Skoda Felicia 1.3

I love my skoda felicia, its one of the best cars ever. It never lets me down, touch wood.

If you don't expect too much the Skoda Felicia is a good, cheap, reliable car.

The Skoda Felicia 1.3LXi is a practical and reliable car, but not for those who seek excitement. I also own a Honda Jazz, and it's interesting to compare them. Considering its image and older design, you might think the Skoda would compare poorly - but not so. The Honda has advantages in performance, economy, ventilation and refinement, but the Skoda is better in certain other areas.

Starting from the outside, this sturdily built Skoda has excellent paintwork (mine is silver) and after 6 years there is absolutely no sign of rust, in fact it still looks new. Inside, the doors are covered in a fabric similar to the seat coverings, which is wearing extremely well. The interior still retains a slight smell reminiscent of a carpet shop (the Honda smells of plastic). The dashboard is not up to the best standards but is pleasant and well laid out.

The controls are good, except for the light switches which are confusing. Skoda employs the best variable wiper delay system I have come across, where it remembers the delay period by example.

The interior space is average for its class, and the boot, which has the usual remote release, is particularly good, marred only by intruding suspension struts. The rear seats can be removed completely (not recommended for back sufferers!) which frees up a huge loading area - great for those trips to the recycling centre.

Ventilation is poor, although the car demists quickly, there never seems to be much outflow from the dash mounted face vents. Switching the fan speed to maximum gives a marginal increase in airflow at the expense of more noise. With this and stiff window winders the car can become stuffy. By contrast, the heater output is very good; warming up rapidly from cold it will keep the interior cosy on the coldest of days.

On the road the Skoda Felicia is pleasant to drive, with a light clutch and excellent gear change (not as positive as the Honda's but slightly lighter). The power assisted steering is not pin-sharp but the vehicle remains stable at all speeds, even in cross-winds. The handbrake is rather heavy and fitted with a coarse ratchet. The ride is quite good, being noticeably less harsh than the Honda's.

The engine is slightly lumpy at tick-over but smoothes off as soon as you pull away. As speed increases the engine gets louder and can sound harsh once taken above 4000 rpm (equivalent to 80mph in 5th gear). Performance is adequate, although acceleration is unremarkable. Economy is not particularly good either at around 34mpg (the Honda achieves 49mpg).

This particular model is fitted with the original Skoda designed all aluminium engine and gearbox (not VW), now up rated with multi-point fuel injection. Interestingly, under the auspices of VW, they removed the distributor and replaced it with a device that electronically switches the ignition between alternate pairs of cylinders. This means that a spark is wasted in whatever cylinder happens to be approaching the end of its exhaust stroke. Being a relatively simple engine it is still possible to carry out DIY servicing, with routine operations such as changing the oil and filters being straightforward.

Reliability has been very good. The only thing to have gone wrong is the hydraulic headlight aim mechanism, which leaked its fluid.

I have been 3 times to the south of France, York around 20 times, at least 6 trips to northern Scotland. I have transported loads of people with my job, and used it as a furniture removals van on so many occasions I could not list them all.

37 mpg in town (winter) 40 mpg Summer best long distance 51 mpg.

Tyres around 23,000 fronts 60,000 rears

Total spent apart from tyres exhausts servicing etc:

£459 for replacment clutch, seat belt, front strut and a coil spring.

It's never broken down or failed an mot and it's coming up to 86,000 miles.

Skoda Felicia GLXI City Car,

Excellent value, no street cred so no theft risk and no bother from plod. Good MPG, reasonable performance and low service costs. Brick solid car with excellent build quality but very 'grey plastic' inside.

Problems with alternator, fixed on warranty within first year. Repeated 2 years later which seems to indicate a problem here. Car bought from new 1999 and now has 98,000 miles and still going well with original clutch. Needs regular servicing 10k and heavy on spark plugs and brakes. Not easy to home service- black box engineering.

Good buy, and Fabia is light years better.

I bought my Red Skoda Felicia 1300L in June 1999 so it is now 5 years old and looking like new!

Initially I was doing over 10,000 miles a year but in the last year or so only under 2000 miles.

All through the winter it started first time and drives just as well if not better than when I first picked it up. I did change the front tyres to Michelins and that has improved the steering for parking and handling too. It loves motorways and I'm never too tired after a long journey. It's so economical I haven't bothered to check MPG

What do you call a rusty old car? Not a Skoda!