How do you like yours?

[sparks03]

Having spent some considerable time in our local Skoda dealer and having spent much of that time persuading SWMBO that an Octavia vRS was the only sensible choice, she's decided that our new car will in fact be a Rapid. Bigger and more room than I thought there'd be, especially in the back. Most likely trim spec will be Elegance but as yet i've struggled to find a balanced critique of the car (What Car? rate the Rapid down in areas they praise the Toledo for!). The Octavia isn't out the window as neither is an ex demo VW.

So what is it like to live with? What are the gripes and strifes? I've test driven the 1.2 tsi but am curious to know what the diesel is like as this unit was unavailable to test. MPG isn't massively important but to my mind the 1.2 felt a little sluggish low end- it felt slightly inflexible but the car itself had only done a handful of miles so i'm not sure it was an accurate reflection

 

[Ad Lav]

Low down the 1.2 is fine - peak torque available from 1500?

I came from a fabia vrs mk2 and as painful as that was speed wise, its really not too bad.

I overtake less now so what does that tell you? Too confident with more power lol

We have the 1.2tsi 105 elegance and its a great family car, loads of space and comfortable. Looks good too with sports seats, privacy glass and the optional sporty looking alloys.

If power is a problem look at the 1.4tsi but its only available with dsg.

Skoda need to wake up and offer a 1.4tsi manual and a 2.0tdi 140 in the Rapid.

[RapidRonnie]

(What Car? rate the Rapid down in areas they praise the Toledo for!).

 

That's Whatcar all over.

 

The 1.2 is fine. Sure, if you're going up a hill and you have several passengers and the aircon on it's going to be sluggish below 1500RPM but as soon as the turbo kicks in it's fine. I even find mine quite adequate and I only have the 86PS version.

 

Unless you do lots of miles I'd stick with the petrol; cheaper, smoother, quieter and very respectable MPG too.

 

How soon do you want one? The Spaceback should hit UK shores early next year if you don't need the extra boot space of the liftback.

[Kenny.j]

I've only had mine a couple of weeks but I find it great. If you want to make swift progress you have to remember and keep the revs at 1500 or more. I came from a passat 1.9tdi 130bhp and even though I'm being kind for the 1st 1000 miles to let the engine settle in (as per Skodas instructions) I actually think it's every bit as quick as that was so once it's got a few miles under its bonnet I'm sure it'll be a hoot

Excellent family car for the money. I'm well impressed.

[Kenny.j]

Also, I went for the petrol as I couldn't justify the extra for the Diesel engine. I don't do a high enough mileage for to make sense. Not to mention the fact that my most frequent journeys (short stop start ones where the engine barely get up to temperature) would choke the DPF in no time and kill it fairly soon after. That's an extra expense that no one needs

[Jonesy92]

I did a brief write-up on here a few months back, and now I've had much more time to get to know the Rapid, here are some more mature opinions.

Also, when I say TSI, I refer to the 1.2

Likes:

+ Very spacious cabin

+ Enormous boot

+ Comfortable seats and all-round seat and steering wheel adjustment

+ Perky and dare I say 'sporty' TSI engine, returning reasonable economy

+ Remarkably safe

+ Eager and reassuring brakes

+ Very easy to drive (though not too engaging)

+ Whisper quiet around town and pleasant at speed

+ Crisp and precise gear change

+ Informative Maxi-Dot

+ Usual VAG build quality, if somewhat cheap-looking materials abound

+ Stacks of rear leg and knee room

+ Handy cubbies dotted about the cabin

+ Windows that wind all the way down

+ Logical and functional dashboard layout

+ Auto-locking doors

+ Excellent set of headlights for night driving (obviously)

+ Little in the way of body roll

+ £30 tax pa and a very low insurance group, plus decent economy = a very cheap to run car.

