Before the Fabia arrived in 2000, it was easy to patronise Skoda. We damned them with faint praise while smirking at their arriviste attempts to fast track themselves to the vehicle mainstream. Most motoring journalists love a soft target and Skoda gaining respectability was robbing us of cheap and easy copy. Fast forward to today and nobody would dream of firing lame jokes across Skoda's bow. The Fabia is now a car that needs to be taken extremely seriously and when other manufacturers of supermini-class cars draw up the top contenders in the class, the Skoda is always there or thereabouts.

The second generation Fabia is saddled with a serious weight of expectation, Skoda requiring it to shift 1.5 million units over the next seven years. A good proportion of that number will be diesel models. Here we take a look at how those cars shape up.

Supermini customers look for three main things when assessing the driving experience of a car. The first is ease of use. The car has to feel accessible and the Fabia certainly does. The steering requires no great effort, the gearchange is slick and positive and the pedal weighting is all very good. Factor in excellent all round visibility and you have a car that's utterly unthreatening. The second criterion buyers look for is ride quality. Just because you're not breaking the bank doesn't mean that the car should feel cheap when it's on the move. The Fabia scores again here, with a well-damped ride that feels as if it belongs to a car in the class above. Thirdly, customers look for liveliness. Three diesel engines are offered at the moment and all of them have enough torque to give the Fabia some respectable poke. First up are two versions of the 1.4-litre TDI powerplant good for either 70 or 80bhp. Should you need more welly, there's the 105bhp 1.9-litre engine.

The largest of the three oil-burners will get the Fabia from rest to 60mph in a cracking 9.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 118mph. The 80bhp 1.4-litre is no sluggard either, getting to 60 in 13 seconds and hitting 107mph. Even the entry-level 70bhp car will break the ton and notch off the benchmark sprint in 14.5 seconds.

"This Fabia will be bought by customers who aren't solely price conscious?.."

It's easy to see where Skoda is going with their design language. If you've been paying attention to any of their show cars and concepts in the past few years, the shape of the Fabia will come as no great surprise. The front end mimics that of the Roomster mini-MPV while the rear end is a lot cleaner, offering a more conservative tack than the Roomster's weird kinked window line. In fact, the splayed shoulder line of this car and neatly sawn-off rear pillars aren't dissimilar to the Suzuki Swift. It's a very tidy styling job and serves to make the old Fabia look positively archaic.

It's a notably bigger car too, the subsequent growth in size of the leading family hatchbacks giving this Fabia a bit more room to let its belt out and remain a fully fledged supermini. Skoda claim more rear knee and headroom than any rival, helped by the fact that the Fabia is 22mm longer and 47mm taller than the model it replaces. Boot capacity stands at an impressive 300 litres with the seats in place or a massive 1,163 litres when they're folded.

Despite the success of the Fabia, Skoda still recognise the limits of their badge equity - the upmarket Superb saloon taught them a key, and rather expensive, lesson here - and the Fabia is priced realistically while recognising the need to nudge the brand incrementally upmarket. Equipment levels were never the Fabia's strong point, relying instead on solid no-nonsense build quality. This time round there are items like electronically-controlled Climatronic air-conditioning and an MP3/iPod compatible stereo but if you go to your Skoda dealer expecting to be granted a view of the state-of-the-art in small car electronics, you're likely to be disappointed. Unimpeachable build quality, on the other hand, you can take for granted.

The company seems to be getting better at differentiating its interior design from that of other Volkswagen Group products and trim levels have been kept as simple as possible, Skoda ditching the old Classic, Ambiente, Elegance and Sport trims in favour of an impossible to confuse, 1, 2, 3 and Sport designations. Five-door hatchback prices range from £9,920 for a 1.4TDI 70bhp Fabia 1 to £13,125 for a 1.9TDI Fabia 3. Go for an Estate variant and you're looking at a premium of around £500.

The key thing to figure out with this car is whether it constitutes better value than one of the petrol alternatives in the Fabia range. Let's compare, for instance, the petrol 1.2-litre model with the entry-level 1.4-litre 70bhp TDI and see how things pan out. For the purposes of this comparison, we'll assume you do 10,000 miles per year and you're going to run the car for three years and then trade it in. The 70bhp 1.4-litre diesel Fabia will cost you around £900 more to buy than the equally powerful 1.2-litre petrol car in equivalent trim but over three years you'll save a mere £93 in fuel bills. Both are bracketed in insurance group 2 so there's little in it there, and private buyers will not see any difference in road tax charged.

Somewhat couterintuitively, the 80bhp diesel model not only returns better fuel figures but is also better in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, its 120g/km showing making it cheap to tax. It looks the best buy of the diesel range.

The Skoda Fabia has always been a sensible buy but this latest model adds a bit of style to the mix and sees the Czech company expressing its own identity. Of the three diesel engines on offer, the 80bhp 1.4-litre looks to offer the best compromise between affordability and punch, although it's hard to go wrong with either of the other alternatives. If you are looking to cut your bills to the bone, it's worth remembering that none of these engines will be as cheap to run as the 1.2-litre petrol unit. You'll buy these diesel engines not only for their excellent economy and range but also for their smooth overtaking ability and surging mid-range torque.

Rival small car manufacturers once again have the prospect of a Skoda that offers more car for less money. This time round, it'll be bought by customers who aren't solely price conscious.

TOP 5 FABIA DEALS

The results below show the top FABIA deals on buyacar

	Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI PD 80 1 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £155	Saving £834	Price £9,441
	Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI PD 3 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £203	Saving £1,211	Price £11,919
	Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI PD 80 2 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £171	Saving £972	Price £10,313
	Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI PD 2 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £185	Saving £1,053	Price £10,917
	Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI PD 80 GreenLine 5dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £174	Saving £1,000	Price £10,490

typical 11.26% APR

PCP finance quote over 48 months,  10,000 miles pa,  deposit of £1000