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After launching two years ago with a single $37,990 model, the latest Skoda Fabia will soon add a cheaper variant. But it won’t be the same $20,000 bargain buy as its predecessor.
A more affordable version of the 2024 Skoda Fabia city hatch is due to join the range this July, two years after the new-generation model launched with a $38,000 drive-away price – which in itself was double that of its predecessor.
However, Skoda Australia has cautioned the new variant will not return to the sub-$20,000 price bracket occupied by the previous Fabia, which was discontinued in 2021 – nor will it even cost less than $30,000.
The imminent arrival of the new Fabia variant comes after Toyota’s decision to axe the regular petrol version of the Yaris city hatch – its last sub-$30,000 drive-away passenger car – and go all-in on hybrid technology.
Due in showrooms in July, the new ‘entry’ Fabia will slot beneath Monte Carlo Edition 150, which has been the only variant available since the current generation was introduced in 2022.
Despite launching with a drive-away price of $37,990 – which later rose to $38,990 – the Czech car maker says it has always had enough demand to fill the limited slots on the production line available.
“It’s been going well, we’ve had it in the offer for two years and we’ve never had a situation where we had more production available to us that we could sell, so it [has been] nice,” Skoda Australia’s director Michael Irmer told media.
“It is actually one of the shortest-supplied cars we’ve run for long periods of these two years, so now is the right time to start rolling out the mid-tier spec, which for us is the entry [grade].”
Mr Irmer told Drive the new ‘entry’ Fabia will have a specification level expected of a Style variant in other Skoda model ranges, but the new version of the city car is likely to go by a different name locally.
While it will be cheaper than the Monte Carlo Edition 150, the new variant is still estimated to be priced from around $33,000 drive-away.
The previous Skoda Fabia left showrooms in 2021 priced from $24,990 to $28,990 drive-away – and prior to the pandemic could be had for $17,490 drive-away with a manual transmission.
The latest model is a larger car with much more convenience equipment, technology, and safety features – and in the Monte Carlo Edition 150, uses a larger 1.5-litre turbo four-cylinder engine with 110kW/250Nm and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
Powering the new entry-level Fabia will be a 85kW/200Nm 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder and seven-speed dual-clutch auto shared with the Skoda Kamiq, Scala and VW Polo, and is an evolution of the engine in the old Fabia.
“The entry [Fabia] is [equivalent to] a mid-spec [model], so that probably won’t get sub-$30,000. That would be great [if we could do it], but maybe that’s the next step. It’s really a challenging territory,” Mr Irmer told media.
“It’s very difficult in this space economically, as you would have seen many other brands that maybe also struggled with in this space to keep it commercially viable and a low price level, so we needed to get it right.
“That took a little longer than expected.”
If other Skoda models are a guide, the new Fabia variant could wear 17-inch wheels instead of 18s, feature an 8.0-inch touchscreen instead of a 9.2-inch display, have a smaller instrument display, and less advanced LED headlights.
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