How reliable have your Rapids/Toledo’s been long term?

[CS45]

Hi everyone,

in February I replaced my trusty 2010 Fabia with a 2013 Rapid. I was thrilled with the car at first, but since then the initial excitement has really faded. Partly because of the god awful seats mine had, (an issue which I fixed in one of my earlier posts), but mostly because I’ve only had it 4 months and I’m about to make my 7th trip to the dealership to have issues fixed under my 1 year comprehensive warranty.
 

Most of the issues have been minor but very annoying for a car with only 47000miles when I bought it. To summarise my issues so far:

The 1st problems occurred the day after it was delivered. The cruise control stopped working properly. Also, the drivers door filled with water. These issues took 3 dealership trips to fix and AutoTrust paid approximately £400, while I paid £75 for the door to be fixed. 
 

Next, a month or two into ownership, the Climatronic system started acting up, in that it would inexplicably start blowing extremely hot air, regardless of what setting it was on, to the point that the air was too hot to touch and it would only stop doing it if the car was turned off and on again. This took two trips to the dealer to fix, and again AutoTrust paid approximately £400, for a new sensor to be fitted apparently. 

 

When I took it in for that repair, I also reported an annoying clicking noise from behind the dashboard, the dealership said the noise would likely go away once the Climatronic had been fixed, but it didn’t. Last week I took the car to the dealer again to have this noise fixed, and also for them to advise if a metallic rattle from the turbo was a normal sound. They charged me £90 diagnosis, and said the clicking was caused by debris in a filter, and that the Turbo noise was normal. Unsurprisingly, cleaning this debris did not solve my issue, so I am trying to get the car booked in AGAIN, this time armed with footage of a servo motor behind the dashboard going haywire and causing the clicking noise. So hopefully that will get sorted out. 
 

However, just this evening, I went to turn off the car, and I noticed that the key really didn’t want to turn. It felt as though the barrel was steering locked, even though the car was running, and the steering was fine. Gently applying more force eventually persuaded the key to turn, but it was still concerning, especially given the bad look this car has had so far, and that I am aware that these ignition barrels fail on other VAG cars in a similar fashion. It also felt a bit stiff on the return journey. I will be monitoring this, and if need be, I’ll have to take it to the dealership yet again. 
 

All of this is making it difficult for me to like the car, despite the great practicality, good looks and amazing economy. My local dealership is about 30 minutes away, so having to go there so often is inconvenient and time consuming. 
 

My question is, how has your experience with Rapid ownership been? Have you had these issues, and if so did they stay fixed? 
 

Maybe your car has been reliable and I’m just having bad luck with mine at the moment? 

My concern is that issues will continue to appear at their current rate or faster after the warranty ends, and that I’ll be stuck with it, so I’ll be interested to hear about your experience and find out if it’s just having a run of bad luck and will be reliable once everything’s fixed. 
 

Cheers and sorry for the long rant. 

Edited 28 June, 2021 by CS45

[chrisgreen]

Jesus, that really is a Friday car. Sorry to hear that. Nobody needs grief like that. 
 

As the owner of one of the first Spacebacks in the UK, I’ve experienced a couple of issues with mine:

 

Doors filling up with water - I had this and eventually had it fixed under warranty, but only after taking initial legal action against Skoda UK which tried to get out of covering it.

 

The terrible seats - a part of the car (and addressed in the facelift). I also had to have the seat covering on the lower drivers seat replaced after the retaining metal failed and it came loose.

 

The car does have a lot of natural rattles and clunks, especially from the front axle. There is nothing mechanically wrong, just a quirk of the car.

 

I had to spend over £500 last year having the wiring to the boot replaced after it snapped in half, rendering the boot lock inoperable. My extended warranty would not cover it because it was a wiring fault.

 

I’ve not had any of the other issues you report. I really hope you can get them sorted. Personally, even if they do get fixed I would flip that car as soon as possible, it sounds like a lemon. 

[CS45]

20 minutes ago, chrisgreen said:

Jesus, that really is a Friday car. Sorry to hear that. Nobody needs grief like that. 
 

As the owner of one of the first Spacebacks in the UK, I’ve experienced a couple of issues with mine:

 

Doors filling up with water - I had this and eventually had it fixed under warranty, but only after taking initial legal action against Skoda UK which tried to get out of covering it.

 

The terrible seats - a part of the car (and addressed in the facelift). I also had to have the seat covering on the lower drivers seat replaced after the retaining metal failed and it came loose.

