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3rd August 2020, 02:46
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| BHPian  Join Date: May 2020 Location: Bangalore
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| Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Dear Reader, Welcome to my thread on my thoughts and observations on the initial ownership experience of my brand new Carbon Steel Beauty - The Skoda Rapid TSI 2020 - Rider Variant! If you are a guest reader like how I used to be up until recently, anonymously reading the posts on this brilliant forum, but hesitant to contribute to the same, this one is for you. I hope this initial ownership experience thread helps you in some way to make your choice. On the other hand, if you are an esteemed member of this fantastic forum, I hope this is an enjoyable read for you, and as always would love to hear your views. Before, we begin, here's a look at my new Carbon Steel Beauty!  Likes:
Dislikes:
Prologue: They say new cars cannot change your life. They also say cars are a depreciating asset. Why do we purchase them then? Cut to about 15 to 20 years ago, when cars were considered a luxury and not something a young adult was expected to purchase. Youngsters were expected to graduate, save every penny or send it back home, spend on a few essentials in a month, but definitely not go around spending their hard earned money on trifling expenditures such as a gas guzzling automobile. Françoise Sagan once said “Money may not buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.” This quote continues to reverberate with me. It may appear to be a materialistic view on life at first blush and a short sighted approach to happiness and self worth, but in today's time and age, are we all not looking for validation? Are we not craving that release of dopamine to our nervous system to feel good about our choices and decisions? At the end of the day, we choose to spend our time and money on things that make sense to us and for our pleasure. For some of us, its our love for automobiles and the pleasure we derive by flooring the pedal to the metal. The moment when mind and machine become one. Background: As a young lawyer, working with one of the top law firms in the city of Bengaluru, having graduated from law school 2 years previously, life is not bad. Law school was grueling to say the least. But being a resident of Bengaluru, it allowed me the luxury of staying at home while my college mates from out of Bengaluru, rented flats nearby. In that sense, I enjoyed the comforts of home and almost always was staying over with my college mates at their homes. It was the perfect college life. Great city to study in, Great city with an even better nightlife (The 1:30 AM rule for shutting down clubs notwithstanding.) and friends like family to experience it all with. Back then for the first 2 years of law school, travel to college entailed walking a distance of 2 KM's from home to the nearest BMTC bus station, take a bus (Route No. 375B) to Banashankari Bus Station, switch buses there and take another bus to Jayanagar 4th Block Bus Station. From here, either a friend would pick me up for the last mile to college or I would have to bargain with the infamous auto rickshaw chaps. During my third year, parents finally caved in to my incessant requests and bought me a Honda Dio which was all the rage back then (getting a proper geared bike was out of the question as there was no way mom would be agreeable to the same). The Honda Dio was my first vehicle and continues to remain with me. It has been an absolute peach to own and have had great memories with it. Right before my final year, as I had done quite well throughout college and was due to intern in a couple of large law firms in Bengaluru which would entail extremely late nights at work, my parents extracted a promise out of me that conditional to my driving safely and responsibly they would buy me my first car! After a lot of test drives, we decided to go ahead with the Swift VDi (O) in 2017. Maruti may face a lot of flak, but the Swift was a car they broke the mould with. Hatchbacks in India had boring boxy designs before the Swift (with the exception of the Daewoo Matiz. That was a cute little car). My Swift served me well. It was great fun to drive. Returned phenomenal economy figures within the city and took it to a whole different level out on the highway. It was stable and planted at speed and was a deft little handler as well. I loved each and every single minute of owning the Swift. Some of my greatest memories of college and my first 2 years of my professional life have all included my Swift. It has been part of umpteen road trips, and has handled extremely NICE Roads (Bangalore peeps will get the pun) as well as the crater filled roads during monsoon with aplomb. A picture of my beloved Swift is attached below:  Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that I decided to part with my beloved Swift after just under 3 years of ownership this year. It had clocked around 30,000 Km's on the Odo and was well set to crunch many a mile more. So why did I decide to part ways with my Swift? The simple answer is Dad and me have always believed in buying cars and changing them within 5 years. This may sound wasteful to some, but our logic has been that the tech always gets better with every generation. We wished to enjoy the best of every generation and turn them over for a good price while we still could. Of course, we do not apply this logic to all our purchases. Dad purchased the 2018 BMW X1 and intends to keep it for atleast 10 years and we have a Bolero Pick-Up Truck for use at our estate, which we intend to keep for a long time as well. However, with our daily drivers which were mostly driven within the city, this strategy worked out well for us. Therefore, put up ads on all listing websites, interacted with numerous prospective buyers before finally striking gold. Call it Maruti's incredible resale value or maybe my dogged persistence to get the best deal, but finally sold my Swift to a buyer for 6.2 lakhs. To put it in perspective, this was a car bought in 2017 for just a shade under 8 Lakhs. Add to this, that our daily drivers are usually purchased as a company car to get certain tax benefits and this worked itself out to a be very good deal for us. With the Swift out of the picture, we could now focus on the next purchase to enter our garage.... Narrowing Down on the Options: Beginning in early 2020, we started to shortlist our next purchase. My budget was around 12 lakhs. After a ton of online research, the following cars were selected for the test drives:
