PARIS MOTOR SHOW: New Skoda Fabia

Skoda Australia has confirmed the third-generation Fabia will go on sale here in the second half of next year, following its world public premiere at the Paris motor show on October 2.

Hatch and wagon versions of the Czech brand’s global light-car will again be sold here, but Skoda Australia director Michael Irmer confirmed reports there will be no RS performance versions next time round, and ruled out a sedan version for Australia should it eventuate.

Skoda’s local chief said the new Fabia range will open at “a similar price point” to the current Fabia line-up, entry pricing for which was reduced from $18,990 to $15,990 plus on-road costs in late March.

The move was designed to make way for this month’s all-new Rapid Spaceback small-car, which will be priced from under $20,000 – less than the larger new Octavia (from $21,690 plus ORCs) and the facelifted Yeti compact SUV (from $23,490 plus ORCs).

That means Skoda now has four models – or its entire range except the large Superb sedan, a facelifted version of which arrives in showrooms in July – priced from under $25,000.

Despite the $3000 price cut more than a month ago, sales of the current Fabia (pictured), which was heavily updated in 2007 but rides on the underpinnings of its 1999 predecessor, have continued to decline this year and now stand 28 per cent down in 2014. That’s on top of a 23 per cent sales slide last year, from a height of 722 in 2012.

However, Skoda says that’s due to a lack of stock of some Fabia variants – a problem it hopes to rectify in coming months to capitalise on lower range-wide pricing, which is likely to remain in place until the all-new model arrives in up to 18 months.

Expected to be built on a shortened version of the Volkswagen Golf platform, dubbed MQB-A, the next Fabia should pioneer the architecture that will eventually be shared by the next VW Polo, Audi A1 and SEAT Ibiza.

The MkIII Fabia should also bring the same new engines and electronic architecture as the facelifted version of Volkswagen’s closely related Polo, which arrives here in August.

Like the upcoming Polo, the 2015 Fabia should also score a new electric power steering system, although MacPherson strut front and torsion-beam rear suspension units will remain.

The new Fabia could also adopt other 2014 Polo upgrades, including a colour touch-screen infotainment system and higher-quality interior materials, although it’s unlikely to receive newly available Polo equipment like a reversing camera, satellite-navigation, LED headlights, radar cruise control and two-stage suspension damping.

Nor, like other Skoda models, is the next Fabia expected to come with the Volkswagen Group’s latest fuel-saving functions like idle-stop and regenerative braking, or advanced driver safety aids including automatic low-speed emergency braking, post-collision automatic braking and drowsy driver alert.

Powertrain choices should, however, closely resemble those of the upcoming Polo, which will be fitted in Europe with a range of new three-cylinder engines and retuned iterations of the existing 77kW/175Nm 1.2-litre 77TSI turbo-four, which will be replaced by 66kW/160Nm and 81kW/175Nm versions.

Wrapped in a more contemporary bodyshell bearing Skoda’s new corporate face, five-door hatch and wagon derivatives of the new Fabia will not be offered in 132kW/250Nm RS guise, but will remain available in sporty Monte Carlo trim.