 

The car does have a lot of natural rattles and clunks, especially from the front axle. There is nothing mechanically wrong, just a quirk of the car.

 

I had to spend over £500 last year having the wiring to the boot replaced after it snapped in half, rendering the boot lock inoperable. My extended warranty would not cover it because it was a wiring fault.

 

I’ve not had any of the other issues you report. I really hope you can get them sorted. Personally, even if they do get fixed I would flip that car as soon as possible, it sounds like a lemon. 

Thank you for your reply,

the Friday car thing is exactly my concern, especially as the dealership now requires me to settle the bill and then claim it back from the warranty people, which adds a lot of extra nuisance. 
 

I am seriously considering taking the loss and selling it if something else goes wrong with it, mainly because I know someone who will soon be selling their fully loaded 2014 Yaris, (which I’ve always had my eye on to be honest) and Toyota now have a scheme that allows you to get a year of Toyota warranty for free when you get the car serviced at the Toyota dealer, and that’s even retrospective and applies to cars up to 10 years old, even if they have missed a service. The downsides are that the Yaris is smaller, has had a few bumps and scrapes and the A/C doesn’t work at the moment, but this may mean they would sell it to me cheaper. And it’s a Toyota after all. 

 

Even so, it wouldn’t be a decision I would take lightly. Mainly because my family put money towards it as a surprise birthday gift, so I would feel guilty about selling it and potentially losing money on it. But the whole point of me buying it was to get a nice, low mileage car with lots of kit on it that would last me a good few years, whereas in reality I’ve only had it 4 months and I’m already alarmed at the number of issues developing.  
 

Oh and I should point out, although it may sound like something from Hoovies Garage, this Rapid isn’t an abused, ‘hooptie’ example. It was a Škoda approved used car, that has been serviced by the previous owner every 5k miles, and it has things like mudflaps and the registration etched into the windows, signs of a cautious owner. 
 

I guess I’ll see how it goes, but it’s on thin ice. Thanks again for your reply, it’s really valuable for me to get some insight from someone who’s owned one longer than me. 

[WolfyWesty]

I'll have my car for 3 years in February, and so far (touch wood)it's been without major issues, certainly nothing like you've mentioned. 

 

It's had a few small problems (if you can call them those, plus the car is 7 years old, so...):

Timing chain tensioner needed to be replaced as it begun to rattle when starting, but that was a relatively quick fix by a local garage.

The front passenger window mechanism gave up one day with a loud bang, so the window remained shut until it was replaced. Again, a relatively quick fix (once they got the right part) by a local garage

The panoramic roof cracked from a stone chip (I think? No idea really) and had to be replaced, but that was done through insurance so only cost me the excess (at a total cost of £1500+). 

 

As @chrisgreenmentioned, it is a bit of a noisy car in terms of rattles and whatnot. There's quite a few threads on here about them squeaking over bumps. 

[camelspyyder]

The build of the original Rapid hatch was patchy true but from the introduction of the Spaceback things looked up, and I see a definite improvement in build quality between my two.

 

I don't mind the odd few rattles and squeaks, I mean Rapid & Toledo are cheap as chips so that's expected, but mine both had major failures.

 

 

#1Brand New 2014 1.2 TSI. Actuator & turbo replacement at 2.5 years/26000 miles. Car did about 300 miles a week A- road commute. Never thrashed. Why did it break?

 

#2 Brand New 2017 1.0 TSI. Actuator & turbo replacement at 2 years/15000 miles.

Same commute but spending more time out of country so not doing so many miles. Never thrashed. Why did this one break?

 

Sure our old tech 2015 Ibiza 1.4 16V never went wrong, but 2 out of 3 is pretty poor?

 

Will I ever buy another VW group car?

 

Only if it's 1000s cheaper than the alternatives, and even then that's just a maybe...

 

 

Edited 29 June, 2021 by camelspyyder

[CS45]

8 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

 

 

#1Brand New 2014 1.2 TSI. Actuator & turbo replacement at 2.5 years/26000 miles. Car did about 300 miles a week A- road commute. Never thrashed. Why did it break?

 

#2 Brand New 2017 1.0 TSI. Actuator & turbo replacement at 2 years/15000 miles.

Same commute but spending more time out of country so not doing so many miles. Never thrashed. Why did this one break?