I will not spend too much time detailing why I did not go ahead with each of the above cars, and will hope to capture it all in a few paragraphs. For the purposes of this discussion, each and every one of the above cars was in the 12 lakhs bracket. The KIA Dealerships across Bangalore were an interesting experience. They had a blockbuster on their hands and they knew it. They were selling the Seltos by the dozen and I was not looking for a particularly top end trim. However, the experience at the dealerships was fabulous. As soon as I entered the showroom, a Sales Associate (SA) was allotted to me by the friendly staff at the front desk and within minutes the concerned SA would whisk me away to the Car and would make all efforts to ascertain what I was looking for, as the Seltos had countless variants and they could tell me about the most appropriate one. The HTE Diesel was too bare-bones. The HTK petrol was really well kitted for the price it commanded. However, none of the KIA dealerships across Bangalore had a test drive unit of the 1.5 NA petrol variant. This was really disappointing and was later informed by my SA off the record that this was a conscious decision by KIA so as to not draw the attention away from its turbo petrol models. This was the only drawback from an otherwise flawless experience at the KIA Dealerships. There was no way I was going to book a car without going for a test drive in it, so the KIA Seltos was ruled out though I was sorely tempted to go ahead with it. Luckily, when I test drove the Hyundai Creta 2020 variants, I could drive the 1.5 Petrol NA engine which was decent and quite functional. The Creta E Diesel variant was also considered due to its peppy engine and better VFM proposition as opposed to the Seltos HTE Diesel. The Hyundai Venue was again fun to drive, however just didn't tug at my heart the way the Ecosport did. The Ford Ecosport TDCi was an absolute hoot to drive and the steering dynamics were great and reminded me why we buy cars for the driving pleasure. However, with Ford's decision to chop features across the range, particularly the omission of the SYNC 3 system in the Titanium variant, I felt like the current generation of the Ecosport was a little shortchanged as opposed to the previous variant. The experience with the Maruti and Nexa dealerships were again a lesson in sheer efficiency and another casual reminder of why Maruti sells the numbers it does. Well mannered SA's, with the bare minimum knowledge who are prompt in responding to customer queries and arranging for test drives. The Ciaz and the Brezza were both good, but not great. Maybe, I expected too much after being spoilt by my Swift's driving dynamics, however I was disappointed by both the Brezza and the Ciaz. In the BS6 avatar, both vehicles seem to have lost whatever little punch they had with these grossly under powered albeit fuel efficient NA engines. The experience at the Honda dealership was a joke. They behaved as if they were doing me a favor by showing me the car and staunchly refused to offer any discounts on the City despite the release of the 5th Gen Variant being right around the corner. I had a feeling that the SA's at Honda behaved like this because I maybe drove up in a Swift to their dealership and probably felt like I wasn't a serious customer or had only come to gawk at their highly desirable line of vehicles. To test this theory, the next day we drove in with our BMW and the response was palpably different. The SA was now ever so attentive to my requests and assured me that they would try their best to get me a great deal and to be fair to them, they did follow up on multiple occasions. The Car itself drove great, however, the suspension felt a little too soft, the steering feel and feedback was good but nothing out of the world and to truly enjoy the engine you had to revv it to very high RPM's which is just pointless and largely impossible in Bangalore roads. In any event, I was put off by the dealership's attitude, because every admirer who may not have the capacity to buy a car, if treated with respect may be a future customer. In a service driven industry, you do not have the luxury at an SA level to be picky and choosy about which walk in guests deserve your attention. At this point, I was almost on the verge of finalizing the Creta E Diesel Variant and was on the fence with the Ecosport TDCi Titanium variants. Then came the game-changer wild card entry... The Wild Card Entry: Volkswagen in May 2020 launched its Polo and Vento BS6 TSI Editions. A few hours of copious research later, I realized that this was an internationally acclaimed engine having won numerous awards as well as the International Engine of the Year Award in 2018. This at least commanded the respect of affording it a test drive. Therefore, one fine day I took the Polo TSI Variant for a test drive and it was love at first sight (Revv). This was an absolute beauty of an engine, and i have penned down my initial test drive impressions of the Polo TSI