The first Fabia was the first Škoda built entirely on a shared Volkswagen Group platform, the A04 (PQ24) it shared with the Volkswagen Polo Mk4 and SEAT Ibiza Mk3, and it undercut both on price despite the shared engineering.[1] It won What Car?’s UK Car of the Year for 2000, and only its 1.0 and 1.4 “MPI” pushrod engines, developed from older pre-Volkswagen Škoda units, were not shared parts.
Three trims are recorded here: the 1.4 16V petrol, the 1.9 TDI PD diesel, and the RS, introduced in 2003 as, by the article’s own description, the first hot hatch sold exclusively with a diesel engine, with no petrol version ever offered. The RS’s official 0-100 km/h figure of 9.6 seconds is recorded as the sourced value, even though several contemporary UK magazines measured it considerably quicker (7.0-8.5 seconds); the manufacturer’s own claim is used rather than any one third-party test.
