[kamilharis]

Congratulations on your stunning Rider!

Your car looks pure dope after those new alloys my friend. VW/Skoda deserves a huge appreciation for coming up with an excellent timeless design. The car still looks better than most of it's competitors even though the competitors had brought a generation or two upgrade to their models.

Wish you a million miles of wonderful ownership. If you haven't, go for the 6 year extended warranty by Skoda without thinking twice.

[TheGearBox]

Congrats on the new ride! It looks awesome with those wheels! Hope to see more mods and wishing you many happy miles with the car.

[tejascshetty]

Originally Posted by Pastey93

Congratulations on your carbon steel beast! That tiny TSI never fails to amaze you when you step on the gas. Here’s a picture of my Rapid Rider - white blizzard at NICE. It’s an absolute hoot to drive on open roads. Maybe we Bangalore VAG boys could do a meet-up.

Thanks Abhishek! It helped that we both bought the vehicle together. Hopefully, we can coordinate on the future mods and upgrades! Your vehicle looks spanking as well!

Originally Posted by BLACNWYTE

Congratulation on your new car and wish you many miles of happy motoring. The Rapid looks swell in Carbon steel colour.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by kamilharis

Congratulations on your stunning Rider!

Your car looks pure dope after those new alloys my friend. VW/Skoda deserves a huge appreciation for coming up with an excellent timeless design. The car still looks better than most of it's competitors even though the competitors had brought a generation or two upgrade to their models.

Wish you a million miles of wonderful ownership. If you haven't, go for the 6 year extended warranty by Skoda without thinking twice.

Thank you! You gotta give it to the VAG group for ensuring that they come up with timeless designs. The facelift the Rapid got in 2017 was great and ensured that the design would stay relevant for the years to come. The new Verna looks a little polarizing to me compared to the previous gen which was a real stunner. The Honda City I think however leads the pack in terms of looks!

Originally Posted by TheGearBox

Congrats on the new ride! It looks awesome with those wheels! Hope to see more mods and wishing you many happy miles with the car.

Thank you!

[kilireddy0]

Congratulations man, that is one good deal and car. My father got the base rapid in 2015 and he loves it. He got new wheels and music system just like you. The VFM going this route is just amazing. I have been pushing him to exchange his 2015 rapid for a 2020 rapid, but he just loves the '15 and never had any issues. I am hearing great things about the 1.0 TSI. Good choice again. Hope you have a happy ownership.

[tejascshetty]

28.08.2020 - UPDATE 1: KM's driven: 500 KM.

Hey All!

This is going to be a short update. Due to the pandemic, I have been unable to really stretch the legs of the Car and have had to be satisfied with the odd once a week drive to the Courts and back. On the up side, I was able to drive the Car in some stretches of stop and go traffic, and the odd free stretches on the flyover. Therefore, I have been quite comfortable at this point in driving the Car in city conditions. I must say that while the debate continues on whether we need to break in engines anymore or not, driving in city conditions, does curb the need to floor the accelerator pedal, as the engine begs you to do, and instead you are compelled to leave the engine bubbling at a mild boil between 1700 RPM to 2000 RPM on most drives. Anyways, my Rapid Rider has reached its first milestone. We are at the 500 Km mark.

Short Highway Drive Experience:

Last Tuesday evening, I was held up in office till late evening around 9 PM, and was fairly exhausted after a whole day of being stuck at work. (The last few months of relatively relaxed work from home style of working have spoilt me). Normally, I would have driven straight home, but instead decided to blow off some steam and decided to drive up to the International Airport and back. Therefore, picked up a friend and we embarked on the roughly 80 odd KM roundtrip which took us about an hour to complete.

On the open stretch of road, I really appreciated the Perfinza tyres. They were really impressive and provided good grip. They were quite silent as well and tyre noise was fairly low. Coming to the Rapid itself, it performed with aplomb. While I was still trying to drive in a restrained manner and not like a hooligan, you do notice that the gear throws are quite short. If you wish to enjoy a relaxed cruising drive slot the gear into 6th at speeds of even around 70 Kms, and the Rapid is quite happy to trundle along while still giving you enough poke to attempt calculated overtakes. 100 KM/hr comes in with the RPM needle ticking at just over 2000 RPM in 6th gear. This is extremely convenient, since the engine is in the lower level of its 'golden zone' torque band which to me is between 1900 to 5300 RPM. So a light tap on the accelerator, at this speed even in 6th gear is sufficient for you to be able to tackle highway traffic effortlessly. Will wait until the 1000 Km mark to push the car more.

