Photo: Skoda
The Nissan Leaf isn’t the only exciting new car to be released in Australia this week. It is followed by the very competent (and great looking in green with its roof black) Skoda Fabia RS. The car, as everybody knows, is based on the VW Polo GTI with which it shares most of the mechanical bits.
However, it is the softest of the three Polo GTI-spawned hot (-ish) hatches, with the Polo in the middle and the SEAT Ibiza being the hardest and sportiest of them all. So, what has the little Czech car got to offer? Well, if specced correctly, it doesn’t look half-bad, with the black roof and 17-inch rims on a green car really setting it apart from others on the street - it will be an interesting sight on the roads of Australia.
Skoda are marketing the Fabia RS as a hot hatch, but how close to the norm does it come? Well, it gets the famliar 1.4-liter which delivers the same 178 hp (132 kW) and 250 Nm of torque between 2000-4200 rpm. Performance for the Australian version remains unchanged, with the car reaching 100 km/h in 7.3 seconds, before topping out at 222 km/h - these numbers make it fall in between warm and hot hatches.
Another key selling point for the Fabia is its very low fuel consumption, especially for a performance-orriented car, with values of 6.2 l/100km on the combined cycle and 148 g/Km of CO2, as well as the comprehensive list of features the car is available with, with RS-badged cars getting dual-clutch automatic gearbox, cruise control, ESP, six airbags, Bluetooth connectivity all as standard, plus the whole raft of features now available as standard on most cars.
The RS is available now, with prices starting at $27,990 AUD (€22,525) and it joins the lesser powered ‘Monte Carlo’ edition Fabia, as well as the Octavia, Yeti and Superb in Skoda’s Australian lineup.
Skoda are marketing the Fabia RS as a hot hatch, but how close to the norm does it come? Well, it gets the famliar 1.4-liter which delivers the same 178 hp (132 kW) and 250 Nm of torque between 2000-4200 rpm. Performance for the Australian version remains unchanged, with the car reaching 100 km/h in 7.3 seconds, before topping out at 222 km/h - these numbers make it fall in between warm and hot hatches.
Another key selling point for the Fabia is its very low fuel consumption, especially for a performance-orriented car, with values of 6.2 l/100km on the combined cycle and 148 g/Km of CO2, as well as the comprehensive list of features the car is available with, with RS-badged cars getting dual-clutch automatic gearbox, cruise control, ESP, six airbags, Bluetooth connectivity all as standard, plus the whole raft of features now available as standard on most cars.
The RS is available now, with prices starting at $27,990 AUD (€22,525) and it joins the lesser powered ‘Monte Carlo’ edition Fabia, as well as the Octavia, Yeti and Superb in Skoda’s Australian lineup.
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