 

Gripes:

- Door/Boot locking take a while to work out, although it is in the end a very secure setup

- Dashboard is a bit... well, black

- Terrible rear visibility

- Door mirror switch awkward to operate and feels flimsy

- One shot down windows for driver's side window only - no one shot up

- Amundsen Sat Nav (option) has a few bugs and some minor UI issues

- Handbrake awkward to use with armrest in the down position

- Remote audio controls not fitted due to lesser spec, despite paying £500 for the Amundsen

- 5 speed TSI fine for around town, but I imagine is far better mated with the 6-speed for out of town driving, mainly for economy

- Performance marginally on the flat side under 1,500 revs with the TSI engine

 

This is all I can think of at the moment, but so far, I've never looked back, I absolutely love this car!

[sparks03]

Cheers all  , its nice to get the perspective of someone who has lived with one for a while. I'm perhaps a little harsh on the eagerness of the engine and the performance aspect won't affect the mrs who'll be the principle driver, but it definitely felt hesitant to a degree. I'm just spoiled with the Golf when it comes to petrol poke    :evil:  Its also hard to get into perspective that we will be down-sizing now the two eldest are on the road under their own steam. 

 

 The money aspect of it is a huge plus in my eyes- even specced as we would like i'm still around £7k better off than the Octavia vRS. There's a part of me wanting a Spaceback (especially as the salesman grinned when I asked about the rumoured vRS version!) but the liftback offers more space. We'll most likely look to change after Christmas- possibly hanging out for the '14' reg but we will see. 

[Thecko]

If you can live without the soft touch plastics in the cabin (although new builds get more squidgy materials in the cabin now I believe?) it's an ideal family car. (Or a musician's car if like me you frequently haul around oddly proportioned guitar cases).

I can well understand that coming from something like a VRS/GTi that the 1.2 would feel a little sluggish, but honestly so long as you're not too ambitious it makes decent progress when you want it to, as has been said if you keep the revs over 1.5k you'll have peak torque available.

Skoda *need* to offer the 1.4 with a manual box though, it would make people coming from more powerful models feel much more at home I think.

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[Jonesy92]

I can well understand that coming from something like a VRS/GTi that the 1.2 would feel a little sluggish, but honestly so long as you're not too ambitious it makes decent progress when you want it to, as has been said if you keep the revs over 1.5k you'll have peak torque available.

Admittedly I'm more accustomed to diesels, but having driven a 1.2 (N/A) petrol renault clio, and two 1.6 Felicias, I cannot believe how the Rapid shifts in first and second gear and what a hellish sound it makes too!

[LeeCZ]

- Dashboard is a bit... well, black

 

This will change with the 2014 version, which is available now in CZ. The dashboard now has a chrome strip and the steering wheel has been changed.

 

http://forum.skodahome.cz/topic/125037-interi%C3%A9r-2012-2014/

[Thecko]

Admittedly I'm more accustomed to diesels, but having driven a 1.2 (N/A) petrol renault clio, and two 1.6 Felicias, I cannot believe how the Rapid shifts in first and second gear and what a hellish sound it makes too!

Yeah I'm much the same coming from the 1.4 MPI, there are a few (mild!) uphill climbs near me where the Fabia really struggled to get up to 60 in good time, the Rapid handles them in it's stride, I just can't bring myself to ever claim it's a 'fast' car though!

I've grown quite fond of the ironic model name :-)

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[RapidRonnie]

If you can live without the soft touch plastics in the cabin (although new builds get more squidgy materials in the cabin now I believe?)

 

Unfortunately I think not, although it doesn't bother me hugely...

 

I think "better cabin materials" actually meant new seat fabrics. Maybe for the facelift?

[MarkRawlinson52]

1.6 deisel TDI SE model.  love it loads of room but not too big to handle in akward places.  I got this deisel from Motorpont in Burnley 10 miles on clock but  the same model at Skoda was £17 500   I paid £12 000 for this.  Only problem I have had so far is the rear doors filling up with water however I did find gently pulling on the door seal emptied it.   I have been in thouch woth Skoda dealers here re this (3 year warranty on car) and they are getting back to me about this. 

It took a bit of getting used to a deisel (always had petrol in past) it seems a bit slow to star off with but soon overtakes other cars. 

Only other annoying thing is it telling me when to change gear but I think that feature is on most modern cars nowadays.