Fuel Efficiency and Shifting Gears:

For those of you who are interested, since my first fuel stop on the day of taking delivery of my Rapid, wherein I had topped up the fuel tank to the max with Shell VPower petrol (50 Litres of fuel to be precise. The vehicle had come with 5 litres of fuel.), the Car has so far used up 3/4th of the fuel. Assuming, my math isn't all over the place, I am managing to eke out a mixed use Fuel Economy of around 12 Km/litre. I believe this number will go up slightly with increased use. In any event, this is more than acceptable for me. Anything above 10 Km/litre, would have been for a win for me.

The gear shifts which in my initial few drives felt a bit notchy, especially the shift from 2nd to 3rd gear, have smoothened a lot now, and they feel much better now at slotting into place precisely and smoothly. Though I must say, the gearbox in my previous Swift was just that much better at slotting into place. While we are on the subject of the gearbox, I must also confess, I prefer the style of lifting a lever and slotting the car into reverse, as opposed to pressing the gear lever down to slot the gear into reverse. Just a personal preference, and not much of a con really.

Planned Upgrades:

With regard to upcoming mods and upgrades, since childhood, we have all had that guilty pleasure of mimicking that growl a car's exhaust makes while pretending to drive with our hands, and I was no different. My previous vehicle was a diesel and therefore I wasn't very enthused about messing around with the exhaust on that. However I was nurturing an itch to upgrade the exhaust on my Rapid. Cards on the table, I'm really not looking for any performance upgrades at this point. Maybe a few years down the line. This itch is purely to satiate the inner child in me, which wants to hear that yummy loud exhaust note. So I decided to bug our very own suhaas307, who I also have had the pleasure of knowing outside of TeamBHP, since he is also a fellow lawyer and we have bumped into each other a few times in court corridors as well. His Polo GT TSI Ownership thread is a must read! Suhaas was incredibly nice as always, and was happy to clear my doubts and queries and also eliminate some half baked knowledge I had picked up while watching YouTube vloggers declare products to be of "Ekdum A1 Quality!!" in New Delhi.

I was initially considering a HKS endcan muffler upgrade, which I believed would be just enough for me. A local custom shop quoted about 8K for the entire installation of the product. I was mulling over the same, when Suhaas advised me against going for HKS exhausts, as while they would work great on a Japanese Spec car, they may not be particularly great on EU Spec vehicles. He also recommended that a simple endcan muffler upgrade would not be of much use unless I also delete the resonator. So therefore, the options available to me was a Magnaflow exhaust with resonator delete, or a pricier upgrade to a Valvetronic exhaust system. A Valvetronic exhaust upgrade does seem to be the logical choice here. The convenience of being able to switch between exhaust modes would be a real godsend around more subdued crowds or while driving in residential neighborhoods, while allowing me to enjoy it to my hearts content when I pleased to do so. This would also be an expensive option. Therefore, I may have to push this off by a few months atleast, while I rack up the necessary funds to go for this upgrade. Might just decide to treat this to myself as a Birthday present in late November this year. Will keep you all posted!

P.S: Suhaas did recommended in all honesty that I do not bother upgrading the exhaust, as being a 3 Litre TSI engine, it is unlikely to sound very good. All the above advice given to me was all contingent on me really wanting the exhaust upgrade, despite the above disclaimer.

Thank you all for reading!

[skanchan95]

Congratulations!!! Nicely written review. The colour suits the Rapid well and those are tasteful upgrades.

Wish you a very happy Ownership and many memorable miles ahead.

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

I had a feeling that the SA's at Honda behaved like this because I maybe drove up in a Swift to their dealership and probably felt like I wasn't a serious customer or had only come to gawk at their highly desirable line of vehicles.

I had just about the same experience after visiting the Peninsular Honda, Mangalore back in 2016 when I was looking to exchange my i10 for a new car. I felt that they weren't willing to entertain me because I drove in an i10 to their dealership!!! I quote what I had written in my Figo Ownership thread then:

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Jazz
Jazz is a good looking and a spacious car and I had a look at the Car at Peninsular Honda, Mangalore. While I liked the car, it was the attitude of the sales personnel that disappointed me. It was as if they weren’t interested in selling the car to me. While I was looking at the car on display, an Orange coloured V model, the sales rep was standing at a distance from me, apparently not interested in demonstrating the features of the car. It was only after I was done looking around the car that this sales rep handed me a pathetic Xerox copy of a single page showing the car’s features and Price list. No brochure!!!!
Good car, cheaper than the i20 I thought. I was told by the Sales rep that the Jazz has a waiting period of two months and if I want the car soon, that I should book it then and there. When I asked why such a long period, I get an ill–informed and proud answer of “Too much demand for the Jazz”. I told the sales rep that I had an i10 that I wish to exchange. I noticed a silly smirk on the sales rep’s face. Two second hand car dealers showed up soon, looked at the i10 and started their irritating talk about how good Honda is and how poor a Hyundai is. Poor resale value of the 1.1 i10 was something they seemed to be really stressing on and even had the foolishness to say Hyundai’s service was poor compared to Honda. I knew Advaith’s service was among the best in Mangalore. It was as if they were Honda’s salesmen, hell bent on bashing Hyundai, and not independent second hand car dealers. I said thank you very much and left. Felt irritated by the experience, especially of the sales rep, whose arrogance and body language felt as if they were selling BMWs and Audis and I was this poor i10 guy who won’t be able to afford their super duper, one of a kind, Jazz!!!! Struck off the Jazz immediately and did not even bother taking a TD.

