The mission: to cover 1500 miles in less than a week in a Skoda Fabia diesel estate. Sometimes you wonder just how short a straw can be.
So you might think, anyway. As it turned out, my marathon trip in the Fabia showed it in its best light. This may be the smallest Skoda, but as I travelled from horizon to horizon, attending a race here and a business meeting there, and undertook a couple of road tests in other places, I realised that the Fabia was ideal for the job.
That's partly because it doesn't feel like a small car at all. It might be a little cramped four-up, but it's both roomy and comfortable enough in the front to make long trips easy to endure.
The engine helps a lot, too. It's the 1.9-litre TDI seen elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group, and it's quite a unit, sipping diesel at a very modest rate but also providing very strong mid-range performance when required.
In fact, it pulls so well that on country roads it can sometimes begin to overwhelm the chassis. This is the old story of putting a heavy engine in a small car and having to cope with the resulting imbalance in weight distribution. Skoda has not done a particularly good job with this, so although overtaking is rarely a problem - you just plant your right foot and off you go - the Fabia isn't at its best when you're trying to make up time through a series of twists and turns.
Motorway cruising is a different matter entirely. There was never a stage during the higher-mileage days of my trip when I wished I was driving anything else, or felt I needed more room either for myself or for all the paraphernalia I was carrying - and that's quite a recommendation for a small estate car.
Second opinion: I reckon some of the above is rather understated. Thinking about all the turbo diesel cars I've driven since January - although they've been of very different kinds and with different strong points - if I had to choose one for a year's use it would be a toss-up between this car and the Focus TDCi. The Elegance is fully kitted out. Its combination of (heated) height-adjustable driver's seat with rake-and-reach adjustments for the exactly-right-size steering wheel meant that I found the best driving position for months, although we are talking very firm upholstery here. Mile-eating motorway car, really strong on hills, and I thought pretty forceful on the sweeping bends too. Okay, maybe not so poised on the tighter turns. Well-built and, for its overall size, very impressive load space. Fine ride quality, and I did like the Elegance's seat and door trim with its ultra-slim dancing figures, which close examination with an optical glass could not separate into male and female. Cheery, though. Ross Finlay.
