Initial Impressions Rapid Sport

We took delivery of our new car today. Simpsons Great Yarmouth were brilliant. One oddity was that our handover was performed in a motor caravan! The showroom is being remodelled at present, so they don't have much room lol. Our salesman set up office in one of the new motor caravans which was fun. Didn't have time to try the shower...

My main car is a 63 Polo R-line which has identical engine and gearbox, so my review will compare the two.

Our rapid was ordered with Parking sensors, heated seats and washers, hill hold and auto lights and wipers plus spare wheel. We moved from a mk5 Golf TDI so wanted to keep the features we had plus add heated seats.

The first lovely surprise was that the fuel cap was centrally locked. All the Rapids we looked at pre purchase had no lock on the cover and a key locked fuel cap. I was worried someone would pinch the ice scraper. No worries now. It must be a 2015 model change.

The second plus was that the car comes with 3 years roadside recovery. I don't remember seeing that in any brochure. Service is via AA. That's another good saving on running costs.

The interior is very pleasant and finished nicely. It's not quite as plush as the polo, but that's why the Skoda is priced lower. An equivalent golf estate would have a RRP of 7k more than our rapid and the boot is not much bigger.

Door upholstery is plastic rather than a plastic & fabric cover as is in the polo. The Dash is also hard plastic vs some soft touch plastics on the VW.

This may account for the rapid seeming a little noisier inside while the polo is quieter.

The leather steering wheel is great as is the gear stick.

I love the dashboard illumination. White instruments and green button illumination looks great. The MFD on the rapid is better than the Polo which has the segment display rather than the maxidot.

The MDI / Radio is similar to the polo, but to my dismay, you can't select "mix all" to play all USB Albums in a random manner. However the memory stick is half empty, so I will set up a folder called Random and copy all Album tracks into the folder which can then be mixed. I can then select an album or play all tracks. Not a big issue.

The skodas information setup is better for track names, as you can select "artist", "album" etc from the row of buttons rather than the polos multi push option to cycle the info.

Compared to the Polo and Golf, there is tons of room in the back for our daughter. Her feet don't even touch the seat in front!

The boot is huge too. It's a bit of a tardis.

We are very glad to have the parking sensors. Visibility when reversing is not good when compared to our previous cars. It's just a learning curve of having a longer car.

Didn't have any problems adding a phone to the system. Not having a multifunction steering wheel makes the job of using it a bit harder as you have to navigate via the wiper buttons. Again, just a learning curve.

Driving on the 17 inch wheels did not seem any different to the polos 16 inchers.

Driving it is a joy, although the engine will need to loosen up a bit, as was for the polo.

In the boot was a zipped bag which contained some spare oil. A nice touch.

The spare wheel setup has another fairly large storage space in it too! Room for a few tools and bulbs!

My summary so far is that the Rapid Sport is incredible value for money and not far away at all from its VW brothers and sisters. We are very pleased with our purchase and looking forward to three years of skodas care and service bundle.

I will write another review once it's covered a few miles..

Few extra photos

Nice, white with 17's is a good look

Sounds like skoda are improving those little things on the car that take it from a good car to a better car. I'm seeing more and more Rapids in my area - a sign that tells me skoda have it a little niche in the market (most of them have a baby on board sign in the window, like ours does!)

My rapid spaceback was built in april and mine has central fuel lock. no key

As above with our Spaceback too. Think a few improvements came in the Rapid SB, about the only thing they missed out on was the one touch up for the windows, which even both our Fabia II's have and one is a base spec.

 

Oh and I really like your Sport; very nice spec. Would have ticked the same options had we not needed to change cars fairly quickly and gone for something in dealer stock.

 

 

TP

The first lovely surprise was that the fuel cap was centrally locked. All the Rapids we looked at pre purchase had no lock on the cover and a key locked fuel cap. I was worried someone would pinch the ice scraper.

I would rather loose a 50p ice scraper than £55 worth of petrol.  The key locked fuel cap is far more secure.

Had to smile at this.

Tony

 

 

 

Looks great [emoji106]

They're a nice car. I hope you enjoy yours like iam mine.

Loosening up nicely now but only 1100 miles so far. The MPG is settling down now [emoji106]

White with the Rays alloys are a great combination [emoji16]

Good report,,,all the best and enjoy

Interesting I have the exact same car and I don't have parking sensors. Is that heated seats I see too? I only have the three buttons on my panel to turn traction control off, unlock passenger doors and back demister. Did you have this one built specially as I thought there was only 500 built.

Nice little report - thanks for sharing 

Anyone can order sports now, so we ordered with heated seats, auto lights and wipers, hill hold and spare wheel.

I think the limited edition had special decal graphics on the side and back.

Anyone can order sports now, so we ordered with heated seats, auto lights and wipers, hill hold and spare wheel.

I think the limited edition had special decal graphics on the side and back.

 

I think the stripes were on the publicity shots but not the cars that reached the UK

 

In fact the stripes were on a Euro special edition in 2013 called StylePLUS 

 

http://www.motorward.com/2013/08/skoda-rapid-styleplus-revealed/

Edited 20 October, 201411 yr by camelspyyder

Anyone can order sports now, so we ordered with heated seats, auto lights and wipers, hill hold and spare wheel.

I think the limited edition had special decal graphics on the side and back.

Oh man, I don't feel so special anymore.

Oh man, I don't feel so special anymore.

You ARE special because you have a lovely Rapid

Just bought (subject to finance) my missus a Candy Rapid Sport. Had enough of her making excuses to take my Octavia!

Dealer ordered car so came with reverse sensors and steel spare.

17" wheel is good.

 

but i think break disk need to upgrade :clap:

The wheel in the photo is a rear. The rear has little discs compared to the front.

The wheel in the photo is a rear. The rear has little discs compared to the front.

 

Aren't they though.  Mine are the same.  Drums would look less puny.

Aren't they though.  Mine are the same.  Drums would look less puny.

No drum looks better than even the smallest disc ! :p

No drum looks better than even the smallest disc ! :p

As a Fabia MonteCarlo owner I would agree.

Can I ask your opinion on the sports seats? I'm trying to decide between a heavily specced Sport or an Elegance Greentec, and the only real difference is the seats.

Depends on you really but after test driving Spacebacks with both designs of seat I decided the Sport seat was for me, for both comfort and support while driving.

 

 

TP

Unfortunately, there's zero chance of me being able to try them out, none of my local dealers have any cars with the sports seats in stock. Does the larger bolster of the sports seat interfere with using the armrest? 

I have sports seats in my Polo R-Line, and the ones in the Rapid Sport are bigger and softer that the Polo.

I would not really class them as sports seats (proper) but they are nice to sit on.