When they said the rise of the machines would happen, they probably didn’t mean a Skoda salesman plugging himself into a Fabia’s infotainment system.
All jokes aside, while Skoda is hard at work at trying to contain whatever damage their brand sustained during the Dieselgate scandal, on the other side of the planet, things are a bit more laid back – besides, they’re only selling petrol-powered TSI models in Australia.
It would have been fun to be in that board room when somebody suggested: Hey, let’s prank customers by having a cyborg salesman plug himself into one of our cars, and calling it a feature! You have to admit, it’s a pretty interesting idea – even though it’s a little sad that people actually fell for it. Still, that one reaction when one of the women went “Oh wait, what?” was priceless.
If you live in Australia and you’re interested in buying a Fabia, rest assured, you won’t have to plug anything anywhere you don’t want to and you certainly don’t need to get any surgical enhancements done on yourself – unless you’re Wolverine.
Money-wise, the Fabia will cost you $15,990 (AUD) in 1.2 TSI 66kW form, and $20,290 (AUD) if you go for the 81 kW 7-speed DSG version. That’s 90 PS and 110 PS respectively, with the latter even giving you a sub-10 second 0-100 km/h (62 mph) sprint time.
Not a bad deal if you’re into well-built small city cars.