No Down Under date for Fabia

The Skoda Fabia is the Czech company's smallest car. It's slightly larger than the Volkswagen Polo (the new generation of which it's based) and if it comes to Australia, would probably go up against similarly-sized cars like the Peugeot 207 and Fiat Punto, to name two.

But the operative word remains 'if'.

The Carsales Network was part of an Aussie contingent invited by Skoda this week to learn more about the Skoda Scout (more here) and the Superb large car (more here). As part of the visit, we toured the Mlada Boleslav facility north of Prague. The pictures hereabouts show the Fabia being constructed.

However, according to Matthew Wiesner, head of Skoda in Australia, there is still no target date for a launch of the small Skoda Down Under.

"There's no specific plan yet," he said before pointing out that pricing and specifications for the Fabia are the current stumbling blocks.

"We won't negotiate on [specifications]," he said. "Our standard six airbags and ESP -- we won't negotiate on those. That's what we [Skoda Australia] are."

Pricing is the other end of the balance beam. Ill-judged pricing for the Fabia would cast it in sharp relief against the Volkswagen Polo.

"We source the Polo out of South Africa, so currency exchange rates [differ] from the Czech Republic,” Wiesner said.

"You've got an appreciating Czech unit of currency against an already strong Euro."

In other words, the cost of Polo landed in Australia are relatively low and stable, but the landed cost for Fabia is -- and may well continue to be -- volatile.

"[The Fabia] is built CKD in India and we're looking at a couple of other plants coming online," said Wiesner.

However, the company will be wary of sacrificing its improving reputation for quality for the sake of optimal profit.

The new plants Wiesner mentions will be taking up the slack left by the Mlada Boleslav plant, which already builds up to 1080 units of Fabia per day (compare this to Holden's maximum capacity at the Elizabeth plant of 620 units a day). The plant workers are employed across three shifts.

Skoda reports that two per cent of cars are 'defected' at the end of the line. The company subscribes to a Japanese quality assurance system 'ANDON' and strongly feels that the Fabia is a prime example of premium build quality in a small car. Company officials point to laser welding and ultrasonic flaw detection processes to support this view.

From an outsider's perspective, the Fabia assembly plant is on a much larger scale than Ford's plant at Broadmeadows. It would cover at least twice the floor area, the facility is very clean (which is not to say that Ford's isn't) and there's a lot of natural light, so the workers seem fairly contented. Bear in mind also that the welding of the bodies is carried out in a separate building, unlike the local Ford facility.

Despite the Fabia's attractive packaging and presumed solid build quality, there's one other reason that Skoda is in no tearing hurry to bring the Fabia to Australia -- brand management.

Skoda didn't want to find itself in the same position that Hyundai has -- locked into a '$14,990 driveaway' market position that the company cannot shake.

"It's lucky in a way we didn't introduce the Fabia [first]," Wiesner says.

With the Octavia, Skoda has a sensible small-midsize car that will help establish the brand as anything but a cheapy. Wiesner tells us that the majority of Octavia buyers do not opt for the entry-level model, so there's confidence at Skoda that the brand is being managed just fine, thank you.

The release of the Superb early next year should help shift the Skoda image further upmarket.

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