Variant which may be found here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4812993 (VW India discontinues DSG in Polo & Vento 1.0 TSI, replaces with torque converter AT) I had almost decided to go ahead with the Polo when Skoda launched the Rapid BS6 TSI variants, and along with it they launched the Rider variant at a price of 7.49 Lakhs Rupees Ex-Showroom, and the rest as they say is history.... Taking delivery of the Skoda Rapid Rider TSI Variant: I have penned down my first impressions of the Skoda Rapid TSI and the experience at the dealership in my initial impressions on a different thread which can be found here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4822121 (The Skoda Rapid 1.0L TSI Petrol, now launched at Rs 7.49 lakhs) You can read further on my decision to go for the Rider Variant in this post: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4838622 (The Skoda Rapid 1.0L TSI Petrol, now launched at Rs 7.49 lakhs) Therefore, my mind was made up finally. A rewarding and informative search extending to over 5 months finally came to an end. The car was booked, and then we waited for the delivery date. There were a few hiccups mainly due to the Lockdown being imposed and this consequently pushed the delivery date by a few weeks. Finally, the car arrived in Bangalore. I went to the Showroom the day before the Registration formalities could take place and completed the PDI accompanied with the trusty Team-BHP PDI Checklist. All systems were go, and we fixed an auspicious date for delivery which was on 29.07.2020. On 29.07.2020, the SA kept me informed throughout the day. We reached the showroom at 4 PM and completed the formalities. Did one last PDI and ensured that all the accessories as described were provided. My SA described the features of my Car to me and put me in touch with their Service representative and my relationship manager. I handed a small gift to my SA as a token of my appreciation for his excellent work in this entire process. All in all, it was an extremely smooth affair and full credit to the Skoda Tafe Accessories Limited Team at St Marks Road, Bengaluru for such a flawless booking and delivery experience. A few cheers and party poppers later, we drove out of the showroom, ecstatic and covered in glitter. Here are a few pictures from the happy occasion:  That's my parents standing happily next to me!  A solo picture with me and my new beauty! Drove down to Shell Petrol Pump at Vittal Mallya Road and topped up to a full tank with their premium petrol in an effort to aid me to calculate the actual fuel economy. This was followed by the mandatory visit to the Gali Anjaneya Temple in Vijayanagar where we got the Vehicle Puja done and we were at home. Finally the Carbon Steel Beauty was where she belonged! Initial Impressions: Disclaimer: At the time of writing this review, the car has covered 136 Kms. Out of which about 40 Km's were driven on the stock tyres and the remaining were driven after upgrading the tyres. The stock tyres were decent, though a bit too loud and offered decent grip. (UPDATE: The Perfinza tyres have made a world of a difference. The car feels so much more quieter and still retains great grip and handling characteristics. Also feels as if the steering has become a little heavier, which is a good thing for me.) Initial impressions of this car are brilliant. Looks like a real stunner especially in this 'Carbon Steel' colour. (UPDATE: The addition of those sweet looking alloys, makes it so much more desirable. Step into the vehicle and you are greeted with a sophisticated and mature interior with no garish pieces of trim. Essentially, you do not get the feeling that you are sitting in a sub 10 Lakh vehicle. Skoda have done a great job in packaging this Rider variant. Coupled with the bombshell of an engine and that slick 6 Speed Manual transmission, you would be hard pressed to find a better deal than this in the present circumstances. Exterior and Build Quality. 'Top Notch' is the expression which comes to mind to describe the exterior of the Skoda Rapid Rider Variant. This Carbon Steel Colour looks great and the paint quality is excellent. The Rider Variant misses out on Fog Lamps and a Projector Headlight setup, which truly would have accentuated the looks of the car, nonetheless the car looks like a beauty. Build quality is typical of the Skoda group. Solid as ever, and everything feels as if it is built to last. This is a handsome looking car which looks great and feels great as well. A timeless design as well, though some would argue that the design is a little long in the tooth by now. Small touches such as the side indicators on the ORVM and the addition of the boot opener in the Key fob go a long way in adding to the premium feel of the vehicle. The essential accessories provided for the exterior include:
Interior Quality, Fit and Finish, Features offered: The Rider Variant is well packaged for what it offers and for the price at which it is offered. The front glove box opens wide and is reasonably well sized. The fabric interiors are dual tone with a black and beige treatment, They feel premium and the seats are well bolstered and offer good comfort. I am 6'2 tall and therefore, the low seating position of the Driver's seat is convenient for me, though the lack of a height adjustable driver's seat will definitely be an irk for the shorter drivers. The seating position offers great all round visibility and there are no blind spots caused by the pillars. It is easy to get a sense of the dimensions of the vehicle. However, the puny ORVM's and the smaller than average IRVM can be bothersome at times as it can be difficult to ascertain the vehicles behind you. The stock speakers and the stock RCD320 Head Unit are par for the course for the features they provide. The stock HU offers Bluetooth connectivity