Comparison: European Cousins Polo and Fabia

[PetrolHeadPrash]

Fabia Vs Polo Compare

Colonial Cousins!!

For people reading this article might wonder whether it makes any sense to actually compare Fabia & polo now considering the fact that Fabia is almost on the verge of being phased out.However considering the recent trend of badge engineered vehicles (Micra/Pulse,Duster/Terrano,Rapid/Vento) Fabia and Polo are very similar in terms of engines and build but yet distinctively different from each other which the car enthusiast in me couldn't help but bring out through this article

The vehicles at my Disposal was my very Own sweetheart Fabia 1.2 PetrolHTP(2011 Ambiente) and the pre owned Polo 1.2 TDI(2010 highline) of my good friend and fellow TAI-ger Sandy Kudva(Now again i didn't intend to do a direct comparison of engines one petrol and other diesel and mainly concentrated on bringing about the subtle differences and similarities in these two European beauties)
So on a fine lazy Sunday afternoon we went about clicking pics of these German cousins side by side.



LOGOS


The Exteriors

The polo with its sleek and elegant design comes one up in terms of exterior styling as compared to conservative boxy design on the Fabia which feels a little outdated.



Front
Both these cars have an attractive front Grille.


The Grille
The Fabia chrome grille is more prominent then the one on the VW and looks good.The Fabia borrows the low lip designed bumper from the polo.



Rear
Rear of both these cars is very simple,but one eye catching feature on Polo is the opening of the Hatch door by folding the VW logo.



Lights
These two cars have only a single Reverse lamp on the rear.



Some other external Nitty gritties



Interiors
German cars generally score over their Indian and Japanese counterparts when it comes to interiors.The quality of plastics on dashboard on both these cars is really good.

Steering
Polo has the 3 spoke design while fabia comes with the 4 spoke steering wheel.Both these vehicles come with Steering adjustment for Rake and Reach.



Storage space
Plenty of cubby holes in both.On first glance it would be difficult to differentiate between the two.However The Fabia has two glove compartments as compared to the solitary one in Polo.Also Fabia comes with Illumination in the lower glove compartment.




Instrument cluster

The instrument clusters are almost identical except for the backlight color.Polo comes with a white and orange back light which gives a rich feel when driving at night while Fabia is green.(Id prefer the white back light personally wish Fabia also had it)
Also being top of line the polo here also came with a Multi Function Display which gave all sorts of information from Distance to empty to Current mileage and whole lot of other things.




Internal Nitty Gritties

Note that Fabia was a mid level while polo was the top of the line model which explains only front Power windows on the Fabia.
The Fabia has a dead pedal which is missing in the polo.



Also the bonnet release on Fabia is on the passenger side which is rather inconvenient whereas on Polo it is present on the driver's side.
Both cars come with height adjustment for driver and only the color differentiates them from each other.
Gear stalks for both are equally good and differ in terms of design.
However when it comes to the horn the polo has the big car sounding trumpet horn(I love this classy sounding horn) which all Skodas except the Fabia have.



Boot Space

Fabia comes with 315 litres of boot space which happens to be second largest in its class whereas Polo has a decent 294 litres.




Cabin

Overall the cabin of Fabia seems slightly roomier and comfortable owing to its tallness and seats offer better under thigh support as well compared to Polo.But when it comes to aesthetic appeal of dashboard polo scores well over the fabia which has seems a little bland.There is a generous usage of Beige in both the interiors.



Engines

Both the cars in context had different engines.Fabia was the 1.2 HTP petrol while the polo was the 1.2 TDI diesel.So a direct comparison would have been unfair however both these are 3 pot motors and on highway drives feel a little underpowered(both with 75bhp).
On the Mileage front The fabia has given me around 12kmpl on city and 16kmpl on the highway. Sandy's diesel polo fares better and has given him around 16kmpl and 21kmpl on city and highway respectively.
On the torque front the Polo delivers 180Nm@2000 rpm while the Fabia with the HTP motor which stands for High Torque Performance gives 110Nm@3750rpm.




So this was a short n sweet comparison of the German cousins both equally good cars to drive and own but with different destinies in the Indian Market.So while the Fabia continues the tradition of some very good cars being highly underrated (like the fiat palio) and goes into its sunset(being phased out) till a newer model is launched which may be somewhere around 2015-16, the Polo continues to be the bread and butter for Volkswagen in India and being rated as one of the best hatchbacks currently available.
Hope it made for an interesting read!!!

 

[PetrolHeadPrash]

Re: European Cousins Polo n Fabia

Some More Random Clicks

 

[Sandykudva]

Re: European Cousins Polo n Fabia

Well it was really nice doing this comparo on both the European cousins. Had a great time doing this. A special thanks to my friend and TAI member PetrolheadPrash. Now i shall be adding a few things that what i observed during the comparo these points may have been added by prashant in his beautifully and deeply written comparo.

