Hi,

 

I have recently returned to Skoda after a brief fling with Vauxhall. 
 

I used to have a Skoda Citigo but needed a bigger car with larger rear seats due to a growing family.  Instead of staying faithful and considering a larger Skoda, I turned to the dark side and bought a 1.8 petrol Vauxhall Insignia. The car was great but reliability appalling, in my 6 months of ownership I must have spent a fortune on repairs and a blown head gasket just topped it all off.

 

Anyway rewind to a few days ago and I am now the very happy and proud owner of a 2013 Skoda Rapid SE 1.2 TSI. 
 

Although the Rapid is smaller than my old Insignia, the interior space is way bigger, it’s like the tardis, plus the build quality and ride is so much nicer. £30 tax and much, much better mpg helps massively. 

 

Mine did not come with a spare wheel or space saver just a tyre inflation kit, I know you can get Rapid space saver wheels off eBay, but will any other Skoda space saver fit, mine has 15 inch alloys so would the space saver from a Citigo also fit ?

 

 

Also, anything I need to be aware of with the Rapid....... it’s done 86,000 miles, full service history and has just been given a full service and MOT which it passed with no advisory’s. 
 

many thanks 

I have 15'' Alloys on my Skoda Fabia III 2016 and I have a full sized Alloy in the boot as well.

I ordered it with a full sized spare but this came with a steel wheel rim.

This I swapped for an alloy the same as the rest of my wheel rims.

You could try and see if one of your wheels/tyres fit in the wheel well first.

I have always found a spare wheel/tyre that is the same size as the rest more useful than a space saver.

 

 

2 hours ago, Jasontenn said:

it’s done 86,000 miles, full service history

Cambelt?

 

Thanks, AG Falco

It's a chain not a belt.

 

Has been known to go wrong but rarely on post 2012 ones. 

 

 

 

I’ve read it has a chain and not a belt, I take it these don’t need changing for some time and early models had issues. What’s the situation with 2013 models and the timing chain?..... do they need anything doing and if so what mileage am I looking at. 
 

Also, and it could be me being a bit picky. It sounds like it’s making a whirring noise as it drives, nothing crazy or anything just not as silent as I expected, although when parked up you can hardly hear the engine ticking at all, but on pulling away with the window down it sounds like a fair scraping/whirring (very difficult to describe). It drives perfect though so don’t know if this is just a characteristic of the engine. 

11 hours ago, Jasontenn said:

I’ve read it has a chain and not a belt, I take it these don’t need changing for some time and early models had issues. What’s the situation with 2013 models and the timing chain?..... do they need anything doing and if so what mileage am I looking at. 
 

Also, and it could be me being a bit picky. It sounds like it’s making a whirring noise as it drives, nothing crazy or anything just not as silent as I expected, although when parked up you can hardly hear the engine ticking at all, but on pulling away with the window down it sounds like a fair scraping/whirring (very difficult to describe). It drives perfect though so don’t know if this is just a characteristic of the engine. 

 

Mine ticks over quietly, like a well oiled sewing machine but give it some revs when pulling away they can sound noisy, it's the nature of the beast. If you've had a Citigo you'll know what I mean, I had one too previously, they can sound throaty on acceleration.

Just keep the oil fresh, I change mine every 5k miles 5w 30 Castrol fully synthetic and I'll be sweet.

Re the spare wheel, I've got 16" alloys but a spare wheel in steel 15" size, all lovely extras that come with the Toledo. Guessing you wouldn't get more than a 15" in the wheel well of the Rapid or Toledo anyways.

Toledo has the same 1.2tsi engine.

10 hours ago, MickA said:

Guessing you wouldn't get more than a 15" in the wheel well

 

The overall diameter of a 15'' wheel with a 185 60 15 tyre is 603mm

The overall diameter of a 16'' wheel with a 215 45 16 tyre is less at 600mm

 

The extra width might be a problem though.

Where do you put a normal wheel/tyre if you have had to put the spare steel wheel/tyre on?

 

Thanks, AG Falco

The last recall on the chain engine was 2012. There were isolated tensioner issues since I think.

 

About noise, mine was sometimes a little rattly immediately on start, but otherwise very smooth right through the rev range.

1 hour ago, AGFalco said:

The overall diameter of a 15'' wheel with a 185 60 15 tyre is 603mm

The overall diameter of a 16'' wheel with a 215 45 16 tyre is less at 600mm

The extra width might be a problem though.

Where do you put a normal wheel/tyre if you have had to put the spare steel wheel/tyre on?

 

You put the deflated 215/45R16 where the inflated 185/60R15 spare wheel was.

 

The 215 tyre is only 215mm when inflated.

 

When deflated, ie. punctured, the 215mm tyre magically becomes the width of the rim that it is fitted to, ie. 7" (177.8mm) in the case of the 215/45R16 tyre fitted to a 7Jx16 ET46 rim.

 

The 7" (177.8mm) rim is a actually a little more on the outside...maybe 185mm...as the 7" is measured on the inside of the rim.

 

Edited 22 April, 20215 yr by Carlston

On 21/04/2021 at 18:21, Jasontenn said:

Hi,

 

I have recently returned to Skoda after a brief fling with Vauxhall. 
 

I used to have a Skoda Citigo but needed a bigger car with larger rear seats due to a growing family.  Instead of staying faithful and considering a larger Skoda, I turned to the dark side and bought a 1.8 petrol Vauxhall Insignia. The car was great but reliability appalling, in my 6 months of ownership I must have spent a fortune on repairs and a blown head gasket just topped it all off.

 

Anyway rewind to a few days ago and I am now the very happy and proud owner of a 2013 Skoda Rapid SE 1.2 TSI. 
 

Although the Rapid is smaller than my old Insignia, the interior space is way bigger, it’s like the tardis, plus the build quality and ride is so much nicer. £30 tax and much, much better mpg helps massively. 

 

Mine did not come with a spare wheel or space saver just a tyre inflation kit, I know you can get Rapid space saver wheels off eBay, but will any other Skoda space saver fit, mine has 15 inch alloys so would the space saver from a Citigo also fit ?

 

 

Also, anything I need to be aware of with the Rapid....... it’s done 86,000 miles, full service history and has just been given a full service and MOT which it passed with no advisory’s. 
 

many thanks 

£30 tax? How is this possible? I have a 2015 rapid 1.2tsi and my tax is about £140! Is it a greentech or some such? 

3 hours ago, Zakiwashi said:

£30 tax? How is this possible? I have a 2015 rapid 1.2tsi and my tax is about £140! Is it a greentech or some such? 

 

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

On 22/04/2021 at 19:58, AGFalco said:

Where do you put a normal wheel/tyre if you have had to put the spare steel wheel/tyre on?

It fits in the spare wheel well without needing to be deflated!

 

Skoda Fabia III 1.2 TSI 2016 is also a £30.00 road tax car.

Rates did go up from April 2017 though.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

4 hours ago, Zakiwashi said:

£30 tax? How is this possible? I have a 2015 rapid 1.2tsi and my tax is about £140! Is it a greentech or some such? 

No it’s just a 1.2 TSI SE...... I think the taxation changed from a certain year so maybe from 2014 onwards the same engine is much more. That’s why I decided on an older model to keep costs down. Yours is probably much nicer than mine but I’m happier with the tax costs. 

Holy shirts, its £100 hike if your car goes 1g over 120g/km. This is truly madness.