and you can receive calls through the same. The Bluetooth connectivity is more often a miss than a hit, and I often faced difficulties with connecting my iPhone to the stock system. The stock speakers sound average at best, and you should definitely consider an audio upgrade. The rear seat comfort is good. It's definitely not the roomiest seats in the segment, however the comfort levels are decent. Leg room is adequate for me to sit behind the drivers seat with the driver's seat set to my driving position. There are rear seat pockets which is a useful touch. There is also a bottle holder and a 12V power outlet provided for the comfort of the rear passengers which are functional features at best. The addition of the adjustable armrest and adjustable rear headrests even in the Rider variant is a great feature add and another example of how Skoda scores brownie points for including functional and useful features even in its base variant. (The 5th gen Honda City for instance has fixed rear headrests even in its top spec variant. At that price point, that is just criminal.) Not to mention, the Rider Variant also comes with both front and rear cabin lights which come with a theater style dimming effect when you turn the car off and on, as well as a rear windscreen defogger. These small touches just add to the 'feel good' factor. The Air Conditioning unit is a real chiller and chills the cabin in no time. The Auto AC is a convenient feature to have. All the controls are easy to reach and fall to hand instantly. The rear AC blower is not the most effective though. There are well sized bottle holders present in all the door pockets, so carrying water bottles should be easy. I have already mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. Skoda skimping on the MID is a real miss. We rely on an MID for a variety of real time information, such as distance to empty, long term fuel economy, dynamic fuel economy, etc. It really isn't that much of a premium feature for you to omit it from a variant specifically. Similarly, the omission of the controls for the rear power windows from the drivers side controls is another silly omission, where an omission has been made for the sake of making an omission. All in all, this Rider variant is a good and reasonable spacious interior to be seated in. You have all your basic creature comforts and some available to you, though there are some glaring omissions present as well, which do well to remind you that you are in the base variant of the Skoda Rapid. The essential accessories provided for the interior include:
A quick sweeping look at the interiors!   Driving the Skoda Rapid Rider: Now we come to the all important section of this Initial Ownership Report. The driving experience! Now, truth be told, there is nothing I can add here which has not already been minutely dissected by the other members of the forum including by GTO in his initial impressions of the Skoda Rapid TSI, as well as the other impressions/reviews of this particular 1.0 Litre TSI Unit on its siblings (The 2020 Polo TSI, and the 2020 Vento TSI) on the respective threads. (Special shout out to GTO and Aditya for their official review of the Skoda Rapid TSI as well as suhaas307 and Vid6639 for their official review of the Volkswagen Polo 1.0L TSI). We have all raved about this little gem of an engine to the high heavens and back. Therefore, in this section, I will gloss over the highlights of the experience of driving this Car and attempt to focus more on the little things which may put you off. Agility: If there was a word I would use to describe this car, it would be "Agile". Of course it is fast. But being fast can be misleading at times. Straight line speed can mean nothing, if a vehicle isn't agile, that is to say, the ability to move at speed. The lighter powerful engine, with a comparatively stiff chassis by class standards and a suspension set up which is hinting at the firmer side, all make for a very pleasing experience behind the wheel. This car is extremely adept at gathering speed, and very quickly at that. It darts into corners and darts out with confidence and is very engaging to drive. Being a turbocharged engine, does mean that there is a bit of turbo lag, which can be quite annoying at times, and the low end 'driveability' in city speeds especially does take a hit. As mentioned, I had just come from a torquey diesel engine and it was second nature for me to release the clutch and feel the vehicle crawl forward with almost negligible accelerator input, on minor inclines as well. Needless to state, my first two days of owning this car, led to a few embarrassing situations of stalling the car right when the signal turned green. But to be honest, this is just a question of adapting to the same. Its been a fair few days since I've been driving my Rapid and I'm pleased to inform that its been an extremely smooth affair now. It's like muscle memory. My feet know exactly how to release the clutch and we're back to it being a sub conscious action and thankfully this means no more stalling! Once you get accustomed to the power band of the car, you will also be able to easily keep it in the RPM range, which I would not call the meat of the power band, but around 1200 to 1500 RPM, wherein there is sufficient grunt for you to be able to potter around in city speeds. On a fine stretch of open road, it's a whole another story. Step on the gas and keep the gears slotted at the right RPM, and this car will blow you away with just how easily and effortlessly it picks up pace. Before you know it, you will be doing illegal speeds and then you have to quickly tone it down a notch. The engine does pick up a very racy growl (may be annoying to some, but sure sounds sweet!) at higher RPM's to egg you on and make you keep going faster. Like I said, this is a complete driver's