2011 Skoda Fabia vRS Review: Made of Meaner Stuff?

What's green, potentially venomous and loves to slide? Okay, so your Car Throttle correspondent still hasn't mastered the set-up of a good one-liner, but the answer as you probably guessed isn't your back-garden adder. No. It is instead Skoda's 2011 Fabia vRS and whilst you might laugh that off from merely glancing at the car, let me explain why you'd be foolish to cast this off as a poor man's Polo GTI.

Please allow me to firstly guide you to our video review which is embedded above. If you've been watching enough television, you will have seen Skoda's new attempt to re-market the sweet, made-out-of-cake Fabia using the dulcet tones of one Julie Andrews. The time has come however, for the Fabia to be rebuffed as something a little more out of the ordinary. But as the advert suggests, is the Fabia vRS really "made of meaner stuff"? Let's delve a little deeper.

Walking round the car and initially, there's little to suggest that this car is capable of knocking off 0-62mph in a brisk 7.3 seconds. Angular lines on the hood help cast the eyes up towards the contrasting white roof, which I think is a very nice touch and possibly more exciting than the black roof seen on the advert. The grille is usual moustache-black Fabia business with a far too large Skoda badge. Daytime running lights can be found flanking the front intake and these emit a nice LED glow in low light. The only evidence there is to suggest that this is anything near a "hot hatch"; red brake calipers, a vRS badge, and a twin exhaust which is supposedly chrome, but far from shiny metallic on our tester vehicle.

The rear paints even worse a picture than the front end of the car in my opinion, with everything looking a little too standard. Sure there's some privacy glass to keep prying eyes away from whatever you decide to pack in the roomy rear seats and the vRS body kit adds some low side skirting which attempts at a more aggressive figure, but the only real saving grace are the 17" 'Gigaro' alloy wheels which certainly add a little flair.

Step into the driver's seat and the split personality theme continues. On one hand, there is a fantastic vRS badge on the footwell, steel sports pedals and some of the best hot hatch seats I've sat in for a while. Sure they might be made from cloth and not cow hide, but they're comfortable, firm in all the places you need them to be with excellent back support, and hold you tight and snug thanks to generous bolsters. For added effect, Skoda have stitched in vRS badges, including on the rear seats too.

Speaking of, all auto journo's speak of the "hot hatch" test, namely whether it is practical, can fit in two rowdy toddlers in the back and have enough room for their school backpacks. Again, I'm a little too young to be thinking about starting a family, but let it be known that for a 5'11"-er, there's more than enough room to get comfortable, and the boot can swallow upto 300 litres of "stuff". A slight small gripe is that the rear seats don't fold completely flat, which means getting in a bicycle (if you were so inclined) would be a mission if attempted. Boohoo.

Our test vehicle came with a £525 optional sat-nav which I have to say worked hassle-free. But the dark interface interfaced with splashes of green brings me onto my next point, which is that the interior is overly dim. Possibly because of a lack of sunroof, tinted rear windows, dark plastics and cloth and a gloomy day, I found the interior to be be devoid of any verve or light heartedness. The spartan temperature controls with no attempt to add any geeky electronic wizardry proved to also hammer home the point, that the Fabia vRS doesn't bark on the inside as much as it does under the hood.

And I'm glad we're getting onto my favourite part of the review...under the hood. Because lurking inside is a 1.4-litre unit. You might call that a touch wimpy, but let it be known that thanks to Volkswagen's superb engineering, it has been turbocharged and supercharged to produce a smidgen under 180 horsepower all to the front wheels. Initially, that just sounds mental. We had trouble keeping the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart on the straight and narrow with only 150 horsepower to the front wheels (due to an insane amount of turbo boost and torque steer). But it makes sense once you started to edge out onto country roads and step on the fast pedal.

Whoosh. The Fabia vRS surges forward with power and precision. If you're a bit aggressive with the throttle, it's likely that the 205/40 R17s will break loose and cause the orange traction light to flicker, growling at you as you started to burn up rubber. What's remarkable is how little lag there is between stepping on the accelerator and gaining speed - technically the supercharger (powered by the engine's crankshaft) helps negate the effects of a turbo which itself really works it's magic above 2,500rpm, by coming into action once the engine is freely revving. Gaining speed is a smile-inducing activity and second-gear traction losses can be felt too as the engine starts to parry through the 7 gears all the way up to a top speed of 139 miles an hour.

In full automatic mode, shifts are quick, non-jerky and makes the car extremely easy to pelt down a dual carriageway. However, for a bit of extra control, the DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox) can be flicked into an automated manual mode. Flappy paddles are all the rage at the moment, simply pulling on the left lever will also kick the 'box down into a lower gear but you can also use the gear-shifter by pulling the shifter towards you and pushing up and down. All in all, it's a surprisingly quick-shifting transmission which I didn't expect. I've witnessed some quite horrendous automatics, but the DSG takes care of shifts in a matter of milliseconds and not once was I kept waiting whilst the nanny electronics decided what was best for me.

However, why no manual? Despite having no qualms with being an automatic, surely something like a vRS deserves to have a do-it-yourself attitude where the driver can take full control over the car? I wonder how many car sales Skoda will lose out on because of the decision to equip it only with the DSG, however, with the technology does come economic benefits. The Fabia vRS will achieve a combined economy of 45.6 miles per gallon, although I can't attest to that having achieved at best 38mpg myself. For something this quick and that emits 148g/km, anything in the 40-mpg range isn't too shabby at all.

How does the car handle? For a car like the vRS which comes with sports suspension, you're always going to expect there to be some firmness in the ride. Which is fine, and means that cornering is tight, precise and sans-roll. There's not too many bumps (depending on the road surface of course), but a "comfort" mode would definitely add to the appeal of the Fabia vRS, allowing it to switch between aggressive and more sedate modes. But for the most part, there isn't much at all to complain about with how well the Fabia took many of the country bends and apexes we showed it.

So where does that leave us? To conclude, we must look at what else is out there similar to the vRS. First in the ring is the Polo GTI. It's got the same 1.4-litre engine and the same XDS electronic diff. tricks as the Golf GTI...but it's boring. Completely lacking fun and definitely a poor sod's GTI, so why buy one? Then secondly, there's the Seat Ibiza Cupra. It's certainly got the fun factor with a crazy wide grille and youthful styling. But it is more expensive. This vRS starts at only £16,415 and despite our tester being optioned up OTR to £18,265, that's a lot of bang for your buck.

Which brings me to my final word: if you decide to walk past the Skoda dealership purely because of that Skoda badge, you'll be missing out on a hot hatch bargain. End of.

2011 Skoda Fabia vRS Gallery