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Has anyone actually seen one yet, or even driven one? I haven't. Wondering if it's completely bombed, I'm afraid it doesn't do a lot for me, would rather have a late mk 2 used Octavia.
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By all accounts it's not as nice as the other Skodas in the range. A fair bit of cost cutting, it's Skoda's answer to the i30/ceed range. Think they were losing sales to them. It's been a bit of a low key sales launch, dealers aren't too impressed. I think it looks nice on the outside, not seen it too close up on the inside. Possibly the next taxi drivers fav?
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>>Has anyone actually seen one yet, or even driven one?<<
Some old geezer on this forum used to have one apparently: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1985SkodaRapid5.jpg
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I've not seen one yet. It's Skoda's equivalent of the SEAT Toledo. Both based on a stretched platform shared with the VW Polo.
This is allowing Skoda to make the new Octavia a bit bigger. I quite like the new Octavia (never seriously considered the outgoing one because of how it looks). Might check them out in twelve months.
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Skoda Estelle (not just the Rapid) was excellent. I wish I had one now.
The new one is one of these modern VW things. But is it Rapid? The old Rapid was hardly more rapid than an ordinary Estelle with the same engine. This one may be the same sort of thing. It looks nice and plain.
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I have seen a Rapid in the flesh. Not a bad looker imo, but a bit narrow for its length. If legroom and bootspace outweigh elbow room for you its the ideal vehicle.
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I have seen neither the new Rapid nor the new Octavia in the flesh - only the pictures and reviews. I get the impression that the Octavia nudges Skoda forward towards "premium" territory, but the Rapid is a small step backwards.
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I read a test on the Rapid somewhere - the impression I got was that it was a bog standard car - simple, no frills. As such it seemed expensive for what it was - compared to say a Dacia - the other thought that occurred was that it was a rather misuse of an evocative name. Maybe there's a"breathed on" version on the way somewhere - The Roomie was narrow - a little too narrow for me.
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>> on" version on the way somewhere - The Roomie was narrow - a little too
>> narrow for me.
Get out of it, the roomie was fat and ugly.
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IMO Skoda have over-priced it, if it was 20% cheaper it might make sense as a cut-price Octavia. And I'm not sure where it fits into the range, if you want small/medium there's the Fabia, medium/large then the Octavia, the Yeti as a crossover and the Roomster as hugely practical and left field. The Rapid doesn't seem to fit anywhere. And the reviews to date are distinctly luke warm.
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>>a little too narrow for me...
Now there's a thought. I like the idea of "narrow" for her next one...
So, er, what was your problem with the narrowness Rob? Wide bum or something?
:-)
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>> The
>> old Rapid was hardly more rapid than an ordinary Estelle with the same engine.
>>
Later 135i and 136 Rapids got fuel injection. Earlier ones came with the Jikov SEDR 32 twin-choke carb, which gave them a shade more oof than their Estelle siblings. The big difference was in the rear suspension which had an improved full trailing arm system, taking advantage of not having to cater for rear doors in the shell.
Not particularly quick, but by 'eck they went round the corners well. I ran a 130 Rapid for a while and a mate had an Astra GTE as a company car. He couldn't keep up on the wiggly bits.
Odd bit. Flying in the face of 50-odd years of tuning practice, the engine in the 130 sported an alloy block with an iron head sat on it.
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I'll vouch for Skodas having unexpectedly good handling.
Daughter had a late Estelle with semi-trailing arm rear end. On an undulating road you could see the body twist in the mirror. When she got rid of it the rear suspension had twisted so much it had massive negative camber.
That engine had wet liners. It was quite common for the head gasket to go and upon removal for the liners to lift. It was nigh on impossible to re-seal them and many were scrapped as a result.
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>> That engine had wet liners.
Yes. Beyond my skills really once the cylinder head had been disturbed, the sorrow and the pity...
The 136 Rapid had an aluminium eight port head, unlike the standard 130 which had an iron five-port head (inlet ports being siamesed and the two central exhaust ports siamesed). The 136 also had bigger main bearings and big ends, and my own example had what looked like an aftermarket electronic ignition system. They all had that Jikov twin-choke downdraught carb, with different jetting though.
The 136 wasn't that good a performer. I much preferred my very rough matt grey 130 Rapid which had shortened springs and went like a rocket when on song.
Not many owners or drivers had the brains to appreciate the Estelle though. Bunch of Jasper Carrotts the lot of them. Prats.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 4 Mar 13 at 13:14
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>>Not many owners or drivers had the brains to appreciate the Estelle
Unequal length front wishbones. 4-pot front callipers. Semi-trailing arm rear suspension. Rear engine.
Remind me, what was a Porsche layout at that time?
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>> Remind me, what was a Porsche layout at that time?
Obviously I don't mean you bt. But one reason why Estelles were so very cheap secondhand was that hardly anyone, professional mechanics included, knew how to keep them in tune or even get them in tune in the first place. If they started and ran, most mechanics or owners left it at that. As a result most were more than a little fluffy in their power delivery, and since power wasn't all that enormous at best it made a hell of a difference.
My first estelle, a burnt-orange, very flash but faded 1200 GTX or something, was sold very cheap by a smug chap who thought he had done me, because the wire to the condenser (I think) had damaged insulation and touched the contact breaker causing a sporadic short. Once that was sorted, which took no time at all, it was a terrific car, very reliable and economical although with its swing axle rear end something of a handful if you lifted off in mid bend although fine if you kept your clog well down. It didn't like cruising much over 65 - it became raucous - although it could easily do 20mph more than that. But it was capable of nearly 50mpg driven in the way it liked, when it sounded very like a mellow pre-war Austin station taxi. Some fool wrote it off while it was parked in the Grove by losing his Toyota 4wd projectile coming out of a side turning one wet night. Idiot floored it and understeered straight into my poor bargain Skoda.
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I had a look around one in a dealers about a fortnight ago and it seemed a perfectly acceptable car, reminded me of the Bora I once had, though the Rapid isa little basic and cheap - I'm not sure if you saw one driving in isolation you could distinguish it from the current Octavia, but the next generation Octavia is going to be larger
It's time for a new company car and I did actually put in a request for a a Rapid, but I'm getting another Octavia Elegance instead....
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Have seen a few of the new Seat Toledos about and am actually quite impressed with them.
A few years ago the Toledo was a great car with a huge boot, before the Octavia had ever been heard of and the Octavia then kind of took over from it.
The last generation of Toldeo was almost identical to the Altea from the front right up to the rear passenger doors with only the boot area seeming to differ in a sort of disjointed way.
But this new model seems more like the Exeo and certainly different from the Altea. Still got big boot room etc but I would certainly pick that over the Exeo having seen the two side by side.
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I saw one this morning!! Pretty underwhelming, really, and only makes sense as it is so easy for VW to stick a Skoda badge on a VW/Seat/whatever to completely cover all corners of the market.
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Fri 8 Mar 13 at 21:03
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Skoda Rapid - sooty123