package. Will ensure that you have a wide smile plastered across your face whenever you get a chance to stretch its legs. As a caveat, you may not be doing this a whole lot in everyday city conditions. It's not as impressive then and you will surely not be marveling at the ease of driving this car in city conditions. If you are looking for effortless driving in city conditions, look elsewhere. That being said, the engine feels too easy to drive for an enthusiast. This a very very minor observation and almost a non-issue. Let me explain. There is a reason why naturally aspirated engines still retain their charm. You do not maybe have the same 'fastest car to 100 Km/Hr' in the class experience, but if you mash the gears just right and change them at the exact right moment, you can extract the maximum punch from the engine. You can hear the engine strain as you extract that performance from it. You are truly driving the car then! Don't get me wrong, but the Rapid just feels so effortless at picking up pace that it's almost silly. Even an amateur can pin his foot down at around 1700 RPM and then watch the car reach silly speeds with hardly no effort and a very forgiving wide torque band. In retrospect, this is a non-issue. 99% of the buyers will be more than satisfied with the effortless manner in which the Rapid truly achieves rapid speeds, but just keep in mind that the turbo petrol engine has just made your life a whole lot simpler. Ride Quality: I can fairly say that the car feels quite smooth while driving over minor aberrations on the surface of the road. Larger bumps and potholes do make themselves felt, but by and large it is a smooth affair. It cannot be called plush by any stretch of the imagination though. It is not a car you take sailing over potholes and speed bumps. The car will not glide over them. You will feel it, and it is not a pleasant experience. However, if you are someone who likes an engaging drive, you will love it. You can feel the road and you feel connected to it. Now, this is something which I personally enjoy and therefore I have no complaints. However, if you are someone who prefers a relaxed drive and a plush ride, this wont do it for you. Creature Comforts while driving: Now this should have been covered in my previous section on interior quality, however, I have purposely included it in this section as I will be only detailing my experience with the creature comforts available from the perspective of a Driver while driving the car. I do not care about my co-passengers in this section. 
It's not all negative though. The presence of front overhead cabin lamps is a welcome touch. The majority of the touch points even in the base variant all feel solid to use and hold. The steering stalks for the light controls (turn indicators and to toggle high beam) and the wiper controls feel upmarket and are well damped. The instrument cluster may feel a little long in the tooth for some, but I like the clean design and the choice of background lighting. The flip key provided to access the car feels a step above the ordinary. The flip key also includes an option to open the boot with a long press of a button. These are all good to have features. Skoda has also been kind to include a rear windshield defogger with the Rapid Rider which is a great inclusion as well! My complaints about the Automatic AC aside, there is no doubt it does make the cabin feel more upmarket and posh so to speak. It was also a thoughtful gesture on the part of Skoda to include adjustable headrests at the rear and provide a rear armrest. (The only time in this section I am concerned for the comfort of my co-passengers). And, that is why the above gripes I have detailed bother me. I understand the economics of having purchased a base variant. You expect certain features to be chopped off which are exclusive to the buyers of the higher variants (In this case, the Ambition, Onyx, Style and Monte Carlo Variants). Makes complete sense. But how does it make sense when Skoda includes all these lovely subtle touches which are usually compromised on in the base variants and proceed to take off the rear window controls from the driver side, omit the steering mounted controls or provide a fixed MID display! Any prospective buyer in my opinion would like to upgrade to the Ambition variant if he were to get features such as an Auto AC, adjustable rear headrests, arm rests at the back, front and back ceiling mounted cabin lights, etc in addition to what was being offered. The sort of value add features which make it worth the difference amount of close to 3 Lakhs over the Rider variant. He would not upgrade for the promise of a proper MID or just for the projector headlamps. Anyways, why am I complaining. For around 9 Lakhs On-Road for my Rapid Rider, I get all the car I would ever need and some more! Conclusion If I were to sum up this final section of my initial ownership report, let me do it in a slightly off beat manner and take a page from how Mat Watson concludes his reviews of cars on the YouTube channel - CarWow. When it comes to the 2020 Skoda Rapid 'Rider' TSI, should you:
