SKODA FELICIA ESTATE 1995-2001 Review
Good Points
- One of the cheapest that you can find
- Good build quality and high reliability
Bad Points
- Underpowered and old-fashioned engines
- It lacks safety equipment
Engines
There are two petrol engines, the 1.3-litre 54-68bhp and 1.6-litre 75bhp and one diesel engine, the 1.9-litre 64bhp.
Performance & Economy
The entry level Felicias feature a 1.3-litre engine that on export models was still equipped with a carburettor. The engine is a derivative of a 70s construction and even with a modern Bosch fuel injection system only manages 68bhp. With a basic fuel injection system it only achieves 55bhp and that’s where you start to struggle. The car needs 15 seconds to accelerate to 60mph and it will take lots of revving and pushing to get to motorway speeds. Although the car is supposed to be able to reach 94mph, it’s purely theoretic and in reality you’ll be lucky to keep up with other traffic. If you stick to urban driving, the underpowered Skoda’s engines will do just fine though.
The Bosch system adds a bit of power and it is always advisable to buy the 68bhp version. On a negative side, the Bosch system actually pumps more fuel into the cylinders to get any decent power out of it, hence, the higher-spec 1.3-litre engine will have lower mpg. Thus, the basic 1.3-litre engine provides a respectable 45mpg, whereas the Bosch system drops slightly to 42mpg.
The diesel engine is neither powerful nor economical. From a 64bhp diesel you’d expect more than 44mpg fuel economy. It is an indirect injection engine, so the potential buyer might as well stay away from it.
Considering the 1.6-litre engine adds very little to the dynamic characteristics of the car and reduces the fuel economy down to 40mpg, the best choice will be one of the 1.3-litre units.
The Felicia is a very economical car. It is very cheap in the used car market, inexpensive to insure and inexpensive to run.
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Introduction
The Felicia was the first step in the right direction for the historical Czech manufacturer. Under new management by Volkswagen Group they were trying to leave the horrible, slow Skodas behind. Although technically, the Felicia is hardly a huge improvement from the old-school Skoda Favorit, the car was assembled to higher quality standards and still tops the very cheap end of the first car buyers’ choice.
Exterior & Interior
The Felicia is based on its predecessor the Favorit, which was designed by the famous Italian design studio, Bertone. Allegedly, the fact that the Favorit was so ugly was largely the fault of the owner of Skoda, who tried to interfere with Bertone’s work. Anyway, it’s not the most successful project of the Italian design powerhouse and the Felicia was only a slight improvement. Under the watchful eye of Volkswagen, it was attempted to smooth the lines and bring the car closer to the 21st century. The result is not bad, and you can see the design features that were first tried out on the Felicial, later re-emerging in all-new Skoda’s like, for example, the Octavia.
The Felicia comes in three body styles: hatchback, combi and pick-up. The latter is very rare, though. There are several trim levels but even the LX (stands for luxury) is rather basic.
The interior is very simple, but as Skoda was trying to turn its fortunes around they introduced a much stricter quality control. Although the Felicia looks cheap, it’s a well built car and the interior materials have a long life.
Drive
It’s certainly not terrible, but the Felicia is a very utilitarian little vehicle. It does the job, although there’s no thrill associated with driving a Skoda. For the same money the alternative would be a similar aged Korean car, which won’t built or finished as well as the Felicia and won’t feel as good to drive. So all in all for the price the Felicia is a good car, especially if you are going to stay mainly within cities.
Faults & Repairs
It’s fair to say that the time span between the 60s and 90s saw Skoda deteriorate and become one of the least reliable cars in Europe. You could hardly talk about good reliability when a Skoda was concerned. It is close to miraculous how quickly they managed to turn it around. The Felicia is actually the first good Skoda. During its production it often topped reliability charts, including those compiled in the UK. Now that the majority of Felicias are considered old and have clocked more than 100,000 miles, some problems obviously crop up. One of the most important points to check is the body work as old Skoda’s tend to rust a lot. The petrol engines after 100K miles can also have serious problems so check these carefully.
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