Following the slight mishap with my Fabia (see here) I was given a '13 plate Rapid as a hire car while the negotiations are on going.

 

 

1.2 TSI 86bhp with 10,000 miles on the clock.

 

so my thoughts so far are

 

It seems to be that if you don't put driving like your hair is on fire near the top of your priority list it should pretty much be all things to all men.

 

It's never going to set the world alight performance wise but it has a nice "growl" on full throttle and gets up to cruising speed with decent vigor.

Revving the nuts off it doesn't seem to reap any reward so it fits best to a super relaxed driving style.

 

It is quite clearly from the genreation after the mk1 Fabia and feels much quieter and more refined in everyway.

Road noise is down.

Engine noise is non-existent, to the extent that i thought i'd stalled the first time i stopped at a juction.

Fixtures and fittings whilst still clearly on a budget do seem to be over and above the Fabia even in VRS spec.

Maxidot is nice albeit pretty busy compared to the nothing of a mk1.

It bongs like a goodun for almost any reason, lights, belts, cold, but i think all modern cars do.

 

Boot is massive.

Ride is good and the handling seems up to the job, although being so underpowered it's pretty inert and harmless.

 

Efficency seems pretty good. low 40s even when tooling about the place gives diesel rivalling costs when you factor in the price difference at the pumps.

 

I don't really know where it fits in the market though.

I described it to my mum (who went "a what?") as a Fabia with a boot but i think it's bigger than that but it's not Octavia sized, and i dunno what it competes against.

 

Enjoying it so far though, and shall try to keep you up to date with my thoughts.

I think there must be a lot worse (and smaller) ways out there to blow the meager money one costs.

 When the new spaceback Rapid is out I think it will kill the saloon  http://www.bickertonskoda.co.uk/new-skoda/rapid-spaceback?gclid=CIGZ87-SjbwCFdLItAodOCkA6g

Yeah they had a couple at my local dealer.

The standard one looked a bit weak, (but then i think the rear of the saloon looks overweight and the tiny wheels and big sidewalled tyres don't help it one bit) but there was one with big alloys and a black wrapped roof which flowed nicely into the rear glass desk.

Looked a bit like a mini Ocavia VRS estate.....which was nice.

oh a couple of thing that have come up

 

• the MDI takes forever to "initialise"
  i'm generally half a mile down the road by the time the MDI has caught up and started to play my ipod through the aux cable. I'd hate to think how long it would take to read a USB full of music upon each start up!
• the rear window is horrendous for steaming up.
  I know the weather has been cold over the weekend but it is literally opaque every time i get in the car.
  With the rear heated screen taking longer to work than the MDI
• You do get a nice effect on said rear screen when air flow blows rivers of roof water down it though

oh and almost as soon as it began it has ended :(

 

Avis have just called to asay that I was not meant to be given the car i have as it is classed an "end of life cycle vehicle"

At just over 10,000 miles that has me surprised especially when there is a sticker stuck on the dials that says "please let staff know when the mileage reaches 13,500"

 

They'll be coming to me on Friday to swap it for "another vehicle" will it be a newer fresher Rapid?

who knows.

A few days of happy Rapid-ing to go though

Glad you like it and have an open mind to them

Having had a mk1 fabia vrs and mk2 fabia vrs I agree the interior is better but not as good as a mk2 Octavia.

Size wise it's supposed replace the Octavia mk1 but not the mk2... The mk3 has got more expensive so it gives way to buying this.

They needed better engine and gearbox combinations though - 1.6T and 2.0tdi manuals please.

The 1.2tsi 105 (I have this in elegance spec) is great and not too slow, but like you say, it's not a sports car.

Enjoy

That's a fair summary of the car Pasty, I genuinely think a lot of the negative press the Rapid gets is because the reviewers feel let down due to the model name invoking the wrong level of initial expectation. They'd have been far better off resurrecting a different old model name (Estelle, maybe).

 

As an unpretentious family/practical car, it ticks more boxes than are left blank for me.

They needed better engine and gearbox combinations though - 1.6T and 2.0tdi manuals please.

The 1.2tsi 105 (I have this in elegance spec) is great and not too slow, but like you say, it's not a sports car.

 

 

Agreed. I'd even like to be able to try the 1.4 TSI (the 103 kW version, not the twin charged oil consumer) with the 6 speed manual I have in my 105, regrettably Skoda/VAG seem absolutely determined to never marry a manual to that particular engine no matter which manufacturer badge they put on it :(

It's certainly better than the mk1 and mk2 Fabia, but it needs a wider engine choice IMO.

Although I don't think the target market actually requires a rapid Rapid.

 

It is a shame that the interior tech is all pure mk2 Fabia though and already 3 or 4 years old.

It has none of the more recent improvements in tech/usability and lags behind even the mk2 Octy and mk1 Yeti which have been out for several years.

 

Things like the bluetooth stalk due to the lack of a decent multi function steering wheel etc... are poor when you think a lot of them will be driven all day as private hire vehicles for example.

