FIRST DRIVES

Has the pursuit of generational gains eroded this supermini’s distinctive appeal?

TESTED 16.8,21, GDANSK, POLAND ON SALE NOVEMBER PRICE £19,000 (EST)

Skoda seems to have been handed the mammoth responsibility of developing upcoming small electric cars not only for its own brand but also for Volkswagen (ID 1, ID 2) and Seat (‘Acandra’), but it isn’t neglecting the original crew.

This is the new and much-changed Fabia, which straight away looks quite a handsome car in light of its lowly and unchanged status as the wallet-friendly supermini in Skoda’s line-up. It’s available to order next month from around £15,500 (about £19k as tested), with first deliveries due in November, and will rival the likes of the Peugeot 208, Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio and Toyota Yaris – all of them impressive in their own ways.

While the competition in this class is fierce, the fourth Fabia since the model’s inception in 1999 should be easily the most capable of its lineage yet (spoiler: it is), not least because of the platform it uses. The Volkswagen Group’s MQB-A0 chassis also serves the Audi A1 and VW Polo and T-Cross, and you’d expect it to allow for better road manners than before, aided by better torsional stiffness in the body, which now uses a much greater proportion of high-grade steel.

The new platform also brings extra interior space. Moving the Fabia on from the veteran PQ35 chassis, which was deployed for the Mk5 Golf, has allowed the wheelbase to grow 94mm, meaning there’s more rear leg room. At 380 litres, the new boot is also an exact match in terms of raw capacity for the current Mk8 Golf and beats the Ford Focus – both cars firmly in the class above what is now Skoda’s entry-level model, after the Citigo was retired. The Fabia’s Tardis credentials seem assured.