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-   -   Skoda Rapid : Test Drive & Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/111033-skoda-rapid-test-drive-review-16.html)

7k service costs seems ok to me. My friend's Polo's service cost was also 7k with synthetic oil change and my another friend's petrol Vento's cost was also around 7k. Synthetic oil usually costs about 1k per liter(Shell Ultra 5W-40) and Rapid might need about 4-5 liters of it.

A great review.. I'm planning to buy a car around the 10L range and was really confused, I think this review and a TD should help me book my car.

flying colors, the active TDI seems to be wrongly priced. its the ambition that you are talking about and not the active i believe! you have missed out on the active TDi pricing. unless its 60K more in chennai!!!:Shockked: the prices in mumbai are 9.16, 9.55 & 10.57 for the TDI versions.

Thanks for sharing the info. But do we need to change synthetic oil every 15k kms? I understand the drain period of synthetic oil is around 30k kms. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yesterday i test drove the rapid - DSL. Somehow i dint feel the power/the turbo which i felt in vento. However, the plastics are really good, including the roof cloth/fabric. Seat covers are rich. The Dash is little wide & out unlike the vento.

As everyone mentioned, the interiors are 90% identical to vento. Basically, skoda lost its originality in this car.

Surprisingly, the test drive car started with a full body jerk - like a lorry. I felt the engine vibration in the clutch pedal.

Overall, The price tag is the stealer for this car..

Has anyone driven the Rapid at night? I feel the headlights are not powerful enough. Even after putting on fog lamps, I was feeling that some more brightness is required. The OE headlights of my 2004 Santro are much better.

Got the chance to check out Skoda Rapid TDi yesterday.
Seen both of its base(Active) & top-end Elegance variant there.
Mid-spec Ambition was in Transit then.

Pros noted there:

-Gorgeous looks(though subjective). Resembles more to a Laura than Fabia(a big +).

-Excellent Fit-Finish & Best in class Paint lusture(Rapid in white looks brilliant).

-Interiors also looked brilliant, Skoda 4-spoke steering wheel in Ambition & Elegance variant is brilliant to look, feel & use. While the base variant gets 3-spoke steering wheel.

-Good Specification levels in each variant, even base variant gets Rear AC vents & Spot reading lamp for Read seat to both sides.
Base variant gets Brown-Black Interiors, while other 2 variants are having Brown-Beige combination.

-Engine is pretty Silent & sounds very Refined. Gets smoother & smoother as the revs increases. Really the 'GEM OF A DIESEL ENGINE'.

-Music System sounds great. SD/MMC card compatibility is a Another step up in the compact media entertainment.

-Rear Seat Comfort is Good & much better than puny Nissan Sunny.

-Both Space & Rear looks are also good but Triangular design theme around Number plate is a new concept & can Reserve the opinion of the viewers.

There is no concrete news about the extended warranty yet, but the dealer was optimistic about it being available in a while, and existing customers will also be able to opt for it whenever it is offered. The reverse sensors - they told me that it would be in the range of 4,500 to 6,000 and they are yet to get confirmation of the exact price. I think the availability of the sensors may be dealer specific, depending on the demand/requests.

Since when did Sunny became 'puny'? It has got the largest wheelbase in C segment and biggest rear-seat legroom, bigger than even Manza. Did you want to say something else CRTorquefan? I agree that Skoda Rapid is a fantastic product and has everything going in its favour, but that doesn't make Sunny puny.

My sister and brother-in-law are looking for their new car (they just sold their 2005 Accent). Their budget is around 9 lacs and it will be a company purchase. They have been looking at the top Petrol versions of the Vento and Rapid.

I happened on this thread and suggested them to log on and check it out.

Here is the summary :

The Rapid is supposed to be an overall better package than the Vento. This has been repeated twice, once overall (all versions) and once specific to the Petrol version. The points usually being quoted are

1) better handling and dynamics overall

2) better suspension set-up - however, this seems to be more for the diesel apparently (dunno if it holds true for petrol vs petrol as well)

3) better NVH (however again this is more to do with diesel to diesel - dunno if it is petrol to petrol as well)

The Rapid is supposed to be a price point lower (VW pricing strategy obviously) and hence more VFM package than Vento. However there are two ways of looking at this-
1) The Vento will have the "expensive" snob value
2) The increased discounts on the Vento they are currently getting (understandably, zero on the Rapid) seemingly cancel this point out

The closest competition to these two is the Verna, SX4, the City, the Linea, and the Sunny. Would really appreciate some inputs on these please.

