[JitendraK78]

After using my Rapid Ambition MT Petrol - 2012 for almost 7.7 years & 68k km, I replaced it with Rapid Monte Carlo AT Petrol last week.

The overall experience was very good compared to the past.

I was expecting the car to be with Vinyl wrap on roof but surprisingly my car is with the roof painted in Black from factory. This car does not have 4 airbags like Style. It has only two. The Monte Carlo package is fixed by the dealer.

I will update you once I cover some distance in the car.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

[SidR]

Originally Posted by JitendraK78

After using my Rapid Ambition MT Petrol - 2012 for almost 7.7 years & 68k km, I replaced it with Rapid Monte Carlo AT Petrol last week.:

Congratulations! Germans look the best in white. Can you please share the deal you got for Monte Carlo? Kind of discounts being offered in January.

[gasinveins]

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

Get the ORVMs wrapped at least; would look nice.
=====
Keep in mind that the 5th gear is very tractable, allows you to drop all the way to 50 kmph or lesser and the third is very rev happy. So you may exploit the boundaries here. Play around and see what suits your driving style best.

Thanks a lot for clearing things up! Getting the ORVM wrapped as my mom wouldn't notice it. I will post the photos this weekend after changing my horn and wrapping the mirrors.


Hoping to play around and explore a lot with my car in coming days with a 1000 kilometre trip on cards. And for the Wipers, I guess In the pre-facelift car, The wipers should be put into the service position. I read some posts about the same in some threads here as well. For the facelift version, I don't find any difficulty moving the wipers out even without putting in service mode.

[ShreeUKale]

Originally Posted by JitendraK78

After using my Rapid Ambition MT Petrol - 2012 for almost 7.7 years & 68k km, I replaced it with Rapid Monte Carlo AT Petrol last week.

Congratulations for the new ride! If I am not wrong, this one must be the last Petrol AT Monte Carlo in Pune. Could you share the final OTR price? Currently only few diesel Rapid's are in Stock. Got to know from a dealer in Pune that few more Rapid TDI were ordered from showroom due to the demand it has seen in the last month.

[TDCi'd]

Originally Posted by JitendraK78

After using my Rapid Ambition MT Petrol - 2012 for almost 7.7 years & 68k km, I replaced it with Rapid Monte Carlo AT Petrol last week.

The overall experience was very good compared to the past.

I was expecting the car to be with Vinyl wrap on roof but surprisingly my car is with the roof painted in Black from factory. This car does not have 4 airbags like Style. It has only two. The Monte Carlo package is fixed by the dealer.

I will update you once I cover some distance in the car.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Oh wow those alloys look amazing! Congrats on the new purchase. You must be one satisfied customer to be investing in the same car twice Here's wishing you many more happy miles!

[gasinveins]

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

Get the ORVMs wrapped at least; would look nice.

Now coming to the point-

1. Now the (petrol) Rapid has a relatively short 4th gear. The 3rd gear carries you to 120 odd kmph and the 5th, obviously more. So you gotta figure out what the situation demands. Most of the time, 4th does the job just fine, but when you really need an extra surge in power only then do you shift down to 3rd, otherwise don’t. I’m not sure how challenging it is to drive on SH, because on NH this really isn’t a problem.

The dealer suggested regular petrol is fine so I have been filling it with unleaded regular petrol. I happened to visit my regular fuel station with 5km of range left and filled about 20 litres of Xtra premium (91 RON still), man the engine is completely on a different level now. Smooth and power delivery is excellent. Exactly similar to the TD vehicle I drove.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by gasinveins

The dealer suggested regular petrol is fine so I have been filling it with unleaded regular petrol. I happened to visit my regular fuel station with 5km of range left and filled about 20 litres of Xtra premium (91 RON still), man the engine is completely on a different level now. Smooth and power delivery is excellent. Exactly similar to the TD vehicle I drove.

We fill in Shell mostly and there's a notable variation in the smoothness than other petrol, especially when using the "performance" fuel.

Just filled the tank today and found we've been getting 14 kmpl since the last top-up. Slightly better since we have been driving a bit more sedately. Have seen better figures though.

[AnandB]

Dealer is offering Monte Carlo diesel dsg for 13 otr. I am not sure about the offer as he just has one car in stock that to white which i don't like. Appallingly MC comes with only 2 airbags instead of 4 of Style!

[SidR]

So now we have a Rapid Rider Diesel to clear stocks? Just saw this ad on facebook. Cannot verify how genuine it is.

