Went with my lad down to Lincoln to get his trusty Fabia II HTP serviced and spotted what at first I thought were two Octavia III's in the showroom, turned out to be a Octy and a Rapid Even the staff occasionally get confused apparently, particularly when delivered in all that white film.

Now I've seen them together (both Elegance spec) and compared the interior, then odd as it my seem I'd take the less fussy Rapid

Only thing I didn't quite get on with was the standard chair, which although nicely trimmed in a pleasant looking cloth, felt lacking in support under thigh. Mind the Octavia's alacantra seat didn't feel much better and both were inferior to the seating in the Yeti and the Monte. Had previously tried the Rapid sports seat and from memory that was better.

Anyway took the opportunity to get a lift into town in a Rapid TDI and again impressed, as a passenger anyway. Noticeably quieter than I remember the Octy II with the 1.6TDI and it felt quick and light footed; would be quite happy to have one on the drive, oh the light grey metallic is a very good colour for the car, making it look quite classy.

However it will be a while before I let go of the Yeti, so Rapid ownership will have to stay on the back burner and the Monte we have only just acquired and it's to good fun to drive anyway to even contemplate letting it go any time soon

TP

oh the light grey metallic is a very good colour for the car, making it look quite classy.

I agree. Usually find light silver boring but it shows off the nice sharp lines of the Rapid well. Nearly bought one instead of mine but it sold before I could have it!

I too like the silver, does look smart.

Alas went for white again as I'm quite fond if washing my car lol

The are indeed surprisingly pleasant. I've found the sports seats to be comfortable and supportive enough whenever I've been out, and the 1.2 TSI is relaxed and fairly quiet. Only thing I dislike is the bumpy ride and road noise (its very sensitive to poor surfaces) around town but it settles down on the motorway. On the whole feels like a very grown up car with a excellent interior.

Trick to tell it apart from the Octavia III is at the front, Rapid doesn't have the slight gap between the headlights and grille. Do look very similar though!

Oh and agree Silver suits it well.

The guy who drove us in to town, seemed to feel that the newest Rapids they have had in drive better than those that first arrived; tweaks already maybe :wonder:

TP

The are indeed surprisingly pleasant. I've found the sports seats to be comfortable and supportive enough whenever I've been out, and the 1.2 TSI is relaxed and fairly quiet. Only thing I dislike is the bumpy ride and road noise (its very sensitive to poor surfaces) around town but it settles down on the motorway. On the whole feels like a very grown up car with a excellent interior.

Trick to tell it apart from the Octavia III is at the front, Rapid doesn't have the slight gap between the headlights and grille. Do look very similar though!

Oh and agree Silver suits it well.

They've made the grille as wide as possible on the Rapid to make it look wider than it really is. Works

Is yours the diesel J400? On rippled surfaces I find the ride can be a bit "jiggly" but it's perfectly comfortable. It's firm but not crashy and I was surprised how good the ride was on 17s. I'm just wondering if they had to run the diesels on harder springs because of the heavier engine...

Also road noise I think is pretty good - much better than my Roomster.

Petrol here too, haven't been out in a diesel yet but would expect some differences due to the heavier engine. Regarding the ride I suppose it all depends what your used to! Certainly not bad but it is somewhat firm. The Plumber has a point as they sometimes change/ tweak things, what month was yours registered just out of interest RapidRonnie?

It was registered November 2012 so one of the first.

April 13 for mine and ride is very good - better than fabia vrs on same wheel tyre size.

I took out a Rapid and an Octavia 3 this morning, both in silver and both looked good in it, IMO, the Rapid a little more so. However, I'm amazed that there appears to be a preference for the Rapids interior, I thought it was very low rent, lots of black scratchy plastic. The cabin definitely felt narrower too. Given the price point I expected more tbh. On the road, the Octavia feels better engineered, quieter and simply more planted at speed. Im amazed that it didn't feel heavier in corners and nice that the marketing men's continuous mention of weight saving is very noticeable generally, especially on turn in. I will mention however that the elegance interior on the Octavia felt a much nicer place to be than the SE they also had. Overall, I can see where the Rapid succeeds - the interior space is reasonable and the boot, massive for its class - very practical as a cheaper family offering but even the dealer I was chatting to said they should have made it smaller to leave more gap between it and the new octy and increase the interior quality. They've hardly sold any so far and appeared to think suk weren't impressed with sales figures even though the targets were pretty low to start with.

suk weren't impressed with sales figures

Who's fault is that!?