Well, as I'm sure Mat Watson would say, I think you should go right ahead and get your hands on the 2020 Skoda Rapid 'Rider' Variant or even the 'Rider Plus' Variant, if you can stretch your budget by about 50K. There is no doubt that this is an absolute game changer for Skoda India. Forget about the higher variants. If you are in the market for a compact sedan or a compact sub 4 metre SUV, there is no debate at all. Plonk your money on the Skoda Rapid Rider. If your budget extends to above 12 Lakhs, do not consider the other variants of the Rapid (unless of course you get some staggering discounts on them), as then you start noticing the missing features which are standard at that price point. If you are looking at a budget of above 12 lakhs, I would suggest the 5th Gen Honda City instead. But at around 9 Lakhs On-Road for the Rider variant, and with a few choice upgrades which I have detailed in my posts below, you are getting a superb internationally acclaimed engine, a full sized sedan, great driving dynamics and a more than acceptable for the price range of features which puts the base variants of most other car manufacturers to shame. There are of course a few cons as well, but when you consider the overall package, there is no doubt in my head that this has been the perfect choice for me! Fingers crossed for a great and thoroughly enjoyable ownership experience for me and my Carbon Steel Beauty for the years to come! Thank you all for reading! Last edited by tejascshetty : 20th August 2020 at 00:41. |
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19th August 2020, 22:18
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! 30.07.2020 - Modification 1: Tyre Upgrade and Alloys As advised by multiple BHPians, I drove down straight to Madhus, Wilson Garden to get a tyre upgrade and plug in a new set of alloys. I had already been to Madhus a few times before this to discuss my options and get their best quote. Their office manager - Mohsin was very competent, hands on, well spoken and will go the extra mile and genuinely made an effort to give me the best options after multiple discussions. After getting delivery of my car on 29.07.2020 and with about 45 KM's on the Odo, Mohsin requested me to come in the very next day. I reached Madhus at around 12 PM, and was immediately asked to park my car on the hydraulic lift. On the previous occasions when I had been to Madhus, I was unlucky as I couldn't get to meet Nikhil, our resident tyre expert. On this date however, I think the stars aligned in my favour and Mohsin informed me that Nikhil was available and quickly arranged for a meeting. Nikhil came in shortly after that and invited me into their swanky and well designed lounge. I have a bit of an architectural bug, and I was impressed by the lovely lounge they had designed which was well equipped and serves as great resting area with a wide glass area which overlooks the service bay. Impressive! Speaking to Nikhil was a pleasure. I had decided outright that I was not going to indulge in trying to get a better deal with him, as I had already done that with Mohsin and it was clear that Mohsin knew his stuff and had offered me the best price he could. I am sure he has dealt with multiple BHPians, and so I was comfortable with the price that had been quoted. My meeting with Nikhil was to purely discuss my tyre options and to get his expert opinion on the Alloys which had to be chosen. Nikhil spent close to an hour with me where we discussed everything from the ongoing pandemic, his children, my profession, common friends and also a healthy splattering of automotive knowledge. He confessed that he genuinely enjoyed speaking to his customers and it was clearly evident that this wasn't any courtesy conversation. With regard to the tyres, I had decided to stick to 15 inchers. Upgrading to 16 inch would have impacted my fuel economy and would have made my ride a little more stiffer. Considering that the vehicle would be driven mostly in the city, I was certain that I would prefer 15 inch tyres. I had considered the following options:
After reading multiple reviews on all of the above tyres, I had decided to go ahead with the Perfinza's. After speaking to Nikhil about the same, he assured me that the Perfinza would indeed be the right fit for me considering my needs. He also informed me that normally, they do not suggest upgrading the stock tyres as the stock tyres are usually sufficient as long as they are not JK Tyres. However, since I was getting a good price for the exchange of tyres, I decided to go ahead with my choice. After considering, multiple options of alloys, I decided to go ahead with the MOMO SCREAMJET EVO CONCAVE (Matte Black Diamond Cut). The tyres and alloys were sourced immediately, and the extremely competent team at Madhus began the work, while Nikhil and me continued our conversation. Mohsin ensured that the work proceeded smoothly and I found their team to be extremely skillful and were happy to entertain my queries as they continued their work. I requested Mohsin to have the brake calipers painted Red and he sourced the paint for the same as well. After about 3 hours, the work was completed and the total bill came up to INR 47,000 /-. This included the cost of the alloys, the Perfinza tyres (after exchanging 4 stock tyres) and the wheel balancing and alignment charges. Here are a few pictures of the vehicle as the work was taking place and upon completion of the same: The alloys which were chosen by me.  The team at Madhus proceeding with the work.       How the car looks once all the work was done, including the wheel alignment and balancing! She looks like a real stunner does she not!   Last edited by tejascshetty : 20th August 2020 at 00:15. |
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19th August 2020, 22:20
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Bangalore