I shall be comparing on just 3 points

1. Exterior & Looks

2. Interior,Seating & Comfort

3. Performance & Handling

Exterior & Looks

The Volkswagen Polo and the Skoda Fabia are based on a similar platform . The Polo has a very Sporty and Sexy look where as the Fabia has a simple yet elegant look. On seeing both of them look same in length but its the Fabia that is a few mm longer than the Polo giving it a bit of extra room inside. The Hieght is another factor where the Fabia beats the Polo giving the Fabia a tall boy image. When it comes to ground clearance its the Fabia which has a shortcoming having a GC of 158mm and the Polo 168mm. On a personal note i have driven both the Fabia and the Polo with 4 people on board but never have i faced any issue of under belly scraping while driving over humps.

Interior & Comfort

When it comes to interior spacing and seating there is one clear winner and its the Fabia. The slight edge over the width and excellent use of internal spacing gives the fabia more room compared to the Polo. The Polo feels cramped up. The advnatage of the height for the Fabia also give it a better edge over Polo making the cabin feel spacious and airy.The under thigh support of the Fabia is much better than the Polo. Now coming to the Dashboard the Polo looks much more elegant compared to the Fabia. Both the cars have really good quality & fit-Finish as they are germans but the Polo Dashboard looks really good with the bits of chrome added to the air vents, the fabia dashboard looks pretty simple. Also both these cars have a very similar dashboard just the back lights are differnt. Now finally coming to the boot space its the Fabia that has a bit more space than the Polo.

Performance & Handling

Unfortunately both these cars being compared here in the Comparo run on different Power House. One being a 1.2 MPI and the other a 1.2 TDI both 3 Cylinders. But fortunately i have had the opportunity to drive both the Polo and Fabia earlier so i will write a few lines on that experience.

Fabia Petrol Diesel

Power 75HP 75HP

Torque 110Nm 180Nm


Polo Petrol Diesel

Power 75HP 75HP

Torque 110Nm 180Nm

Now usually its a diesel powerhouse that usually impresses a person, But here the case is completely different. It is the Petrol engine that is much more fun and peppy to drive in comparison to the diesel.
* (I have just selected the basic petrol and diesel engines in the comparison and not Involving the GT TSI, GT TDI, 1.6 Petrol and the discontinued 1.4 TDI Fabia.)
Petrol
Now seein the specs above both the cars have the same engine and the same power output but it is the Polo's light weight and tune up that makes the Polo a bit more fun and pepier to drive than the Fabia. Even for a 3 Cylinder the Engines are pretty peppy and free revving to drive but there is a bit of clatter and noise from it. The suspension set up of the Polo is much better than the Fabia making the handling of the vehicle really good. Both these vehicles feel planted on the roads even with speeds on triple digits, but in the 2 the Fabia is more stable and more solid than the Polo.

Diesel
Unfortunately i have just driven the Polo diesel and never had the opportunity to try the Diesel Fabia hence i will not be able to comment on it even though both the power houses are the same and the power outputs are also same.

I have just written what i could recollect about the comparo at the moment for more details Prashant has written a complete detailed report with some excellent pictures to support it.

 

[jeno_turbo]

That was a pretty good Comparision. I have driven the Older Fabia Diesel. 1.4 PD motor. The engine noise was annoying.

Looks/Build :
Not a big fan of its looks, i will choose the Polo Any day for a beauty contest. But does not look bad by any means either. Solid Build is very evident.

Engine (1.4 PD) :
Noisiest and most annoying Engine i have ever encountered. Dont get me wrong here, I own an Octavia Diesel , it is Noisy too, but the 4 pot motor has a Masculine Sound which is well insulated and the Turbo whistle takes over while driving (which i like, and most of them do ). But in case of Fabia, it sounds more like a Tractor. I also noticed that the Ambiente version which i drove didn't have a Engine Cover(reduces noise and vibrations) .

Sound/Vibrations aside , the Motor is pretty good in other Aspects. The performance was good for the power numbers on paper. It returned a decent kmpl in Chennai City 13-15 . And the best part was , it was able to do speeds around 150 pretty easily, didnt reach the speed very quickly, but the Engine didnt feel strained too.

Ride/Handling:
The ride was very good for a hatch back. And Rear seats were a lot better than my Octavia tdi. Handling was also very Predictable at high speeds only next to Punto in its class.

Interiors :
Well, I always dont give much importance to the Interior of the car. But i have a feeling that the Older Fabia had better Interiors


Jeno

 

[Sandykudva]

@ jeno_turbo : Well the Europeans specially the ones using the TDI motors are very noisy in comparison to the other common rail engines. But agreed the noise as you said is noisy and gives a bit of a sporty feeling to me when i drive the Polo. But the Diesel engines are not to be revved as the more you rev the more it tends to smoke.