[gasinveins]

Originally Posted by gasinveins

This is my first post on Team-bhp!

Well, I have clocked 5200 in about 110 days since I got my car. I bought the petrol since I thought I won't be driving around so much, but I don't regret it though as the vehicle is parked all times safely on weekdays. The city highway driven ratio so far would be 45:55. The experience is fantastic and the car hasn't let me down so far. I have toured many parts of Palakkad, Athirapally falls, Halfway to Valparai, Pollachi, Pazhani etc. It's surprising living close to Ooty, I haven't visited Ooty yet for a cup of tea. Hopefully, I visit soon.

Behind Mazhampuzha catchment a week before under burning sun,


Back from Valparai overlooking Aliyar Dam,


Initially, It took time for me to adjust as I drove small cars only before. Thanks to TheHelix0202 who helped me to get used to the car. Every time I take the park my car back, It still leaves me with the feeling of wanting to drive the car forever. I miss the solid "thud" when closing the door whenever I take a taxi. I often drive in the narrow and poor village roads and I never heard any rattles or whatsoever. I got few very light scratches with bushes rubbing against the bushes but it's barely visible to camera or eye. I just can't delay ceramic coating anymore.


The car corners beautifully and clings to ground all the time. I rarely had any wheelspin except I floored a few times when leaving the toll frustrated. The drives mostly sedate enjoying the car. Although I enjoyed a few drives hard on the A pedal mostly on the Chengapalli - Neelambur of NH544 which was also on the news recently with a Horrific accident involving KSRTC Volvo bus. I was literally shaken due to the accident and since then I have maintained a maximum speed of 85kmph on the route. The wet road performance is brilliant even with the stock Appollo tyres if not driven in an aggressive manner. The brakes are so good that the cars I drove previously cannot even match it.

At my brothers' college,


The passengers always felt comfortable in the car and never complained about the lack of space in the rear. They enjoyed the Audio and was shocked when I mention it's the stock system they are listening to. The audio quality can be attributed little to Apple music via Carplay. The boot space has been adequate for most of the uses and never faced any difficulties with it. Although many people including dad's friends suggested I should have gone for Honda City petrol blindly, I have no regrets over the city and can laugh at the build quality. Imagine driving at the village roads, pretty sure there will be some rattles. The underbody has taken a three-four light hits when it's laden which didn't damage anything.

At my favourite hangout place, FSD @walayar on Salem - Cochin highway.



I visit this place specifically to click some photos there. This place has some good restrooms for those highway stops.

The fuel economy is not bad for a big 1.6L engine as I drive with 5 people most of the times and I get a consistent 14.5-15.5kmpl. The last 350km trip last week to Salem, I got around 17kmpl driven at consistent 90-100kmph. The Highest was around 19.5kmpl when I drove alone for 30km at 3 am. The engine is little noisier in higher RPM's but it's got little sporty note as well. Driving at 90-100kmph is the sweet spot without any noise seeping inside.

Positives so far,

• brakes
• corner handling
• Solid build quality
• Paint quality
• Seats that hold me in place

Things that would make my drives even better,

• good headlamps(Planning on the OSRAM ones)
• A good horn(Soon to change)
• AC(dad feels so when sitting in the back, I don't feel so. It's always at 21-23degrees)

Overall, it's been a fantastic pleasure driving this machine.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by SidR

So now we have a Rapid Rider Diesel to clear stocks? Just saw this ad on facebook. Cannot verify how genuine it is.

Correct but all stock sold out in BLR at least. OTR came to a superb <10L even with BLR taxes. Colour available was only white - also very under-equipped.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by gasinveins

Overall, it's been a fantastic pleasure driving this machine.

True words! Happy to see your Silver Dart - if I may call it that - being enjoyed so. v

About the headlamps, we got a pair of Philips RacingVision, which are a brighter shade of yellow; they do the job just fine, though the lack of projector lens is conspicuous only by their absence.

[gasinveins]

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

True words! Happy to see your Silver Dart - if I may call it that - being enjoyed so. v

I haven't named this machine yet, But Silver Dart sounds great. Thanks for the name and I can officially call it Silver dart from now on!

[sachin_cs]

Dear fellow Rapid owners and enthusiasts, I've just completed writing an initial ownership review of my 2019 Rapid DSG and also I connected with a vector artist Akshay from Delhi and he made a vector art of my car, which I would like to share-

Work in Process



I'm also looking forward for getting a T-shirt

Link to the ownership review-
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...iesel-dsg.html


Link to the Vector Art thread-
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...strations.html (Automotive Vector Art & Illustrations)

[Endless....]