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| re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! 03.08.2020 - Modification 2: Audio Upgrade - Part 1 The Rider Variant only comes equipped with the stock RCD320 Head Unit (HU) and the stock speakers are average at best. An audio upgrade was definitely on the cards. For a long while, while awaiting delivery of my car, I was dilly dallying with the idea of sourcing the RCD360 HU from Alibaba. I wished to maintain the stock look of the car, not to mention that it would have worked out quite cheaply for me as well. However, there were a few reasons I decided to not opt for the same - Firstly, there would be a lack of tuner/equalizer options for the sound and secondly, whether the unit would be sufficient to power the speaker set up, assuming I do not opt for an amplifier. These factors coupled with the uncertainty over the delivery schedules of products sourced through Alibaba due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic convinced me to look elsewhere. After narrowing down the options, after sifting through innumerable reviews on Team-BHP as well as Google Reviews and word of mouth reviews from friends and family, I zeroed in on Sachin's AutoShop in Koramangala, to entrust my car to complete the audio setup. It was a simple process of calling up Mr. Suraj Kumar, informing him that I had read about his shop on Team-BHP and wished to make an appointment. Mr. Kumar promptly invited me on the same date itself, and therefore I reached his shop by around 1:30 PM. The shop is fairly small, but Mr. Kumar guided me well to the location and arranged for a parking spot right in front of the shop. Once I stepped in, he promptly attended to me and answered my queries patiently. I was very clear that I did not want an Android based HU. In my opinion, they look incredibly cheap in a car and do not provide great functionality. You really should not be looking for apps like Netflix, YouTube in a car. Furthermore, audio output invariably suffers in these devices, Apple Car Play can only be accessed through a separately purchased USB Accessory, the long term reliability of Android HU's are a hit or a miss, I was extremely uncomfortable with logging in with my gmail ID to enable the Google Play Services on a tablet fixed in my car and this could lead to serious privacy concerns if you hand over your car to a third party or a valet for parking. So despite Mr. Kumar's prodding I declined to set up an Android based HU in my car. Though I must note that Blaupunkt has come out with its range of Android based HU's (KEY LARGO 970 Series) which are decidedly more premium looking, has a better interface and reliability concerns should not be too bad considering its a product from Blaupunkt. I had initially decided to go ahead with either the Sony XAV - AX3000 (Around 18,000 INR) or the XAV - AX5000 (Around 25,000 INR). Both HU's sported 6.95 inch screens and supported Android Auto and Apple Car Play which was one of my main requirements. The difference between the AX-3000 and the AX-5000 is that the AX-5000 has a Capacitative display and 2 USB Outs, while the AX-3000 has a resistive type touch display and a single USB Output. In my Swift I had installed the Sony XAV-W651BT and 4 JBL Co-Axial Speakers and was decently impressed with the audio output. Hence, my desire to stick to Sony HU's. However, while Mr. Kumar was more than happy to install the Sony HU's, he asked me to consider the Blaupunkt New York 750 HU. I had not heard of this product, but decided to have a quick demonstration of it and read up a few reviews of it online (I couldn't find many except for stray Amazon reviews). The more I read about this HU, the more I was convinced to go for it. Following are the reasons which swayed me towards this Blaupunkt HU:
All things considered, the Blaupunkt HU made great sense. The only thing which concerned me were the following:
However, I really liked the Blaupunkt HU and decided to go ahead with it. It was a great deal and my trust in the Blaupunkt Brand convinced me to take a wager on this product. Only time will tell whether it lives up to my expectations or not. With regard to the speakers, I had decided to go with an undecided mind and take a call after listening to the various speakers and accordingly go with my gut feeling. I must confess to being biased towards either JBL or Infinity and had decided to stick to one of the two. After considering the Infinity Primus Coaxial speakers, which were decent, I decided to hear the Infinity Reference Component series with a 4 channel amplifier attached. The sound output was incredible. I compared it to the JBL GTO609C Component system which was in the same price range, with the Infinity Reference series a shade more expensive, and preferred the sound output from the Reference Series. This was my personal choice and may appeal differently to different people, as after all response to music and audio quality is subjective and dependent upon one's tastes and expectations. Finally, I decided to go ahead with the following options:
After finalizing my choices, the products were all assembled. I snapped a quick picture of all of them for my reference, and Mr. Kumar's team immediately set to work. I was a little hesitant about this process since I had read about how the staff tended to treat the dismantling of the door panels, etc with a careless hand, however I needn't have worried. I requested them at the very outset to treat my car well as it was a new car and I was especially fond of her. They were quite mindful of that and ensured that the work was done in a very careful manner. The staff also seemed to appreciate the fact that I was a member of Team-BHP and in fact asked me to look up some of them by name on Team-BHP as they had worked on some of our member's cars. I told them to take their time and put no pressure on them to finish early. It also helped that there was only another Creta which had come in for an audio upgrade too, so there were enough staff members working on both vehicles. The entire process of installation took a fairly lengthy time of almost 4 hours and I was only done by around 6:00 PM. However, the work done was very satisfactory. Mr. Kumar himself sat and tuned the sound output post installation to my preference. There was one minor niggle where the reverse camera would engage only when the ignition was turned on and not when the vehicle was running. This was quickly remedied by installing a capacitor. Here are a few pictures from my visit to Sachin's Autoshop: This is how the Stock RCD320 unit looked. Not bad looking, but not great either. Also, connecting my iPhone to it was a real pain, as my phone would be connected but there would be no audio output at times.  