Hello my name is Rohan and today we're going to take such a quick, rapid look
at the Skoda Rapid that I'm totally going to skip the introduction.
Well that still was some sort of an introduction lets not waste any time further and
drive straight into the heart of the matter.
I'm here today to find out what makes this car special.
You see when you combine a petrol engine with automatic transmission then you don't
quite really like it because it's not very fuel efficient but that's not the case with
diesel and automatic transmissions.
And that's why the Skoda Rapid manual dishes out 21.16 kmpl while the automatic dishes
out 21.66 kmpl more than the manual transmission.
It's a 7 speed automatic transmission that comes with little to no
disadvantage, which makes driving around the Skoda Rapid absolutely effortless.
This new version of the Rapid has a black package, which includes black wheels, black
fog lamp trim, black headlamps which are projectors and when
it comes to the way it looks, Well it doesn't manage to look
ugly at all, but nor does it manage to look pretty.
This way or that way the Skoda Rapid looks very European.
In the C segment the diesel engine and automatic transmission combination was only present
on the Hyundai Verena until now and then this !
The automatic transmission DSG is simply impeccable.
The shift quality is awesome, the shifts are so smooth,
so quick that you can only dream of having this sort of shift quality in a manual transmission
no matter how good a driver you are.
It is squarely aimed at delivering maximum fuel efficiency number and so it is a
little sluggish to downshift and infact the car you can see that it lugs a whole lot in
second gear, sometimes even slipping the clutch instead
of shifting down into first gear and all of that is in the name
of economy.
What you don't get though is paddle shifters which is no problem really in this segment
of cars.
If you are in the market out there, looking out for a Honda City or Hyundai Verna, Volkswagen
Vento or even the new Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and are wanting
to know which one of them has the best ride and handling package,
well then be sure it is this, the Rapid.
Now the suspension may feel a little firm at slow speeds, but it does come into it's
own and we will love the car soak it in most, when you are driving around
on highways.
If you happen to push the car into corners, well you got anti roll bars at the front.
The steering is pretty to drive, reasonably precise and helps to put
the car where you want to go, no complains from the way the steering
feels, there is enough amount of feedback, feel, everything.
The steering also has rake and reach adjustability.
Brakes again are fantasticly impressive, can really judge the stopping distance, fairly
precisely again.
So the 1.5 litre diesel engine which is pretty much the same as the older 1.6 liter diesel
engine, it's just got a smaller bore now which helps it enjoy bigger
excise duty benefits and has the same power output as the 1.6 litre engine.
So it's got a 104/105 bhp, 250 Nm of torque, if you slam the pedal to the floor and you're
in for some good speeds for sure.
Front two seats are comfortable there is a centre arm rest at the front as well as the
back.
The NVH levels in the cabin are really good, there is not
much noise.
If you go touring in this car, which this car is quite capable
of doing, then the thing that you're going to miss is a dead pedal out here.
One complaing on the inside of the cabin could be the beige and brown interiors
feel a little dull to look at, but you do get a nifty card holder feature,
can come in handy with your toll passes and fuel card.
What you also get is cruise control in this variant, you get
parking sensors, what you don't get however is the leather upholstery and ofcourse not
to mention the etc. things like Bluetooth connectivity, Auxillary connection,
USB, SD card slot etc. etc.
At the back you also get AC vents and a foldable cup holder, there is another storage cum foldable
cup holder in front of the gear lever.
Large boot can swallow a lot of luggage, no external boot release though,needs key to
open it manually and you get one electric release
for the boot on the driver side.
All in all not an underpowered car, good handling, good NVH levels on the inside, so
no fatigue on long drives, good accurate precise steering,
what else can one possibily want in the C segment.
It's very interesting to know that the car comes with no engine
badges, no transmission badges, inspite of the fact that it comes loaded with a lot of
technology.
It has got cruise control, traction control, ABS and
ofcourse one of the world's best gearboxes, the DSG, but it's not really
throwing any of that in your face.
If you look at the segment leader, the Honda City, we called it the perfect car, comes
with a mightly good diesel engine from Honda too, but it doesn't really get
any automatic transmission in diesel variant.
Other competition is then the Hyundai Verna which does get automatic transmission
with diesel, but really you can't talk of both the transmissions
in the same breath, it's no comparision to what the DSG is.
So if you want diesel and automatic transmission then you're left with the Volkswagen Vento,
which has the DSG and well it's pretty much really just the same
car.
The Vento is to Rapid what Coke is to Thumbs Up, that's a discussion
for some other day.
As of today and as of now, if you're in the market looking out for a well made quality
engineered car, then the Skoda Rapid will tick all your
boxes.