So you still wouldn’t consider a Skoda? Well, we’re here to tell you that you would be wrong.

Let’s get one thing straight from the start. The new Skoda Fabia is an excellent car. Possibly the best in its class. The Fabia has levels of refinement that few of its competitors in the same sector can match, and it even rivals the quality feel of considerably larger cars.

If petrol is your thing, you can choose between a 59bhp and a 68bhp 1.2, an 84bhp 1.4 or a 103bhp 1.6-litre engine. If you want maximum miles out of a gallon, then the diesel options are a 1.4-litre turbodiesel giving either 60bhp or 79bhp, or a 103bhp 1.9-litre. All engines come with a five-speed manual gearbox as standard, but the 1.6 petrol allows you to specify a semi-automatic gearbox.

So what about its green credentials? The 1.4TDi returns 58.9mpg, with CO2 emissions of 127g/km. The petrol version that we tested, the 60bhp 1.2 litre base model, returns 47.9mpg combined, and emits 140g/km CO2. And the other information you need to know? This car costs less than £8000.

The Fabia 1.2 HTP has a 3 cylinder petrol engine. It may sound like they’ve removed a cylinder in the interests of cost-cutting, but we drove up over the Pennines with the car full of two people and lots of stuff for Prince Charles’s May Day Climate Change Summit, and the 3 cylinder Fabia climbed the hills with no problem. When revved hard and under heavy load, the engine sounds rather harsh and somewhat reminiscent of the old Audi A2’s 3 cylinder diesel unit, but under normal operating conditions it’s smooth and refined. The Fabia proved remarkably comfortable and perfectly capable for the long journey from Chester to Doncaster to Newbury and back, a journey that you wouldn’t relish undertaking in a base model supermini a few years ago. This is in large part thanks to the Fabia’s overall refinement and its comfortable ride.

The car feels solid, the gearbox and clutch are easy to use, being light but not overly light (along with other controls), and it even goes round corners well - even on fast corners, when it sits flat on the road with little body roll.

The Fabia feels big for a supermini, and this is in part due to Skoda endowing the Fabia with extra height. And as we proved by carting around numerous boxes, bags, display systems etc, for a car of this size, the space inside is excellent, even with the rear seats up. For a trip to the local recycling facility, the rear seats were folded down and a really useful loadbay resulted to accommodate numerous boxes of old redundant paperwork.

Any downsides? Not many. This base model didn’t have air conditioning - during another week when the effects of climate change were evident, and with temperatures forecasted to keep on rising, air conditioning is likely to be a feature that most potential owners will want as standard. The rest of the range does have air conditioning. The interior is functional if slightly dull, but hey, what do you expect from an £8000 car?! The alloy wheels on our car were an optional extra, along with the metallic paint.

The only remaining obstacle is the badge. Over the last few years Skodas have progressed significantly under VW’s ownership. The Octavia is fine to drive, but to be fair, nothing special. If you still have preconceptions about Skoda, the new Fabia really is a supermini that you have to try, to believe how likeable it is to live with.

There’s really only one other area where this Skoda could upset you – without a reality check, you could be left disappointed with the 96.3mph top speed, bearing in mind the speedo is marked up to 160mph...

Finally, is the new Fabia the greenest supermini? Well, not really. The 1.2 petrol model returns 47.9mpg – in comparison, the Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVTi T2 delivers 52.3mpg, the Mitsubishi Colt 1.1 CZ1 51.4mpg and the Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 12v Twinport 50.4mpg.

The Fabia 1.4TDi returns 58.9mpg, whereas the Peugeot 207, Citroen C2 1.4 HDi and Fiat Panda 1.3 TD 16v Multijet can all achieve 65.7mpg.

So the Fabia is a great all-round performer, we’ll just have to wait to see if the VW Group brings out a BlueMotion equivalent in due course to help it contend more successfully in the eco-area.

Skoda Fabia 1 1.2 HTP 60bhp £7990