A Picture of all the products which would be installed.  The staff going about their work.        How the Blaupunkt HU looks like turned off.  How the Balupunkt HU looks like turned on under the cabin lights.  How the Blaupunkt HU looks like turned on with the cabin light turned off.  How Apple Car Play looks like on the Blaupunkt HU both with the Cabin Light turned on and off   Over and above all, this is a great sounding set up and I am enjoying it for now. It's miles ahead of the stock set up and I will constantly keep upgrading the same as time progresses. Thank you all for reading! Last edited by tejascshetty : 20th August 2020 at 00:37. |
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21st August 2020, 07:37
| #4 |
| Team-BHP Support   | Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing! Heartiest congratulations bud - this is a car you buy with the heart over the head, and definitely the one I'd pick in this segment. I had an absolute blast test-driving it. A good year for enthusiasts with the Rapid TSI, new Thar, RS 245, the revv-happy City, fast 1.0L Hyundais (e.g Aura) etc. Your Rapid is going to our homepage today  . Wishing you a minimum of 150,000 km of driving pleasure with her. If you haven't already, take that 6-year extended warranty TODAY. Skoda's long-term reliability & thug dealers suck. |
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21st August 2020, 09:51
| #5 |
| BHPian  Join Date: May 2010 Location: Chennai
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21st August 2020, 10:12
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| Team-BHP Support  | Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Congrats!  Rapid Rider is true VFM and IMHO - the best VFM sedan purchase out there in 2020. It even undercuts the Aura compact sedan with the TGDi petrol engine option! Still looks nice in the Carbon Steel colour. You have already completed the two major mods needed. But, like you said, it is a template - looking forward to future mods and ownership experiences. |
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21st August 2020, 10:19
| #7 | ||
| Senior - BHPian  | Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Quote:
Rapid Rider is arguably the most VFM car on sale in India today. At just over 9 lakhs OTR Bangalore, it is a sheer steal considering there are many more pathetic hatchbacks and compact sedans that cost much more! Congratulations once again and wish you a fuss-free, free-revving and mile-munching ownership. Quote:
Seems like you stay in and around South Bangalore and a localite at that. So a meetup with the rest of the VAG boys tho bantha hai.  | ||
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21st August 2020, 10:20
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| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: Kottayam,DXB
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21st August 2020, 10:21
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| BHPian  Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: TVM/HYD
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21st August 2020, 10:46
| #10 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: YNR(HR), Delhi
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| Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Congratulations on your excellent choice of car and color. Trust me i just freaking love cars in black and seeing this beauty with those sexy alloys is cherry on top. Keep updating this thread with your experiences and wishing you a very happy and lot of safe miles with the car!! |
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21st August 2020, 11:38
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| BHPian Join Date: May 2020 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Quote:
 If Maruti ever decides to bring in the Swift Sport to India, it would set the cat amongst the pigeons! As segment leaders, I really hope Maruti sees which way the wind is blowing!  Quote:
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I stay in RR Nagar. Would love to meet up with you and the other VAG boys whenever possible!Quote:
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21st August 2020, 11:48
| #12 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: Delhi
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| Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Heartiest congratulations sir for getting one of the most vfm (IMO) enthusiast's car under 10 lakhs on-road. Also the mods you have done are very tasteful Lowflyer23 |
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21st August 2020, 12:36
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| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: KA04/ JH09
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21st August 2020, 12:47
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| BHPian Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: Skoda Rapid 1.0 TSI Rider Variant - Ownership Review - The Carbon Steel beast comes home! Congrats tejascshetty on the purchase and loved your writeup as well. Must say the mods are tastefully done, a cool set of rims! Being a GT TDI owner, I would like to welcome you to the VAG owner family Wishing you lot of kms on our very famous "NICE" road (AKA Autobahn* of Namma Bengaluru)! *Speed limits applicable |
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21st August 2020, 13:31
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| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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