carlo, the normal Fabia is not a bad-looking car really, but it’s just that – normal. It’s a good base to start from though; a neat Euro-design hatchback with good lines and proportions. The vRS hatchback shifts the looks away from regular to roguish, with a few dashes of black here and there.

The headlights are tinted black, while the front radiator grille is black gloss, and there’s a more sporty honeycomb grille in place of the normal one, plus there’s rear tinted windows too, and a rear diffuser in the same dark hue. Spec your paint option with the contrasting Black Magic roof (a must), and the vRS is looking positively mean. In my case, the Fabia vRS came in Rallye Green and Black Magic roof, which I think is an excellent colour choice, as it gives the vRS a purposeful appearance.

As mentioned, in the looks department the Fabia is okay to begin with anyway, and the vRS simply adds its own flair. By the time you’ve added in the 17″ Gigaro wheels (I’d personally opt for the black versions) with their rubber-band like tyres, plus red-painted brake callipers, it’s looking like a proper hot hatch. Somehow the simple-but-effective black touches around the vRS make it look more muscular and taut, and there’s a toughness about it too. It looks planted and sporty, and after just a couple of minutes viewing the Skoda Fabia vRS, you’re already wanting to drive the thing before you’ve even opened a door. Talking of that…

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

Open the unexpectedly hefty drivers door of the Fabia vRS, and you’re greeted with… mostly grey and black plastics. Bit of a let-down when you consider the mean exterior design. Let’s view it from a comfort point of view though. There’s no option of leather with the vRS, and you’ve got two simple choices – grey or red pattern upholstery. I’d go for the red, otherwise the interior is overly dull.

The driver and front passenger seats have deep side and lower-section bolsters, and they’re not only comfortable, but keep you braced when you’re pushing the vRS hard through the corners. The rears are decent, and there’s good head and leg-room, but the backrest makes you sit too upright for complete comfort. There’s also no centre armrest.

They do fold completely flat though, giving you a excellent total loading space of 1,163 litres. Seats up, the boot is larger than you’d guess, with 300 litres of room, and there’s also handy fold-out hooks for attaching bags to. Superb idea that, and effective, as it saves your shopping flying everywhere during the spirited run home.

The dash is simple and free of clutter, with just a few buttons and dials for the heating. An absolute must to spec is the Amundsen sat nav and Maxi-dot system, which is modern, slick, easy to use and with great graphics for the navigation. There’s something bugging me about the dash though, and that’s the heating controls. They look cheap and bland.

All Skoda have to do is perhaps add a rubberised coating to them, and maybe edge them in faux-chrome, and they’d look and feel so much better. It’s how they should be when you’re paying up to £7,000 more than the standard Fabia. If you’ve not optioned the Amundsen system, the heating controls actually look better than with, weirdly.

More on that side of things – there’s hard plastic trim everywhere in the Fabia vRS, with only a couple of places where soft-touch ones are used, and while it’s bolted together solidly overall, there was an annoying rattle coming from behind a vent. Other than that, there’s plenty of storage space around the vRS, with a cool twin glovebox in the upper and lower sections of the dash.

The DSG gearbox shifter is understated, but elegant, and positioned well. The steering wheel is chunky and grippy, with only the essential button controls on there for volume and track selection, while the paddle shifters for the DSG gearbox are small, but superbly positioned. The dials are clean, and classy, with an information screen between which gives details on your fuel consumption, data for your oil and coolant temperature and more. It’s a neat layout for the driver, and I like it.

A final point; I think Skoda are being overly tight by not including rear electric windows as standard. Sure, you can have them – for £160. It smacks of just too much penny-pinching on Skoda’s part. Items I’d option apart from that is a front centre armrest (£90), and cruise control (£175).

Engine and gearbox

There’s only one engine available with the 2013 Fabia vRS, and it’s an absolute beauty. Powering the vRS is a 1.4 litre, 4-cylinder TSI petrol unit, with both a supercharger and a turbo bolted on. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s pushing out an incredible 180PS (177 hp), and 184 lb. ft (250 Nm) of torque, and yes, it really is as quick as you’d imagine.

0 – 62 mph (0 – 100 kph) is reached in a decent 7.3 seconds, and it’ll hit 139 mph at the top end. However, it’s the rolling acceleration which brings the real smiles – I’ll mention that in the next section. The 7-speed automatic DSG gearbox is positively brilliant. In normal drive mode it is smooth and almost seamless, making driving in heavy city traffic a doddle. In D, you’ve got the choice of going through the gears three ways – leave it to do the job itself, use the gearstick’s +/- setting to change, or use the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. In Sport, you can use the paddle shifters or let it do the leg work for you. All ways are very satisfying, as the DSG ‘box is just excellent.

