First of all, sorry for the boring title. All other title options I could think of, came up as being "cheesy" :) which doesn't go with the character of the car. So, here it goes - The initial ownership report of my stonking new car - The Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI, Elegance trim, in Flash Red.

There are quite a few very good initial ownership reports for the Rapid in T-BHP. So I'll try to be useful by attempting to stick to things that haven't been mentioned and stuff that appealed to me as someone who has upgraded from a small petrol engined hatchback - The Hyundai i10 1.2 Kappa in Magna trim.

This section has a bit of history. People not interested and looking only for the exclusive Rapid section (pun intended) skip to the next post. The i10 has been our(me and my wife's) loyal small car; getting us safely from point A to point B - whether the distance between point A and point B was 5 kms or 500 kms. I started using the i10 to get to my home town and back for special occasions, especially after getting frustrated trying to get bus/train tickets. It did a wonderful job at it. It would let us cover the 650 kms between Kollam, Kerala and Bangalore in around 11 hours. And we enjoyed the trips.

Enter the child, in our life. And everything changed, except for the travel. We traveled as a family and my son had his first long journey at 5 months. Gradually the trips became longer and tiring and space became a major requirement. Meanwhile I had started looking at the options for a sedan, and to be honest, had almost decided on Rapid. I had fallen in love with the 1.6L mill in the Vento which was in the family. Other friends and members of the family who had purchased the Rapid were singing praises. All I needed was to do a couple of test drives.

Safety was of utmost importance. It should be a diesel, and fun to drive (not the SUV kind of fun, the sedan kind of fun). As always, no offense meant to the owners of the following cars, it just happened so that the Rapid checked more boxes for me. The City didn't feel like a safe option - thin body panels and I didn't like the high speed dynamics. Not a fan of the current Verna's handling. Didn't consider Scala/Sunny nor the new Fiesta (don't know why, just didn't). All it took was a couple of test drives on the Rapid, and I knew that this was the one. It was almost as if VAG had identified what I didn't like on the Vento and made it right for me! lol:

• The European design. There's no part on the car that doesn't seem disproportionate or out of place.
• The same 1.6L TDI engine on the Vento, but tuned to deliver linear output
• The brilliant projector headlamps. Gives me the perfect illumination on the road. Set at the right level, it does not blind drivers in oncoming traffic.
• Perfect head room, provides enough space (I'm 5'8") without spoiling the sedan's look and low CG
• Power windows, one touch operation(up and down) and pinch protection on ALL 4 doors.
• Ginormous 460 litre boot, with an excellent opening that makes loading and unloading an effortless job.
• Everything looks and feels premium to the touch. Be it the plastics, the texture on the buttons, stalks, or even the way the buttons or switches clicks when pressed.
• Other creature comforts - climate control, separate reading/cabin lights at the rear, A/C vents at the rear, lots of storage space inside the car.

• The transmission hump at the rear
• Somewhat limited visibility to the rear. Smallish IRVM. Rear parking sensors or a reversing camera is a must.
• Hard clutch, which becomes noticeable in bumper to bumper traffic especially since I was coming from a 1.2L petrol.
• Cruise control is a feature I hoped to have.
• 5.3m turning radius. I pass a concrete pillar at my parking lot with literally 2cm of clearance. Gives me a heart ache every single time.
• Like the Vento, rear windows doesn't go all the way down.
• Wifey finds the rear headrest to be at an awkward angle. Not sure if this is an adjustment issue, though.

I chose TAFE Access, Hosur Road, Bangalore for the purchase, as I currently stay about 2 kms from their showroom. I visited them on Aug 8th, and booked the car by paying 30K. I chose 5L as loan amount from Skoda Finance @7.01% interest over 3 years. EMI comes to a little over 15K per month. Freebies I got were the insurance, 5X5 offer (5 years warranty + 5 years road-side assistance) and some dealer/corporate discount. Total value of freebies was around 65K, and the total on-road price came to 11.24L. I gave Aug 22nd as the delivery date. The guys at TAFE delivered on date, though there was some confusion in between as it was doubted if the truck carrying the vehicle may not reach Bangalore in time. But everything turned out fine, and I took delivery of the car on Aug 22nd, 2014. I purchased rubber mats, rear parking sensor, the 'normal' Skoda horn and mud guards as accessories.