Everything else you say though Yeti_Man is logical, afterall it is a narrower car on a less sophisticated platform. I still think the Rapid's interior is perfectly fine (especially if you are coming from a Fabia/Roomster) although I can appreciate it is a step down in certain areas if you're coming from a Yeti, Superb or Octavia.

I agree on the size, they could have perhaps made it 6inches shorter? The boot would still have been pretty big.

Who's fault is that!?

Yes, the dealer was the first to roll his eyes when they were mentioned! They said it was obvious that they had messed up the pricing by the almost immediate finance contribution and then spec upgrade so soon after launch. And they still aren't shifting them. It must be pretty frustrating for them. :(

Yes, the dealer was the first to roll his eyes when they were mentioned! They said it was obvious that they had messed up the pricing by the almost immediate finance contribution and then spec upgrade so soon after launch. And they still aren't shifting them. It must be pretty frustrating for them. :(

The problem is it kind of "spoilt" the launch by creating a negative vibe around it at the time when publicity is highest, so it's hard to recover from that. As I said elsewhere it's the 3rd best selling car in CZ now, outselling the Yeti, Superb, Roomster and Citigo.

The Rapid is 40% less expensive in Czech Republic, so no surprise there...

10% cut on the UK list price and then a 0% VAT offer until economy recovers (a few years then) and the Rapid will sell as it should - rapidly

But doing this would take someone in SUK HQ admitting they messed up, and that's hard to get in a corporate environment.

Have to say, I had a look round at a Rapid and an Octavia 3 Elegance whilst my Fabia was being serviced and there is no denying that the Octavia is a better quality feeling car. However it is too big for my needs now. I thought the Rapid was nowhere near as bad as the press has said and certainly better quality than my Fabia.

At least Skoda are staying with "straight line" interiors, some cars these days have hideous interiors these days in my opinion. New Clio, 208 etc. I`m looking foward to Fabia 3 next year before I make a decision on my next car.

I don't remember hearing any mass outcry about the Fabia MK-I interior quality.

It is quite similar to the Rapid in that it is well screwed together, but some of the materials are pretty rough looking. Nobody was up in arms about that in the Fabia because that's what's called value for money. In said Fabia, the mass plastic expanse of the dash is drab and rough to the touch, the centre console by the handbrake is cheap, flimsy plastic. The hard, rough to touch plastic on the armrest hurts your elbow after 5 minutes of resting it there, the door cards are made from horrible abrasive cloth, the doors sound all tinny when you shut them, the surfaces you touch feel fairly cheap in your hands..... but nobody cares because it had a host of pretty reliable engines, it was pretty safe, it stopped, it went. I tnever cost you much to run. Most importantly however - it was cheap! It was value for money.

That was Skoda, since the Eastern bloc years, they have always been value-for-money cars, both before and, in a different way, after VAG's involvement.

And so, the Rapid... take an S model TSI (only an idiot would buy the MPi), no extras, nothing and what do you have? A cheap (yes, cheap!) value-for-money, practical hatchback with low running costs. Why grumble about interior quality when all the wear surfaces and surfaces you actually touch feel nice, and the build quality is of a good standard.

As long as SUK keep the value-for-money side of things in mind, and remember that they aren't selling VWs and can't charge people as such, then people should never complain about such silly and irrelevant things as how nice the dashboard is to fondle.

I agree with all you said above about the mk 1 furby Jonesy having owned 4 of them, the the only thing I'd add though is the Mk 1 was designed over a decade ago and you'd expect some quality improvement. I felt the plastics in the 2 Comforts looked better then this in the vRS's due to their colour.

I agree with all you said above about the mk 1 furby Jonesy having owned 4 of them, the the only thing I'd add though is the Mk 1 was designed over a decade ago and you'd expect some quality improvement. I felt the plastics in the 2 Comforts looked better then this in the vRS's due to their colour.

I don't think it necessarily have anything to do with age. In my eyes the Golf MK4 still sets the standard for hatchback interior quality, but associated with that are high production/ material costs and it devalues the interior of so called prestige cars so VW didn't allow it to continue. That's why unless you buy high-end Audi you should expect some cost-cutting, may sound ignorant but true!