Hello and welcome to a long due and from what I’ve seen a rather rare thread on ownership impressions of the Skoda Rapid 1.6MPi Manual Transmission. While much has already been said about the interiors and build quality of Skoda’s bread and butter product, my inputs will focus on validating these claims and also provide some personal insights basis my 3yrs and ~30k kms ownership. While I will upload some customary pictures, I intend to keep the thread high on text only because there are already so many pictures of Rapids, especially in red, it sort of becomes overkill.

Before we dive into the details, for those of us short of time, the short story is as follows;
Guy sees a car, picks his jaws off the ground and makes a promise to own it someday. Guy makes good of the promise and is happy for 3 years and counting. The end.

Now that we have the short story out of the way, let’s jump into the long of it, starting with;
1:Buying decision- The 4 year lease on my Swift was coming to and end and at the same time a need for a car for dad kept coming up. Figured I would retain the swift for dad and get myself another car. The swift diesel served me well for 4 years and close to 60k kms, but my current usage did not warrant a diesel since I was a happy camper on my duke 390 for commutes and road trips. This meant that the car would only be used for weekly groceries, mall visits and outstation trips with the family. Considering the fact that my usage would mostly be 90% highway mile munching, I needed something safe and reasonably fast and had a decent boot for all that luggage that the swift has not been able to lug around. For my usage, an auto-box would have been kill joy. At the time of my swift purchase, I had considered the Rapid and even did multiple test drives of the Tdi. That oil burner was a looker, jaw droppingly fast, roomy and was built like a tank if you ask me. I couldn’t close the deal then due to financial limitations and hence settled with a Z spec swift diesel. So when the time came for my next car, going for the Rapid this time around was a no-brainer, I had to own it. It was one of those ‘the one that got away’ stories with a happy ending (Lol) if you ask me. So, coming back to other cars that I considered-none! At the time of my purchase in 2017, the refreshed Rapids were already rolling out and the rapid in red was a sight to behold. Read through the T-Bhp reviews and got affirmation on build quality but wasn’t able to get enough info On the petrol rapid. I’ve owned 2 petrol Zen’s in the past and knew that a 1.6 NA petrol mill won’t disappoint, although I’ve been spoilt silly with the Petes re-mapped Swift. Made a couple of calls to fellow petro-heads and decided to take the plunge basis one word that kept coming up in these conversations, the engine is bullet proof, nothing else. No mention about power, performance, nothing, nada, zilch!! Limited info on the www about the 1.6 mill did not help either. All I could see was Skoda horror stories. Coming from a rather long line of Maruti’s, I was kinda fearless because, when someone tells me it’s cheap to maintain a maruti, I just say, yeah right! I’ve paid up to 14k in general service for my swift so I was not going to buy into the ‘cheap to own’ hypothesis. Coming back to my purchase, I knew for a fact that I will have to get the top of the line Rapid simply because, knowing me, I would have otherwise made my ownership hell trying to bring a poverty-spec car to top spec by constantly adding small bits and pieces to the car every now and then and yet, trying to justify all the money I have possibly saved. Doesn’t work that way. 4 years with a top spec swift, the only thing I changed in that car from a creature comfort perspective was the HU. The small stuff like rake & reach, window auto up/down, auto-dimming IRVM, electric ORVM’s may seem like over kill for the price but once you get used to stuff like that, there ain’t no going back for you or the family. As for me, I am happy to take these straight from the factory as opposed to deal with the after-market.

At the time of my purchase, they had a Style limited edition doing the rounds. It was basically a style with 16 inch clubbers, blackened headlight unit with projectors and a blackened fog lamp and tail light unit on the outside. On the inside, I think it was the ‘style’ variant and nothing new. Cruise control, adjustable steering, adjustable seat height, RCD 330G HU and a few other things thrown in. For me, it was love at first sight. Tafe sweetened the deal with a 4 year maintenance package thrown in ( for free!) and the standard 4 year warranty. I was sold!

2. Delivery experience: I got off work early, reached the showroom. Met the SA, made sure there were no dealer stickers on the car, interiors had no plastic sheets, chrome-delete and black paint for wing mirrors, spoiler and front grill were carried out, checked tyre pressure, gathered all required documents and I was off. At least that was the plan until I saw this horrendous strip of chrome below the number plate I promptly asked the SA to rip that off else I wasn’t leaving the place. The look on their faces was priceless! It took them a few minutes to understand that they had a serious nut-job at
hand to deal with! Finally got that chrome strip removed and went my merry way on a rainy evening in Bangalore, braving the 8 pm traffic in my brand new ride. That being said, the crew at Tafe Hosur Road did a fab job of handling a real demanding customer like me. Full marks to them on that front!

