Jake02

I don't quite agree with this topic. If Skoda was going down market wouldn't the Octavia III come with less expensive things (adaptive cruise control and all the tech, etc)? The Rapid is a no thrills, low budget car. Nothing more. It annoys the hell out of me that Skoda didn't try harder with it, but it's built to a much lower price than the Octavia. It's for someone who wants to spend less on a car, like the Renault/Dacia Logan. That Skoda has enough profit to make a car for the (less well-endowed in terms of money; no offence to Rapid owners) masses is a good sign to me.

I don't understand the confusion guys, the Rapid Spaceback will be Skoda's Golf. I know they said it would be different but I don't buy it, it will be just a Golf equivalent, and no, it won't be an estate. What a disappointment it will be.

Looks like a Honda Edix/FR-V.

The Australian market Octy vs i40 would obviously be different to the UK market comparison, especially as our Octy III prices won't be known until its release in October here (they're waiting for the RS and estate models to have a full range on launch). However, I can certainly comment on engines, styling and what not. Australian i40s are available with a 180hp 2.0 petrol or 136hp 1.7 diesel and neither are particularly good. They haven't stolen the 2.4 petrol from the i45, nor the R-series 2.2 diesel from the ix35 yet unfortunately. The petrol engine has little torque, and the diesel is good, but any competitor is more powerful and similarly efficient to the i40. I like the styling of the i40 but I know it will date quickly, just like the ix35 did. I severely doubt it's anywhere near as dynamic as the Octavia. The main thing I like with the Octavia over the i40 is that the Octavia has been engineered properly, in true VW Group tradition. It's hard to say in words, but the Octavia (even the current one) just feels better than the i40, and to me that's something you cannot put a figure on. Obviously kevinb1967 you're fishing in the Skoda side, and you will get Skoda answers, but even with the new engines and lower emissions, the Octavia seems like a no brainer to me. Hyundai recently put the already-expensive i40 price up here (the i40 Premium 2.0 saloon here is the equivalent of 32,000 British pounds), and to me the Octavia smashes it on value.

I think I'm the only person who actually likes this new Cherokee, and indeed the Nissan Juke. It's nice to see that all car manufacturers haven't turned into Skoda, they still produce something daring and edgy and couldn't give a stuff what people think of them. Time Jeep got a new look, I mean how long can you produce boxes for?

The reason that it's not selling well is because it's ****!

It's not the new RS, look at the LED running lights up close and you'll see how photoshopped they are. The new car certainly wouldn't have the old car's wheels and rear wing and the interior trim is the silver trim on the Octavia Elegance, which it would definitely not have. I'd say it's close but not quite there.

The interior, although an older design, looks far nicer than the Euro Rapid! It's probably the same quality, but the silver strip and added colour makes it seem to be much higher quality. I still don't like the exterior of either however and 120hp is still not enough power, especially for how they're going to position it here in Australia (as a Mazda 3 - our top selling car here, which has a 150hp 2.0 engine as standard, let alone the 170hp 2.5 or 180hp 2.2 diesel - competitor).

Can I just point out that the Australian market RS TSI retails for around $42,000 on-road (including taxes, dealer charges, etc) which equals almost £28,000, plus of course more for diesel, DSG and estates. You guys might get them with less equipment, but boy are they a lot cheaper. We also get a lack of MFSW on the manual too - everywhere does.

Can you people not see past the camouflage?

Guys it's only going to be cosmetic and mechanical, so people's wishes like 'redesigned folding seats' (why you would want them redesigned is beyond me) are very unlikely to happen. I'd say the headlights will be identical, with a new Octavia-style lower front air intake and perhaps sharper taillights with LEDs. Things I wish for on the Yeti: - the B-pillar painted black. I know people love this feature but the proposed extended wheelbase Chinese Yeti might get this as spy shots show (as well as a rear tyre on the bootlid?) and I think it looks fantastic! - that extended wheelbase version would be great. The Yeti boot and rear space are too small in my opinion, especially compared to competitors. It's only when the rear seats are folded/taken out do you see the benefits of the Yeti's rear system and it would be even better if Skoda had figured out how to include a spare wheel without raising the boot floor. - it needs more colour in the cabin (this is probably Australia specific where we get black cloth or black leather and that's it) but not just with seat trim colour but different trims on the dash and what not. - the engines are all wrong. In Australia the Yeti 77TSI (1.2 TSI 105hp to you guys) is priced around $2,000 cheaper than the VW Tiguan 118TSI (1.4TSI 160hp, both 2WD). The Tiguan has almost double the power... The 1.2TSI needs to be replaced with the new 140hp 1.4TSI as it probably uses even less fuel. - Why is the best engine in the range, the 170hp 2.0TDI, manual-only? Doesn't bother me as I hate autos but Skoda Australia won't bring it here without an auto. - Where are the stop/start systems? The Yeti 1.8TSI uses more fuel than much bigger competitors here. - New Skoda badges!!! - It needs an attitude, like the Yeti Urban edition you guys got. - I'd love to see 18-inch wheels available. How many people use it off-road and even so, wouldn't they have a spare set of offroad tyres? - The halogen headlamps look cheap. The car would look so much better with projector beam headlights like the HID option. It has nice eyes then! - New Skoda steering wheel and gearknobs (I know the gearknobs are already there)! - The interior trim needs to be upgraded - the only bits of soft touch stuff are on the dash. Not good enough Skoda. - Adaptive cruise and the drowsiness recognition system should be introduced, as should cooled seats from the Superb. For the prices they charge here it should be more upmarket in features. - New Skoda sat-nav and climate control systems I doubt any of you will agree with me but they're just what I've noticed with the car. I still love the Yeti to bits. A cousin has one and I've driven it many times and it's just fantastic.