 

 

 

Wow, that’s very unfortunate. If mine plans on killing its turbo it had better do it before the warranty ends. I did take it to the dealership recently to have them listen to a metallic rattle from the turbo after having read one of your earlier posts about your turbo failures, but they said it is normal behaviour. Hopefully they are correct. 

[J.R.]

It is indeed normal behaviour for a dealer to either deny a fault or call it a characteristic of the model "they all do that sir!"

[chrisgreen]

“It’s quite normal for the boot to explode at motorway speeds sir, it’s just the car settling as you run it in”.

[CS45]

23 minutes ago, J.R. said:

It is indeed normal behaviour for a dealer to either deny a fault or call it a characteristic of the model "they all do that sir!"

Oh trust me, I know about that. When the drivers door was leaking, i called the dealership about it and I said I was aware it was a common issue. The guy on the phone said he had never seen it on any Toledo’s or Rapids. Yeah right. I’m pretty sure there was a recall for it?

 

On the subject, below is the video of the turbo noise the dealer diagnosed as normal. No doubt it’s normal until it fails, at which point they’ll say you shouldn’t have ignored the noise. 

 

[J.R.]

 

I like it!

[Koreenium]

My Rapid has done 250 000km.  It's so basic that even if something blows up I don't get any warning lights. 

 

Most of the issues I have had are from high kilometrage so most of the issues are not worth mentioning. But I can say that it has never left me stranded. So far atleast.

[CS45]

47 minutes ago, Koreenium said:

My Rapid has done 250 000km.  It's so basic that even if something blows up I don't get any warning lights. 

 

Most of the issues I have had are from high kilometrage so most of the issues are not worth mentioning. But I can say that it has never left me stranded. So far atleast.

That’s reassuring. I really do hope mine is just a case of it wanting a bit of TLC and not that it’s a complete lemon. If I get the impression it’s going to be constant issue after issue, I’ll probably get rid and get an i30 or a Yaris or something. But id rather not because I think the Rapid is so pretty and it really fits my needs. 

[MickA]

I've got a 14 plate Toledo and it's been great. I'm reluctant to sell it now, having tried about 3 years ago. They are pretty worthless TBH at even 3-4 years old as a trade-in so a 7 year old one won't attract many £'s.

Yes I've had the problem with the heater blowing really hot, happened about 4 times, turn off the ignition then on and it resets itself. Now for the last 18 months it's been absolutely fine, I won't touch it whilst it's behaving. I leave the climate on all year, it stays on I never touch it apart from adding more heat in winter, in summer it's set at auto 18 c unless I want a quick blast of cold to the face.😁 It's never been regassed either from new.

I self service now, oil changes around 5k miles, it's only on 27k miles.

Apart from a new set of tyres, they started to perish and I had an advisory about the fronts outer edge wearing, the only other  replaced was the battery. That was picked up by my local garage when the dash threw up a few lights and the engine went into limp mode. He hooked it up to his  and it told him the throttle position sensor was faulty. Now just imagine if I'd have took it to SEAT for diagnosis. Anyways he suspected the battery was on its way out because when tested it seemed weak. He was correct, new battery fitted and perfect no more erratic fault codes.

It's the perfect runaround for me or distance cruiser, climate control, DAB/navigation cruise control pretty good spec for a car I paid £11.5k for 7 years ago as a pre reg with only 10 miles on the clock.

And just to add, I had a little water collect in one front door, fixed it myself and cleared the drain holes, simples.

Edited 4 July, 2021 by MickA

[CS45]

1 hour ago, MickA said:

I've got a 14 plate Toledo and it's been great. I'm reluctant to sell it now, having tried about 3 years ago. They are pretty worthless TBH at even 3-4 years old as a trade-in so a 7 year old one won't attract many £'s.

Yes I've had the problem with the heater blowing really hot, happened about 4 times, turn off the ignition then on and it resets itself. Now for the last 18 months it's been absolutely fine, I won't touch it whilst it's behaving. I leave the climate on all year, it stays on I never touch it apart from adding more heat in winter, in summer it's set at auto 18 c unless I want a quick blast of cold to the face.😁 It's never been regassed either from new.

I self service now, oil changes around 5k miles, it's only on 27k miles.

Apart from a new set of tyres, they started to perish and I had an advisory about the fronts outer edge wearing, the only other  replaced was the battery. That was picked up by my local garage when the dash threw up a few lights and the engine went into limp mode. He hooked it up to his  and it told him the throttle position sensor was faulty. Now just imagine if I'd have took it to SEAT for diagnosis. Anyways he suspected the battery was on its way out because when tested it seemed weak. He was correct, new battery fitted and perfect no more erratic fault codes.

