Once upon a time, nothing quite said bang for your buck like a Skoda vRS. There really wasn’t anything else out there that could rival the fast Skodas for a combination of performance, value, sturdy build quality and plentiful equipment. Maybe they weren’t always the sharpest tools in the shed to drive, though that didn’t matter so much given the price being asked and the power on offer.
Today’s vRS Skodas are very decent - the Octavia especially so - but they don’t represent quite such conspicuous value as before. See the £55k Enyaq Coupe vRS, for example. It might be said that MG offers up the closest thing to a new, electric Skoda vRS from the old school, with its 435hp 4 XPower for less than £40k. But before we get lost in that argument, time to revisit one of those cult classic Skodas…
This is a Fabia vRS, the 130hp diesel-powered follow-up to the 180hp Octavia vRS of 2001. Back in the early '00s, there was nothing really like it, miles faster (in a straight line, at least) than anything at comparable money. 229lb ft of torque was simply unheard of in a small car, let alone one that cost £13k. The vRS proved hugely popular in its few years on sale as a fast, frugal, cheap-to-run alternative to the hot hatch norm.
So much so, in fact, that Skoda didn’t really change anything at all about the first generation between 2003 and 2007. The vRS fan will say that’s because nothing needed any tweaking; keeping things the same also meant the price could stay super competitive. Even when it came to the run-out special edition, the LE, the overhaul was modest. There was Race Blue metallic paint, blue piped leather, red calipers, cruise control and tinted rear windows - that was it. But then it did mean an RRP of just £13,010. Even today, with inflation as it is, that’s £21k - or a decent amount less than any Fabia Monte Carlo might cost.
This is one of the 1000 LEs sold, #362 if the number on the seat is to be believed. Typically these Fabias tend to be found on higher mileages, being cheap, strong and well suited to 50mpg+ motorway cruising, but this one has racked up just 53k since 2007. The condition reflects that, with paint, wheels and upholstery in very good order. The MOT history shows just one fail since 2010, with the current advisory-free ticket running until February. Everything points to this being one of those low mileage, cherished examples of a cult hero hot hatch, right down to the numberplate; it’s just that this is the diesel Fabia hero.
Slowly but surely, prices for the best vRSes are creeping up. The twincharged replacement never caught the imagination in the same way, not helped by its torrid reliability record, so now the fast Fabias with a turbodiesel are now worth more than younger, lower mileage cars that are turbo and supercharged. Funny old world. As so many of the originals have accrued monster mileages and eventually bills that outweighed their value when they were really cheap, numbers have declined. Now £5k is your entry point, on PH at least, with this LE on offer at £7,995. That surely won’t be a bad return for what the second owner paid. And if unlikely to shoot up in value like so many hot hatches have given the uncertainty around diesel, the fondness for this engine in the vRS means good ones will surely always be in demand. Anyone who needs a motorway hack that’ll get loads of love at a Sunday Service won’t do very much better.
SPECIFICATION | SKODA FABIA VRS
Engine: 1,896cc, four-cyl diesel
Transmission: six-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 130@4,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 229@1,900rpm
0-62mph: 9.5 secs
Top speed: 128mph
MPG: 52.3
CO2: 140g/km
Year registered: 2007
Recorded mileage: 53,000
Price new: £13,010 (2007)
Yours for: £7,995
1 / 4