Fuel economy is fair, with quoted miles-per-gallon figures of 36.7 urban, 54.3 extra urban. 45.6 combined. The reality? A couple of motorway runs saw 33 -37 miles-per-gallon at around 70 mph. Fluid drives in light traffic in 40/50 mph limits will see you getting figures into the mid 40′s. CO2 emissions of 148 g/km equate to £140 per year vehicle tax (2013), which is good considering the performance pumped out of the Fabia vRS’ little engine.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Skoda Fabia vRS Hatch is predominantly a very enjoyable and fun car to drive. Start the engine, and there’s a bit of a throaty growl from the exhaust, while there’s also a low volume blend of supercharger and turbo in the background.

Set off driving in normal D mode, and there’s a smoothness from the DSG gearbox that reassures you of the Fabia’s German engineering. It’s ultra-smooth, and changes gear so slickly you barely notice the shifts. As the road opens up, the wise choice is to click the gear lever down a notch into Sport mode. Instantly, the Fabia vRS changes down a gear, and it shifts gears much later than in D.

Floor the gas pedal from rolling at low speed, and the DSG hesitates for a split second before changing down. At this point the Fabia vRS hurls itself forward furiously, the front tyres clawing and scrabbling for grip on the road, the steering wheel pulling and jolting as all that 180 PS of power produces obvious torque steer. Not overly much though, and it actually adds to the driving experience as you can feel the road through the ‘wheel.

In sport, the Skoda turns into a proper little monster, and hooligan tendencies are bought to the fore. The power band is seems to just go on and on, with no turbo lag to deal with. As the needle hits 5,000 rom, there’s another surge in power, and you’re once again propelled forward, the Fabia vRS entirely gleeful at the hard thrashing. Respect is due to Skoda for the sport mode, as under hard acceleration the vRS won’t change gear until it hits a heady 7,000 rpm!

This Skoda Fabia vRS can absolutely wear the honoured hot hatch title with pride – it fully deserves it. It is a rev-happy loon of a car, and both driver and passengers in the car will grin from ear to ear when you push the throttle to the stopper. To go with the eager-to-please engine is a good sporty suspension set up. The ride isn’t too bad, although over some of the nastier potholes the car banged and jolted heavily, making it seem like you were about to lose a wheel.

A negative point is the road noise, which comes into the cabin at a higher level than I expected. At motorway speeds on all but the smoothest tarmac, the noise was just too high, and I found myself having to turn the stereo up to combat it. This is most likely due to it transmitting through the vRS’ rubber-band-like 205/40 R17 tyres. Even at lower speeds it’s still obvious, as is the jarring over rougher surfaces. It’s not uncomfortable,  as the seats take out most of the judder, but it is noticeable.

On a positive note, the Fabia vRS handles itself in a manner befitting the performance, and it is self-assured should you want to chuck it around. There’s fun by the bucketload should you get into the twisty stuff, while the power is highly useable and instead of it overwhelming the chassis, it’s a great balance. I felt that the steering wheel is just too big though, for such a sporty hatch, and the size made it feel slightly cumbersome.

The all-round disc brakes are also really positive, with good stopping power and a progressive – rather than aggressive – feel to them. As standard, the Fabia vRS comes with a whole host of modern safety tech, including stability control (ESP), XDS, which is similar to limited-slip differential, hill-hold control (HHC) and tyre-pressure monitoring (TPM).

When you want to drive the vRS in a normal manner – which probably isn’t often – it settles down nicely into a city runner or motorway cruiser. In fact, the Fabia vRS is a good all-rounder, and with the outstanding DSG gearbox, it’s a very easy car to live with. Aside from the road-noise that is.

Skoda Fabia vRS Hatch 1.4 TSI DSG 180PS verdict

The not-so-good stuff: The interior, although well made and of decent design, is too plain and dull, and paying all that extra cash you’d think they’d upgrade the buttons and controls and make them look nicer. The steering wheel also felt overly-large for the car, and would definitely benefit from a smaller, more sporty version. Finally, the high road noise coming through those low-profile tyres spoils things, and if you do a fair amount of motorway driving, I’d take that point into account.

Good stuff: The Fabia vRS has absolutely earned its stripes as a true hot hatch. That VW-derived supercharged and turbo’d 1.4 litre engine is a gem, kicking out good power right the way across the rev range. The DSG gearbox is excellent too, and while I do love a good manual, this auto just makes the Fabia an even better car, with all the excitement you need. Handling-wise, there’s plenty going for the vRS, and it’s a good set-up, although it can give a slightly harsh ride over bad roads.

I hope you enjoyed this article. More archive reviews coming soon!

Words: Chris Davies | Photos: Matthew Davies, Chris Davies (archive CarProductsTested ©)

Trying to decide on which next new car to buy, but overwhelmed by all the choice? I can help! Simply use the CarBuyerHelp Questionnaire to get started!