I have never driven the Fabia 1.4 or the 1.2 TDi but i think the 1.2 TDi should be the same as the Polo but a little more sluggish as the Fabia i think will be a bit heavier than the Polo. Even the 1.2 TDi is pretty peppy to drive in the band. Yes there is a lot of lag but once in the turbo zone it has a good mid range to keep up with most of the hatches and some sedans. The Polo easily touches the 120-130 mark in the band but the travel from 130 - 170 ( Top speed ) does take a lot of time and also requires that stretch of road.

I had the fortunes of owning a pre owned Skoda Octavia Rider 1.9 TDi. My first ever European which my dad had purchased. Had totally fallen in love with the car. The car would just produce 90 BHP & 210 NM of Torque but that was like a lot for me that time. I never revved the car above 3k Rpm and was very much satisfied in the drive range below it hence don't know the engine note on high revs but loved the Turbo whistle ( Which I miss completely in the Polo ). The Octavia gave me the best mileage in my life i.e 25 Kmpl on a journey from Mumbai- Bangalore. Have done a trip of 2000 kms in just 80 ltrs of diesel.

But the car had two major drawbacks
1. Low GC:- Would scrape on most of the humps with 4 on board.
2. Rear Seat Leg Room: With me driving nobody was able to sit behind me.

Kept the car for a year and knocked it off due to heavy maintenance.

 

[jeno_turbo]

Hey Sandykudva,
Each and every word you have typed is absolutely similar to my take on the these cars. Cant agree more.

But what i wanted to correct is, i didn't really rev the Fabia 1.4 to get noisy. And im pretty sure the newer 1.2 CR TDI units will be a lot more quitter than the 1.4 TDI PD motor.

And on the Octavia, yes, the Turbo Sound is addictive, with regularly cleaned Intercooler and a Tuning Box , performance is a lot better than stock, and the Bilstein B6 shocks helps handle them all very well.

High maintenance!! Yes, true. But I get all the original spares from outside for the half the price and fix it with a trusted friend.

Jeno.

 

[jeno_turbo]

And just because of the bad rear legroom. Im planning to change to something else Similar to the Octavia but with better rear legroom.

Jeno

 

[Gurrala74]

Some how Fabia appeals to me more than Polo

 

[Sandykudva]

@ jeno_turbo: I have never driven or have never seen a Fabia 1.4 TDi hence i really cannot comment on the Noise level but as said earlier all TDi are bound to make a lot of noise just a bit of here and there.
The 1.2 TDi is a nice and powerfull motor but just lacks the initial punch. The stock mapping of the car is very much detuned.
About your octavia just heard a tuning boxin it. I have always thought about it but have always stayed away from remaps and TB due excess smoking which develops in d later stages. Hows your octy running wid d TB and have you faced any issue of smoking ??

About the spares, yes even i had a dealer who supplied me with the original parts for cheaper but still it was pretty expensive as our earlier cars were all japs & koreans so they were very much light on that.

@ Gurrala74 : Its personal choice sir and i respect it. Polo usually appeals to the younger generation due to its sleek and hot looks where as the Fabia mostly appeals the mature generation with its clean and simple yet elegant design.
More or less both the cars are almost same but i feel that the fabia has a better build quality than the Polo upto some extent.

 

[jeno_turbo]

@ jeno_turbo: I have never driven or have never seen a Fabia 1.4 TDi hence i really cannot comment on the Noise level but as said earlier all TDi are bound to make a lot of noise just a bit of here and there.
The 1.2 TDi is a nice and powerfull motor but just lacks the initial punch. The stock mapping of the car is very much detuned.
About your octavia just heard a tuning boxin it. I have always thought about it but have always stayed away from remaps and TB due excess smoking which develops in d later stages. Hows your octy running wid d TB and have you faced any issue of smoking ??

About the spares, yes even i had a dealer who supplied me with the original parts for cheaper but still it was pretty expensive as our earlier cars were all japs & koreans so they were very much light on that.

@ Gurrala74 : Its personal choice sir and i respect it. Polo usually appeals to the younger generation due to its sleek and hot looks where as the Fabia mostly appeals the mature generation with its clean and simple yet elegant design.
More or less both the cars are almost same but i feel that the fabia has a better build quality than the Polo upto some extent.

Yes, i know TB is not the right way to get the best out a car, but the petes tuning box never smoked during hard acceleration. And interestingly , the car used to smoke before plugging the TB . But there might be a lot of other factors affecting that than just the Box.

And im planning a Remap, but i might also upgrade to a PD Laura. So not doing it right now.

Jeno