[RavenAvi]

IMO, the front and the rear of the Rapid make it pretty distinctive in terms of looks (with those subtle and wide ridges across the bonnet and the number plate sides). The side profile is the one similar to Vento.

Overall, look-wise, the Rapid should stand on it's own, although people will keep comparing it to the Fabia.

[shamanth]

I feel, looks of Rapid is lot better compared to Vento, and wont be surprised is Rapid sells more than Vento, for me Vento looked dated and boring. Yes many like Vento looks, but many dont like Vento look so Rapid should fill that gap, since everyone likes, build quality, handling and diesel powered engine.

[RavenAvi]

Technical Specifications, courtesy Rushlane.com -

[aravind.anand]

Hurray! Unlike the VW, Skoda has three trim variants. Good job. Decent set of features too. Now price it a little lower than the Vento and grab attention. Wonder what will happen to the sales figures of the the Vento which comes with only 2 variants - one decently loaded and one awfully stripped down base trend line!

Kudos ! For once, ABS comes ahead of Music system for once. Safety could have been standard though, but an improvement nevertheless

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by bala80

I'd say we feel so because the vento came in first and we have got used to the way it looks now. Imagine if Rapid had come before the vento, we would have appreciated it much better.

That wouldn't have happened. Because the evolution has been this way : Polo -> Vento -> Rapid. The current Rapid specs and design have been an afterthought by the VW group only in the Indian context. All this was not planned.

What is Skoda's planned evolution? The Mission L / Vision D platforms. Now I'd love to see them come to India soon.

[TOR]

Hope Seat comes along too and spices things up with a sister product with an even lower price. that has been the VW strategy world wide and there is no reason that it would not work in India.

With the VW and Skoda brands already having certain brand recognition in India, i feel the Seat brand could well take the fight to the Japanese.

[puchoo]

Skoda has added a teaser on its website which i noticed 2 minutes back regarding the rapid - its a sneak preview

Rapid Coming Soon Skoda Auto -

[swiftnfurious]

Hormazd's tweet on price is as below.

Skoda to price Rapid aggressively. Expect Rs 6.7 lakh for base petrol and 7.7 lakh for diesel

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Hormazd's tweet on price is as below.

If that is true, let me book the Rapid Diesel Elegance

[ankurvirmani19]

Autocar India has already done TD and published their review.

Skoda Rapid review, test drive - Review - Autocar India

[krish.sathish]

Booking has already started here in Chennai but I am wondering what would be the delivery time lines. The sales rep was quoting delivery around 4th week on Nov or 1st week of Dec. I have booked a vento trendline but the more the time it is taking, the more I tend to believe that I should be canceling that booking and go in for the Rapid Ambience edition (which has ABS, Driver Airbag and Keyless entry as standard).

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by puchoo

Skoda has added a teaser on its website which i noticed 2 minutes back regarding the rapid - its a sneak preview

Rapid Coming Soon Skoda Auto -

Sneak Preview ? For a car, whose front debuted about 3 years ago and same car whose body is so very common on our streets already?
Maybe they should have had a sneak preview for the tail lamps?

And hey, what happened to the Skoda trademark - C shaped design in the tail lamps??

[himavanth_m]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

Sneak Preview ? For a car, whose front debuted about 3 years ago and same car whose body is so very common on our streets already?
Maybe they should have had a sneak preview for the tail lamps?

And hey, what happened to the Skoda trademark - C shaped design in the tail lamps??

The tail lamps are to Vento'ish. So I guess showing the tail lamps in sneak preview would cause more confusion and people will start thinking Vento is on Skoda website and people on t-bhp will start a 'blunder by skoda website thread here' similar to the Tata's annual report blunder thread.

For sneak preview they should have shown the cut on the boot that Vento does not have. Apart from this and the front, i cannot see any difference from the Vento.

[oxyzen]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

For sneak preview they should have shown the cut on the boot that Vento does not have. Apart from this and the front, i cannot see any difference from the Vento.

Both of them are the same car with a subtle variation.
While I love the mid variant in Rapid and hopefully the VFM pricing. I am wary about its A.$.$. Also there are a few small things I dont like with the rapid. For example

• The tacho with its display in X100
• The rounded off looks. Vento's sharper & cleaner lines are better.

But mainly for the fact both are same cars. I think Indian customers deserve a little more choices. Product planning like these will only cannibalise each other.

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by oxyzen

think Indian customers deserve a little more choices. Product planning like these will only cannibalise each other.

That's exactly how I feel, @oxyzen. If VW/Skoda would have had the Mission L derivatives sooner in India, I would have loved that. Not really excited to see Rapid, purely because it does not introduce more choice in the market (atleast from a car enthusiast's perspective).