That front - instant old-generation Audi A8 right there! The interior is very nice though.

I had a huge WTF moment at that comment too, but apparently the RS TDI will have 180hp, the TSI more?

RURU2010 I just wanted to ask, how many Skodas are there in Chile? How many do they sell a month?

This is also a com-gen image of what a Rapid RS could look like.

I agree Kingsley, I'm so sick and tired of hearing about Kias on this forum from Evening Star that I simply don't use it any longer - I don't tolerate this kind of rubbish. Kias may be honest cars much like Skodas, but they're inferior products to Skodas and in the UK at least, they also seem to be reasonably expensive (especially the top spec Sportage and Cee'd). They don't drive anywhere near as well as Skodas, they're not as quick, nor as well finished, nor as well made, nor anywhere near as practical. Evening Star, I couldn't care less about what car you buy and as far as I'm concerned, the sooner you're out of a Skoda the better. Fly away!

My take on the Octavia III. I do realise that the real one will have LED running lights but I couldn't work out how to properly incorporate them (I've just finished my end of school exams so I haven't had time to).

December 11th.

Evening Star, the Cerato is pretty much the Cee'd saloon. As such, you guys in Europe won't be receiving it but unfortunately us here in Australia will be. The Cee'd is a vastly superior car...

A big hello from Down Under. I have a 2008 pre-FL Octavia RS 2.0 TFSI liftback manual in Candy White and this evening, for the first time, something wasn't spectacular with it. Tonight upon driving home the electrical system went AWOL. The indicators stopped working, the headlights went on and off, the alarm went off and the dial lights went on and off too. I got home, turned the car off, the alarm went off again (despite the interior button being pressed) and I ended up disconnecting the battery as it just kept going off and off and off. I'll check in the morning but has anyone had anything similar and what did you do to fix it? Every reply is appreciated

Only in the shape of the Yeti bigfoot

Domhnall, I can appreciate where you're coming from and thank you for shedding a little light on the 1.2TSI as it's a fairly new engine to Australia with the Fabia only just being released and the top-selling Golf being the 1.4TSI. I myself can justify the 1.2TSI (because when on-road taxes and so on are included in the price, it's $10,000 cheaper than 2.0TDI 4x4) but for most consumers, where our top selling car for a number of years has been the Holden Commodore with a 3+ litre V6 and many being 5.7+ litre V8s, it seems less plausible. Australian fuel prices are £1 a litre so you can understand that saving costs aren't that high for many Australians unfortunately. Bring on the 1.8TSI!

Hi pixor, I'm not a Yeti owner (just yet anyway ) but I am a 'local' as such here in Sydney with my Octavia RS (that's one thing you'll have to get used to here, no v in vRS). Modern-day Skoda is a 'new' brand to Australia, having only launched here in late 2007. I got mine in July 2008 when they sold 40 cars in that month. Last month Skoda sold 609 cars and while that isn't that many, it's their best ever result and enough to comfortably outsell many other Euro brands (Citroen, Renault, Peugeot, Land Rover, Volvo - pretty much every Euro brand except BMW, Merc, Audi and VW) so while you won't see many Skodas around, they're becoming vastly more popular. In all honestly, I hate my Octavia's air-con. It's crap and because of the amount of glass in the car, it really struggles. I hope that the Yeti's air-con is better (how could it not be really and it should be too)! But yes, around Sydney it's fine, just on the open road (particularly in Summer) you need to put the fan up high. It's true that we have a 2-engined lineup too. Australian motoring is rather conservative in some respects (it's such a shock to me that the Mazda3 is the number one selling car here) so most cars here are automatics unfortunately (the Aus Superb lineup is DSG-only) and Toyota sells BIG here. Instead of family wagons or hatches like in Europe, compact SUVs do big business here and MPVs barely exist (people preferring their Holden (Chevy in the UK) Captivas, Ford Territorys and Toyota Klugers) and more recently, 4WDs have been proving too costly to run so 2WD variants have been introduced of many SUVs, hence the Yeti 2WD. Here VWAG Australia cars go by their power (in kW not hp) figure and then by the type of engine, so the Yeti 140CR in the UK is called the Yeti 103TDI (103kW/140hp 2.0L TDI). At the moment we have the Yeti 1.2TSI and 2.0TDI and while the 2.0TDI is great, you know the 1.2TSI isn't going to sell. Such a small power figure in such a big car isn't going to work and I've heard from Skoda Aus that they're already planning on the 1.4TSI. In the first half of this year though, the Yeti 1.8TSI 4x4 is joining the range and should be about $3,000 cheaper than the 2.0TDI (so about A$32,000) and I'd recommend that over the 2.0TDI. Also, you won't find many Yeti owners because the Yeti has only been on sale here for about four months. Sorry for the long one, but I just thought I'd welcome you and give you a little info on the Aus car market! Also, when you get here, why not join the local VW/Audi/Skoda forum? http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/forum.php#skoda

I agree with the first post, get rid of them. The old badges look muchbetter! They're more modern and better integrated. The worst part is that they have them on the incorrect sides! The 'Octavia'/'Fabia' etc should be on the left with the model on the right. To be honest though, just keep the RS badge. Looks better!