3. Initial impressions:

The outside: Drop-dead gorgeous in that shade of red. The timeless design still holds a candle or two to the newer ‘fluidic’ designs (personal opinion). I got the smart wax treatment done at Pete’s and boy does that red turn heads.

The inside: Nothing has changed here in a while and I have nothing to complain about. The basics in terms of posture and niceties are perfect and most importantly, everything works like it should. Right from the leather wrapped steering to the HU, it just works. Cup holders to coin holders, it’s there and it’s within reach. Clever touches like the driver biased positioning of the entire dash, the cup holder that flips, to that concealed hood release lever, very clever. A decent dash, roomy interiors, I like being in here. Seats are comfy and 10+ hrs of driving is a no issue.

Performance: The 1.6 MPi MT has a claimed 105 bhp, and some 150 nm of torque( not sure), I will focus on how this translates into the real world. In traffic/ city roads, there is more than adequate power on tap for one to pull away or squeeze into spots in a hurry (folks driving the ORR will know ). But all of this is gears 1,2 and 3. If you were able to go higher than that in Bangalore traffic, it had to be an anomaly.

I did my first highway run on day 4 of purchase and headed straight to kodai on a road trip with a few friends. The highway manners, though under limited revs due to run-in, was exceptional. I loved the planted nature of the rapid as compared to the bouncy ride of the swift (this is what I will be comparing the rapid to for the most part) on the highways. This albeit the swift ran on 205 section yokos as compared to the 195 conti’s (after market, replaced stock 195 MRF on day 2 of purchase) on the Rapid. This was also my first experience with cruise control and I loved it. I did not keep the cc on for the most part since I was also running-in the engine and locking it at a steady RPM to me did not make sense. That trip ended with close to 900 km on the odo with an avg fuel economy of some 16 kmpl. On the ghats, the car was planted and that’s also around the time I realised, this was no swift and needed to be flogged to make power in the twisties. The swift was a corner craver as far as stock cars with the right set of wheels are concerned. Now coming from a duke 390, I fully understand working a gear box for the right amount of power, but this felt s-l-o-w, even for a manual. Straight line was a ‘no issue’. The engine can do un-mentionable speeds and yet be planted. The swift was no match here.

Coming from a turbo diesel, the overtly calm nature of the engine, especially after gear 3 did bother me quite a bit. So much so that I called Shibin at petes and told him that if he wasn’t going to fix this issue for me, I’m probably gonna be in tears for the next 4 years ( can’t afford to make statements like ‘I will get rid of the car’ since it’s a company lease). That’s pretty much how I ended up with a petes re-map. No I don’t have a 150 ponies under the hood now, but what I have is an engine that is rev-happy, pulls in any gear and has made sure that I never thought of the swift again. That’s all I cared for. I did not even bother asking Shinin what the numbers looked like but he still says it’s well under 10% gains and not more.

And now for that eternal question, the mileage. I have see the MID show as low as 6 kmpl on my rare commute to work. But keep in mind, I am talking about a 8 km commute in the heart of ORR that takes 2 hrs with AC on full time. These are times when you have too much time to think, locked up in your swanky little metal cage and think about all those bad life choices you made, including buying a manual transmission in Bangalore! For context, I reach work in under 20 mins on the duke, on a broken back road and honestly, I wake up and look forward to that ride every weekday. I love my duke for the way it handles bad/no roads! But on a regular city run, the 1.6L engine puts out a decent 10 to 11 kmpl and on highways 15+, spirited driving.

The shifting is spot-on and the knob is a pleasure to hold with that leather wrap the car came with. I am a one-handed driver for the most part, and inspite of that comfortable arm rest, I tend to rest my left hand in the gear knob more often than I would like to. No complaints here, especially after the re-map.

Mods & accessories:
If this was a review of my 390, the list would tire me out and spin my head thinking of the cost. With the rapid, by virtue of picking up the top spec, I honestly did not have to bother with any sort of mods. But then again, when you have a few ounces of fossil fuel running in your veins, bike or car, you want your ride to also be an extension of you. So here is a list of after market goodies that I’ve treated myself with. Warranty? Amen!!

