Right, diesel is looking deader than ever to me. I'm spinning around this week in the new Skoda Fabia (and yes, it's coping very nicely with the snow and ice, thanks) and its 1.2 TSI petrol engine is really starting to win me over.
To be fair, it didn't have a lot of winning to do. I've driven this engine's close relations in other Skoda and VAG products and it's been a winner from day one.
Now it's true that a diesel Fabia would doubtless be getting better fuel economy than the 7.4 litres per 100km that I'm getting. But not that much better and you have to mollify that figure with the fact that mostly I've been doing short hops across town on the school run this week. Few nice long journeys for the engine to warm up, settle down and get into its consumption stride.
Above all that though, it's refined, rev-happy, has a nice little growl at full throttle and, best of all this week, the cabin heater sparks into life really quickly.
Only issue so far is the €18k price tag but even that's starting to look do-able for an engine this good.
Just noticed you can get the 1.2 TSI in basic Active spec for just €15,595. Sold. Although I might wait for the Combi estate version, which m'colleague Dave Humphreys is driving this week.
Key tech specs:
- €18,195 as tested
- Five-speed manual gearbox
- Front-wheel drive
- 1.2 TSI (90hp)
- Emissions of 107g/km
Further reading:
First drive of the new Skoda Fabia from the international launch