It's the perfect runaround for me or distance cruiser, climate control, DAB/navigation cruise control pretty good spec for a car I paid £11.5k for 7 years ago as a pre reg with only 10 miles on the clock.

And just to add, I had a little water collect in one front door, fixed it myself and cleared the drain holes, simples.

Hi, great to hear you’ve been happy with your Toledo. To be honest, when I made this post I was in a bit of a sulk about the whole car because I had just had to book yet another dealership visit to fix my Climatronic and I was running out of patience. Since then I’ve had time to calm down a bit, and I’ve realised that all but two of the issues I’ve had (cruise control, door seal) have been the fault of the Climatronic system, so it’s likely that it wasn’t fixed properly the first time I took it in, and the other trips I’ve had to make since then are repeated attempts to fix it. (I have been discussing my Climatronic problems in the thread about climate blowing hot and cold on this forum). I suspect that many of the issues I’ve had were ones that were beginning to develop for the previous owner, (when the car would have been out of warranty), and they decided they would rather get a new car instead of fix them. 
 

I agree with you, the Rapid is just about the perfect car for me. It’s good looking, hugely practical, spacious and good at motorway driving, yet also is cheap to insure, cheap to fuel, easy to drive and quiet. Add to that the exceptional value for money my used Elegance offers (particularly now that I have installed an RCD330 for even more features, I’ll make a review about this soon), and it’s still a great car.

 

I do sort of wish I had manual A/C though. Climatronic is annoying me greatly. Hopefully though the next dealership will finally fix it. After that, I am going to use my favourite local independent garage for 5k oil changes and 10k major services and other general repairs, and a VAG specialist for any finicky VW electrical issues. 
 

Cheers

Edited 4 July, 2021 by CS45

[MickA]

Yep mine is a keeper now. £30 VED, £190 to insure, 40ish  mpg (longer run 50mpg) and the deal breaker, the huge boot space, massive with the rear seats down and it's been used to the max at times.👍

[CS45]

3 hours ago, MickA said:

Yep mine is a keeper now. £30 VED, £190 to insure, 40ish  mpg (longer run 50mpg) and the deal breaker, the huge boot space, massive with the rear seats down and it's been used to the max at times.👍

The other thing is that there isnt much else like it on the market except for the Fabia Combi. Most other things are either smaller, more expensive, or both. Having said that, I don’t know if I'm just being paranoid, but I’m sure I just heard it make the dreading timing chain rattle…hopefully it’s just my imagination. 

[MickA]

Mine has a slight rattle upon start up, clears after that and purrs like a well oiled sewing machine. It's the 1.2tsi 105 engine.

Thought about a swap for the updated model when they were being offered for reduced prices new or pre reg when the Toledo was being discontinued. They had the 1ltr 3 pot engine which some love others probably not so much.

Had a 1ltr engine in a Citigo, that was great, loved that car, it ran out of puff though on inclines so had to use the gears a good deal more and the boot space was pitiful. After then needing more back seat room (more grandkids) that was sold and I bought the Toledo.

Edited 5 July, 2021 by MickA

[CS45]

1 hour ago, MickA said:

Mine has a slight rattle upon start up, clears after that and purrs like a well oiled sewing machine. It's the 1.2tsi 105 engine.

Thought about a swap for the updated model when they were being offered for reduced prices new or pre reg when the Toledo was being discontinued. They had the 1ltr 3 pot engine which some love others probably not so much.

Had a 1ltr engine in a Citigo, that was great, loved that car, it ran out of puff though on inclines so had to use the gears a good deal more and the boot space was pitiful. After then needing more back seat room (more grandkids) that was sold and I bought the Toledo.

I learnt later that day that a family member had started the car very briefly to move it slightly, so I presume it was just the tensioner getting its hydraulic pressure back seeing as it never did it again that day. I also supposedly have the updated version of the chain cam 105, so I’m not too worried about it. I also really like the engine. Sure there’s a little bit of lag, but it pulls so strong, and it makes a soulful, angry sound when you push it hard, but it’s still very smooth, being a 4pot. I personally liked the sound of the 1.2HTP 3pot, so I imagine i would be OK with a 1.0tsi in the future. They seem to be proving to be quite reliable so far.