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3 years & 48,000 km with my Skoda Rapid 1.5 TDI DSG

20th February 2022, 11:02 by Ananth Iyer

The car is absolutely flawless, it drives like it did on Day 1.

BHPian sachin_cs recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It feels like yesterday when we brought him home, it has been 3 years with our Skoda Rapid DSG 2019 and odd 48k kms on the odo. Running has reduced due to my deteriorating health condition, on the positive side, the car is absolutely flawless, it drives the way it did on the day one.

Things I love:

Thank god I don't have any rattling sounds from anywhere, interior is dead silent over all kinds of roads
Car is really comfortable over long distances and I feel its because of airy cabin, no unnecessary vertical movements & body roll
Car is stable and predictable and I can communicate as to how much I can really push
With the kind of fuel prices we see these days, thank God Heisenberg doesn't has drinking problem. It's always frugal even if you are driving hard 20+kmpl is guaranteed
After switching to michelins ride quality has improved drastically, I can glide over rough roads now
If you have followed my ownership you would have seen me complaining about the brakes but now I just loved them (confused?) Well, after switching to Michelin the braking has improved by leaps and bounds, earlier I would never even dare to go above 110kmph, well, now I don't worry so much about brakes as the bite has improved so has stopping distance
I'm happy with my dealer and their service is really good
When clean, there's no beautiful shade than Carbon Steel (only when clean xD)
Reliability, I know the word don't go well together with Skoda but since the day of purchase it has been a fill it shut it car, on the other hand my newly acquired Kwid goes to service centre evey 4 months for niggles
NVH, road noise, wind noise is well controlled and now when I drive anything comparable or lower, those cars feel loud (engine clatter in D mode is high though, shift to S and problem solved)
Boot space, in 3 years of my ownership I'm yet to utilise it completely
Efforts by Zac Hollis in reviving the brand, I can see the difference

Not so much:

Dark colour in general is pain in the A.*.*. to maintain, even an hour drive is good enough to cover it in dust
Mud flaps scrape when loaded
There's always a fear of DSG failure in mind and I have started SIP for the same
Tvs Brake rotors are rubbish, they start to shudder in 20k kms
Headlights are weak, an HID upgrade is needed for the low beams but I don't want to mess up with my warranty
For some reason rats love my car
Lately I'm hearing a mild thud sound over potholes and I guess I need to get my bushings checked
Gearshifts are not the smoothest in stop go traffic
Its a proper low slung car which is good for me but at times my parents have difficulty getting out after a long drive
I rave about Michelin XM2+ but at the end of the day it is a comfort oriented tyre and as compared to my old Goodyear, body roll is slightly more

Some clicks

Satya Sai hospital in the background

I love the shades

Today, to celebrate the 3rd birthday, first thing in the morning I went to my doctor to collect my MRI reports and then went on a long solo drive without any agenda, spotted a tyre shop with Hunter equipment, so I got my alignment checked and the chap at Prime tyres, Raipur did a good job, next to his shop was a newly opened local car wash and I decided to give it a try. As a rule of thumb, I always carry my own microfiber clothes and turtle wax shampoo even when I get my car washed outside. Returned home in the evening and it was a day very well spent, after a long time I had such a great me time.