My main gripe about the MaxiDot / Stalk system is that it is not customisable enough, for example, if I set the display to Audio, then I can see what's currently playing and do next/previous track (or radio station) from the stalk, which is fine, but why can't there be a small area of the display reserved to display an item of your choice from the MFD? (like oil temp, or trip mpg etc). 

 

It would make the whole system much more "informative" and usable.

 

I'm not sure how what I would personally like from the system stacks up against what's available in the Mk2/3 Octavia though as I've not had the opportunity to play with those systems.

A few more points from today

The stereo in the Rapid is excellent.

My music collection on my ipod has certain volume related issues and a song ripped were loudly shuffled after a song ripped very quietly. Almost blew my ear drums out but clarity and sound levels are really good.

Again though I am only comparing to the woeful system in the mk1 Fabia.

2nd point, the car is brilliant.

I took it over my favourite car testing improvised road rally stage this event in a spirited fashion and it's an absolute hoot!!

Terminal velocities were smaller than when in the Fabia but the revvy engine, lightness of touch, sharp handling and pliant ride combined excellently. Crashy subsidence and pot holes that the Fabia knocked my filling out on were just dealt with no fuss.

Also given the car is so relatively light the brakes feel great as they are more than up to the job.

Once back in more urban road the rain slickened roads provided roundabout to play on which resulted in fun but no drama.

The are is so light and so under powered that there's no wheels spin, no under steer, no lift off oversteer. It just grips and goes.

Brilliant.

Now if only it didn't look so stodgy.

Oh and the lights a pretty horrendous.

But that could of course be down to poor bulbs rather the car itself.

I have also been wracking my brain trying to come up with a competitor.

Small to medium sized hatch with a saloonesque boot

I've got nothing.

The closest i can come up with was the old shape 1 series coupe which isn't really that close at all.

Lol

I must change my bulbs - candle power is only so good.

No real competitor - maybe the vw Jetta?

Isn't the Jetta bigger though?

Yeah Mrs Pasty had a rental Jetta when she was last in the States on business and commented "I think this is the same car" when she got in the Rapid.

I thought that a Jetta was a Golf with a boot though, which made it size up the scale.

I couldn't get much further than that though.

I couldn't even think of any kind of French, or Asian car of a similar size that has a boot.

A niche but is it a niche too far?

I like it, I think if I had a need for a big boot - a family or such - it'd be ideal.

I mean yesterday my 4 new rainsports went in the boot on their sides without even a hint of a struggle, couldn't have done that in the Fabia.

I think I'll be a little annoyed come change over time on Friday if they don't give me another Rapid

I got four 18's with tyres abreast in the boot - with spare space! Put them in a superb estate boot with no room to play. Very impressive.

If they did a slightly hot version I think it'd sell better.

Having seen a stock 86bhp one round the ring, I think a well fettled 150bhp or so sport would be great.

Jetta has the golf mk6 platform - rapid has a polo 6r front and Octavia mk1 rear so a bit weird but works well.

Jetta has similar space inside I think - bit wider.

Got it got it got it.

Seat toledo

Although I guess that's cheating as isn't that just a different badge on the same car

Lol yes

And different bumpers of course.

What the Ibiza is to the Fabia.

MG6 Magnette?

5 grand more expensive and only big old engines..

A girl in work has an 8 year old Ford Focus and parked next to me the other day, physically the cars appeared to be pretty much the same size, I'd say mine is more practical in terms of loading space and leg room though - god knows how Ford managed that.

 

You need to be careful though PastyBoy, if you praise the Rapid much more than this WhatCar's foot soldiers will be coming around to black-bag and silence you

Also handy if you want to put a mountain bike in the boot and not take the wheel off.

A girl in work has an 8 year old Ford Focus and parked next to me the other day, physically the cars appeared to be pretty much the same size, I'd say mine is more practical in terms of loading space and leg room though - god knows how Ford managed that.

 

You need to be careful though PastyBoy, if you praise the Rapid much more than this WhatCar's foot soldiers will be coming around to black-bag and silence you

 

 

The mk1 Focus saloon was the another "it's kind of like that" but as that's not on sale now i discounted it.

 

 

To be honest i also count my views as largerly irrelevant.

This is the newest car i've ever spent real time driving, and i'm not comparing it to anything.

I like it but is it better than it's rival (whatever the hell that may be!) I don't know

I had both a disiesel 1.6 and a Petrol 1.2tsi Rapid when my Fabia was in the dealers a while ago and agree a lot with what you are saying Mr Pasty.  What I did find is that a lot of the review comments about the light petrol suiting the car much more than the heavier diesel engine up front were for me very true.

 

Having the little 1.2tsi in made the car feel really nimble and fun, somehow the 1.6 diesel changed the driving dynamics and not for the better.

 

It would be an interesting proposition if it had more power, true enough, but it would need to be done carefully without making the front end too heavy.

All it needs is a remap to 130bhp IMO.

 

It's a light car at around 1100kg or so in 1.2tsi guise.  It doesn't need a lot more unless you want to go a bit mad.

Agree with the front feeling light and nimble.