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Felicia 1.9D

Roadtrips

I like travelling - or rather, out of respect for real travellers, "punk tourism" is probably the more fitting term, especially when we go as a group and by car.

Trips

2016 Eastern Balkans

  • Slovakia -> Hungary -> Romania -> Moldova -> Romania -> Bulgaria -> Macedonia -> Serbia -> Hungary -> Slovakia
  • Felda estate + Honda CBR 125
  • 5 people

2017 Western Balkans

  • Slovakia -> Hungary -> Croatia -> Bosnia and Herzegovina -> Montenegro -> Albania -> Montenegro -> Serbia -> Hungary -> Slovakia
  • Felda estate
  • 3 people

2018 The Baltics

  • Slovakia -> Poland -> Lithuania -> Latvia -> Estonia -> Latvia -> Lithuania -> Poland -> Slovakia
  • Felda estate, Octavia saloon 1st gen, Ford Focus 1st gen, Fabia 3rd gen
  • 16 people

2019 Scandinavia

  • Slovakia -> Poland -> (ferry) -> Sweden -> Denmark -> Germany -> Poland -> Slovakia
  • Felda estate, Seat Ibiza 3rd gen, Subaru Impreza Wagon 2nd gen, Octavia saloon 1st gen
  • 12 people

2022 Czech Republic

  • Moravia, the southern half of the Czech Republic
  • VW Golf 5th generation
  • 4 people

Vehicles used

Škoda Felicia estate 1.9D 47 kW

Specification

This car came from the very last year the Felda was built, 2001, and was imported from Germany sometime in 2012. Compared to the versions sold here it is like something from another universe, mainly because of the equipment:

  • electric windows
  • heated seats
  • electrically adjustable mirrors
  • heated mirrors
  • central locking with a remote
  • ABS
  • power steering
  • airbags (what is the point of an airbag in a car where, after hitting a cyclist, the crew has already been tenderised into schnitzels or mince and the cyclist is off to true his buckled wheel?)
  • a trip computer (I have no idea why - on the 1.9D it amounts to an overpriced outside thermometer, a voltmeter and a stopwatch for the journey time)
  • the interior light also reacts to the rear doors and the boot being opened, and it fades out with a delay
  • split-folding, wonderfully soft plush rear seats from the GLX trim
  • roof bars
  • wind deflectors

The most startling thing about this car - apart from the odometer having been wound back the way any self-respecting backstreet dealer would do it (by the time it arrived in Slovakia in 2012 it had in fact done 534,000 km; it had served some hospital, ferrying test tubes) - is the galvanised body. This car was missing the single most fundamental item of every Felicia's equipment: rust holes.

What it did lack was the one thing that genuinely puts a Felda into the VIP category - air conditioning.

I owned the car for about six years and 125,000 kilometres.

Modifications

  • Suspension lift
    • at the front, two upper damper mount cups welded on top of each other
    • at the rear, the lower spring seats hammered flat and flipped over, with the damper slightly shimmed at the top to compensate for the "longer spring" created by flipping and adjusting the lower seat
  • insulating and soundproofing the cabin
  • a folding sleeping platform for two with room for camping gear - quick to fold away so the rear seat stays usable
  • roof box
  • minor electrical modifications
    • a bypass for the temperature sensor, to switch the radiator fan on manually
    • an overhead light for the rear passengers
    • an overhead light in the boot
    • a double-sided "night light" for the side compartments of the boot
    • a new backlight colour for the instruments, the dashboard and every button
    • a powerful LED spotlight mounted up high, lighting the area behind the car when the tailgate is open
    • another pair of speakers in the rear doors, in place of the ashtrays
    • a 12V socket run into the boot as well

Škoda Felicia hatchback 1.3 MPi 50 kW

Specification

This is the car I own right now - the most run-of-the-mill Felda that exists:

  • hatchback
  • 1.3 petrol
  • dark green

After the previous one, this is a cold shower. If your car has:

  • a rev counter instead of a clock
  • a rear wiper and a heated rear window, so your hands don't get cold while push-starting it
  • fog lights
  • a buzzer that reminds you on the way out that you left the lights on
  • intermittent wipers (90 percent of Felicia owners have no idea the car has an adjustable wiper interval)

then what you really have is not the NO EQUIPMENT Felda but the BASIC PACKAGE one. All that for 272,000 Slovak crowns on the 1998 invoice, which I still have from the first owner.

Modifications

  • a folding sleeping platform for one person with room to store gear - the other three seats in the car stay usable
  • roof box
  • minor wiring modifications
    • a bypass for the temperature sensor, to switch the radiator fan on manually
    • a 12V socket run into the boot
    • an external speaker output run into the boot
    • a switch for the boot light - never on / on only when opened / permanently on

Events

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