Skoda still come in for a fair share of stick as you say, but they really do make some cracking cars at unbelievable prices.
Four years ago when my little sister left University and was looking for her 1st car I got lumbered with the job of sorting it. So she ended up with a brand new Fabia 1.9TDi (100hp) on 0% finance and with the maintenance pack thrown in. The car itself was great, lovely tight turning circle, big enough to take on the morotway without feeling unstable or dwarved by the HGVs. Plus, if you came up against an A4 1.9TDi at the lights you knew that you could have him because of the weight difference. The only problems in four years of motoring were the failure of the lights on warning buzzer and the replacement of both headlamp bulbs. The instument binacle was replaced under warranty for the buzzer and the bulbs were replaced without charging anything for fitting. Top service that is up there with BMW.
The only fault with the dealer was that to have a courtsey car you had to be 25, so I had to take it in for service. Then you'd always have a 1.2 courtesy car. That tended to be a lesson in energy conservation.