Both are solid European cars. However, as I was telling my brother-in-law yesterday, and this is a personal opinion, it will always be German > Czech in the snob stakes. And apparently VW agrees. :)

I personally think the Vento looks classier.

I personally think the insides of the Vento look classier. Team bhp apparently also thinks the same and comment that the materials used as well as the color combos are a notch higher in the Vento.

The engine performance of the two is identical on paper. But most importantly, seat of the pants driving opinion wise, how do these two compare on the road - both in terms of performance and drive dynamics?

The Rapid seems to be more fuel frugal (too early to tel really though?).

Both petrols have slick gearshift quality.

The Rapid petrol is 15 kgs heavier. The boot is also (I think) slightly (20L) bigger. Or is the opposite?

The recent Vento also has steering mounted music controls and music system has USB outs (Rapid does not).

The black carpeting of Rapid looks better and will be easier to maintain than the beige ones of the Vento.

The Rapid "looks" bigger.

Please help me suggest to them as to which is the better choice, all things considered!

Actually the petrol Vento still sports the old specifications before the refresh. As far as I know the refresh of features (better music system with USB and steering mounted controls) is only for the diesel highline trim of the Vento. You can check it out here Discover The Vento in 4 trim levels. < Vento < Models < Welcome to Volkswagen India. VW has a huge inventory of petrol Ventos lying around which they hope to clear through attractive discounts. There might be a good deal one could get through the deep discounts being offered by VW on the petrol variants.

I think you have done a pretty decent comparison. Ultimately its 99% same car, Tell your sister to choose whichever she likes better.

I would choose Rapid over Vento anyday !

Can you share the basic points as to Why please?

Hi Turbo. You rapidly got a Rapid on 22nd Nov, but what happened to the driving impressions....and what about some photos. We rapidly need this please:

Finally got the chance to check out the Rapid yesterday at TAFE on Hosur road, Bangalore. I will not go into the general feedback that has been covered here already, but something more specific to what i felt during the test drive and will seek opinions from other members on this forum.

First thing i checked was the ICE and it was disappointing to say the least. My standards or demands are not very high and i find my current stock ICE in Fiesta 1.6S as benchmark. When i compare the stock ICE in Rapid it is far poor. One reason is the speakers themselves are sub standard and my guess is that they are the round speakers not even a decent 6X9 but am not sure if replacing the speakers will solve the problem. I demanded the SA about what could be a solution to this and first he said we can replace the speakers and then later once we were back to the showroom and he consulted the specialists the feedback was that one needs to replace the HU and speakers both for a better quality sound (so they accepted that the stock ICE is indeed sub standard). Also there is no trade-in meaning i need to pay full money for a new ICE and throw away the current system. What i forgot to ask was how and where will they fit the new speakers considering they'll have to be 6X9 as the current speakers are on the doors and it could be a limitation as probably the doors can only accommodate round speakers and not Oval.

On the drive, i felt the take off from standstill was very smooth and good, unlike many diesels, meaning that a petrolhead can also consider this diesel as the tourque is available quite early reducing the lag feel. Once the car takes off there is a little loss of power till the needle climbs close to 2K RPM and then suddenly once again the car gets a lot of power.

Overall i felt for bumper to bumper traffic the car is excellent and again for highway it is very good, it's just the middle where one might feel a bit of lack of power, when there is stop go traffic in the city and you need to drive upto 30-40 kmph. But overall the drive was quite satisfying. Engine was very silent at the start and one can hear the clatter only after around 3K RPM.

Braking was excellent and another issue was with the 5th gear. First time when i tried to engage the 5th gear i ended up with 3rd, then i had to purposefully press the level more towards the right to engage the 5th gear. But once i knew the issue i had no problems.

In a nutshell, the car is good for me (i have to buy a sedan end December begining Jan) except for the ICE, which is currently seeming like a deal breaker for me. I also considered going for Ambition and then getting a good ICE for about 30-40K but then i loose out on ORVM control, Climate control etc which is also not nice.

Can more knowlegable people throw light on the capability of the stock HU in Rapid as if it's not capable enough then upgrading speakers will not help. What are the options? Just to add a bit more, on the stock ICE i felt the bass range was very good (the speakers were falling short of the need though) however the treble range was very short and did not give good sound quality. Obviously as the volume went up the speakers gave way.

If some ICE expert / audiophile checks out the Rapid, request to put up an evaluation and suggestions on what could be done to improve it.