Appearing in the order of application.
1. 70% transparency sun films all around. Let’s not start a debate here about the legalities of it. We won’t get anywhere. My daughter sleeps on her child seat on highway runs and it gets to hot/bright for her.

2. Replaced stock MRF tyres with Conti max MC5

3. Replaced stock horns with hella trumpets - Skoda=Trumpets, that’s that

4. Replaced high beam lights to Phillips rallye. Stock projectors for the low-beam are sometimes inadequate for my use.

5. Installed focal under-seat sub woofer. Didn’t want to loose boot space but also wanted decently punchy bass. The stock HU and speakers warrant no replacement. Love it!

6. I’ve always wanted to have the alloys painted in anthracite grey. I recently had to get the body panels painted due to small dents I had gathered over the years(I make it sound like a decade but time travel is possible in Bangalore's traffic)A good friend who recently opened up a detailing and painting shop offered to help restore the body work and paint the alloys. Let’s just say ‘cars buddy’ did a darn good job. I got 3 out of 4 right side panels re-sprayed because of small but deep scratches. During the course of my ownership, I’ve had grown men ogling at the shiny red car and drop their motorcycle foot rests into the body panels. At least that my version of how the dents happened. Got the callipers painted red as well.



7. Diffuser. While red Rapids with blackened roofs is sort of the norm right now, I decided to not go in that direction. However, I really love how the diffuser on the new rapid broke the monotony up a bit. A good friend from cars buddy had the diffuser sourced and installed on my car.




8. Hood insulator. What I missed noting in the engine section was the fact that this engine has a tendency to let you know she is working, especially after 4K rpm. While the engine note is sporty(helps to remember my point of reference) n all, on highway runs with family in the car, I’ve had people peek at the speedo after certain speeds cos the engine was audible after ‘certain’ speeds. Figured a good insulator will help this cause. What ended up happening is the engine note has now become ‘tight’ like a good sub-woofer and I love it but engine noise after a certain point does creep in. What gets my goat is that fact that I bought the top most spec of the rapid and skoda skimped on a good insulator when the hood has fitment grooves for this part on the hood.

9. Shark fin antenna: I just like the way it looks and I don’t ever use the radio. This was a DIY so I am not even sure if the radio works.

10. 3M nomad mats. While the rapid comes with some decent ‘fixed to a point’ and ‘cut to form’ rubber mats, I’ve been spoilt silly again with Kagu 3D mats on the swift. While sourcing the same for the Rapid proved to be a challenge, I decided to go with the nomads from 3M. No complaints, though pricey, they do a good job of keeping mud and water contained and looking squeaky clean all the time. I dust them off once a month PS: I wash and wax my car at least once a month. So not thinking of dusting the mats out more frequently is saying a lot.

Service costs: Almost nothing. I’ve probably spent 2k in the last 3 years towards the annual or 15k, whichever is earlier, service so far. The service pack they threw in at the time of purchase takes care of all fluids and labour. I stick to Tyre empire Whitefield for all things tyre and wheel related so that takes care of an otherwise billable skoda service line item.

Other running costs: Being run mostly on highways, the break pads lasted me 24k kms. In my books that’s a lot! It costed under 3 k for replacement.

Battery: This I have a gripe with. It lasted me just 26 k kms. Got it replaced with skoda itself last month. In contrast, the battery on my swift lasted me 5+ years and 60k kms, with a full time sub-woofer. In fact, for the swift, my friend who ended up buying my car replaced the battery. While I thought the Rapid’s battery drained cause of the woofer, the SA told me that I was lucky it lasted this long and typically replacement is needed every 2 years!! For a petrol car, 2 year battery life is lousy. The car did start showing signs of low battery in April this year. Next replacement will be green ones from Amaron for sure.

This is as much as I can think of right now to share. Being in quarantine for the next 14 days was certainly a big driver for this post. Drove 550 kms to be with family and the Rapid as always aced the highway run once again. The car has 14 days of well-earned rest

In conclusion, skoda has always had a winner on their hands with this model. Be it budget or build quality, they’ve checked all the right boxes. So far the car has been exceptional to own and economical to maintain. If the ASS horror stories, if they do and when they do, I can always take it to a FNG. This car being a non complex NA petrol helps. But team Tafe so far has not left me with room to complain. So far so good! This one is a keeper until that turbo-petrol octavia brings up its head.

Happy motoring folks! Happy to share more pics if needed. I know I’ve skimped here but writing an entire ownership report on an iPhone would be one of those choices you would end up questioning.