After delivery, I took the car to Shell and tanked up. Checked the tyre pressure and they were inflated to 40-43 psi! Got them corrected to 32psi, as mentioned in the fuel lid. For any new car owner this is a very common feeling - to just wanting to drive long. My daily commute is a nasty stretch of bumper to bumper traffic. On the first weekend, the mall runs were taken on the long route. A long weekend towards the end of August meant, Bangalore roads were a dream to drive on. The color on the car is a stunner. I do get heads turning at almost every traffic light. The SA at TAFE did mention that it could be a good or a bad thing depending on whether you want to get noticed or not :). Other things I did on the first week were - asking the attendant at the apartment not to touch the car, bought a basic detailing kit (shampoo, mitts, microfibre towels, carnauba wax, applicators, Jopasu duster and the likes), managed to get a photoshoot done, with my brother-in-law, and read through the manual about 20 times

My biggest doubt was regarding the run-in period and how to do run in. The SA kept insisting that the engine has been pre-run in and you do not have to do any kind of run-in. I was a bit skeptical about this. Reading through the forum here didn't help as different people had different opinion. I finally decided to go with the user manual which do ask for a run-in period of 1500 Kms. The advise is not to cross 75% of the normal rpm for any gear in the first 1000 Kms, and gradually increase them to the limit. Its unclear if this limit is to reach the 100% of recommended rpm for a gear or the redline. I took the former, safer option to stick to the recommended engine speed within each gear till 1500 Kms. Though I don't have any intention to redline, I do plan to get to higher revs in the next few slots of 500 kms after the run-in. A word of caution from the user manual - the rev limiter comes in to play only if you are revving up under normal circumstances; if you slot in to a wrong gear that will take the engine speed higher than the redline, the rev-limiter cannot protect the engine. So watch your downshifts.

Another thing I cannot fail to mention is the first gear. I feel its grossly short. Not sure if this is a trend among diesel cars, but the recommendation in the user manual is to switch up from first as soon as possible, when the vehicle has moved a car-length in first. All other gears are perfectly ratio'd and shifting is also pleasant. One more thing I'm doing differently from what's written in another T-BHP thread, is regarding the start-up. The advise in the manual is to start moving the car as soon as it is started, as the initial load helps the engine attain ideal temperature faster than if it is kept idling for say 30 to 60 seconds.

The first fuel efficiency calculation: link.

I did a second FE calculation on another drive where all driving was on the narrow, slow roads of Kerala towns. The average returned was 12.4 kmpl with climate control set to 24 degrees.

Onam was coming in September and that presented me with the perfect opportunity to do around 1500+ kms visiting my home and in-laws, to complete the run-in. My brother-in-law joined the onward journey and we started from Bangalore at 11 AM. There were a couple of deviations that I took from the normal route to Kollam. You can read all about that here. What I liked on the way to Kollam was how the car was cruising along at 60-70 kmph in top gear with almost not touching the A-pedal. A hint of pressure on it and the car would ease up to 80-90 kmph. The MID was showing an FE of 22-23 kmpl. We were chomping up kilometers at the same time. As we reached Tenkasi, there is a small ghat section over about 30 Kms, till Punalur. This used to be the most strenuous stretch when we traveled in the i10. I was in for a pleasant surprise as the Rapid took the ghats with such ease that I had a wide grin on my face for the whole stretch. 2nd gear was used in this section only when I got stuck behind slow trucks climbing the ghat. 3rd gear was more than enough to cover this stretch with the awesome low-end torque. "Finally I can appreciate some torque!" I don't know how many times I said that aloud during that stretch

The return trip was when I crossed the 1500 km mark in the odo. Couldn't resist and I pushed the car just a bit more - I think till around 2700-3K rpm and I did a couple of stints at 140 kmph to loose a couple of tailgaters. There were two incidents that I'd like to share here. At one place, there was a barricade put up by local police on NH7. Don't know why, as it was not at a junction, nor was there any kind of pedestrian crossing / curve on the road. I took the barricade at a slightly higher speed than normal, making a quick straight chicane maneuver. The car had absolutely no roll, and best of all, the baby sleeping in the car seat and my wife sleeping in the rear seat alongside, didn't even notice. The second incident was more serious, as I took a sweeping right hand curve at about 90-100 kmph, and saw a herd of sheep crossing the road. I braked hard, felt the B-pedal pulsing beneath my right foot as ABS kicked in, and stopped on the dime without any drama, just before the herd. My wife who was awake this time around, told me that she didn't think we would've stopped without hitting the poor sheep. Both these incidents put a smile on my face, as I felt more confident with the car's handling and response. The average FE during highway stint was 17.6 kmpl.

• In a dilemma now regarding engine oil change after run-in. SA says there's no need till 1 year/15K kms. But most likely I'll pay for it to be done.
• Still haven't found the sweet spot with respect to driving position. Probably because I'm used to the tall-boy stance of i10.
• Irritating issue with the Audio System - Bluetooth connectivity is patchy at best. May be I'll ask for a firmware upgrade, if present.
• The rear seats sits low. My son's car seat is pretty tall and he has trouble seeing outside. He's just 16 months old, but will stay calm in the seat if he can watch the outside. For the time being I've put a cushion under the child seat to address this issue.

I plan on purchasing 3D mats, and may be a small spoiler for the boot lid. For now, I'm happy with the car and I hope to enjoy every bit of time I drive it around.