Peninsular Honda closed down earlier this year and a new Honda showroom has opened in Mangalore. Hopefully they are much better at handling walk in customers, irrespective of the mode of transport they use to arrive at the dealership!!!

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

28.08.2020 - UPDATE 1: KM's driven: 500 KM.

Thank you all for reading!

Congratulations on the Rapid! I am yet to drive the 1 liter mill but heard a lot of rave reviews about it. Seems to be a solid pick in this segment.

By the way, good to see yet another lawyer on team BHP. Suhaas is also an ex- colleague of mine at my law firm There seem to be several from the Bangalore firms lurking around on Team BHP!

[tejascshetty]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Congratulations!!! Nicely written review. The colour suits the Rapid well and those are tasteful upgrades.

Wish you a very happy Ownership and many memorable miles ahead.

I had just about the same experience after visiting the Peninsular Honda, Mangalore back in 2016 when I was looking to exchange my i10 for a new car. I felt that they weren't willing to entertain me because I drove in an i10 to their dealership!!! I quote what I had written in my Figo Ownership thread then:

Peninsular Honda closed down earlier this year and a new Honda showroom has opened in Mangalore. Hopefully they are much better at handling walk in customers, irrespective of the mode of transport they use to arrive at the dealership!!!

Thank you for your wishes! I do not want to generalize the experience at Honda showrooms, and give them the benefit of doubt and hope that it was a one off instance with both you and me. Hopefully, the new showroom in Mangalore does well in terms of both their sales and their approach to customers!

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Congratulations on the Rapid! I am yet to drive the 1 liter mill but heard a lot of rave reviews about it. Seems to be a solid pick in this segment.

By the way, good to see yet another lawyer on team BHP. Suhaas is also an ex- colleague of mine at my law firm There seem to be several from the Bangalore firms lurking around on Team BHP!

Thank you for your wishes! The 1.0 TSI unit has been an absolute joy so far and hopefully the experience continues to be good. Will keep this thread updated as time progresses.

P.S: You are right about more lawyers being a part of this forum. It is a good sign, as we may be in a position to assist fellow members in the event they ever come across a situation, where they might need legal help. Have read a few threads on this very forum, with regard to horrendous delivery experiences/after sales service experiences. It was disheartening to read about how they had to struggle and run from pillar to post to get issues rectified. A strongly worded legal notice or a simple complaint before the consumer forum was often the need of the hour in those situations. Hopefully, the trend continues, and we see people from all walks of life on this forum, to help and assist each other!

[Utham123]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

03.08.2020 - Modification 2: Audio Upgrade - Part 1

Thank you all for reading!

Thank you for your detailed review. Your review along with TeamBHP’s official review were instrumental in narrowing down my decision to bring home the Rapid. Your review served as a one stop reference for all my questions on the rapid. Your review covers the minute details as well, which is great for a prospective buyer, such as myself. I wanted to thank you before, but, I was not a member then. Finally, I am a proud member of this community

With my gratitude out of the way, I want to share a brief about my own experience with the Rapid. At first I wanted to pen down my ownership review but, then again your review already has most of it covered and honestly, I cannot do a better write up than you did. I will just piggy back my experience/thoughts in this same thread. I hope this is allowed.

My beast: Skoda Rapid TSI; Trim: Ambition
Price: 10.92L ON road price (without insurance). I availed company lease and insurance is provided by leasing company. Got free accessories - Floor mats, sun blinds for rear passengers, mud flaps and two cushion pillows. Handling charges worth Rs.7500 were waived off.
Additional accessories: Installed OEM rear parking camera at a cost of Rs.9000

Dealership: PPS Skoda Banagalore; Rating 2/5; Reason: False promise on the delivery date and subpar delivery experience in the showroom on the day of delivery.

Likes:
1. Engine: The engine has plenty of power. Since, it is a new car, I am driving it sedately. It feels underutilized at 100 km/hr on open roads @ 2100 rpm.
2. Fuel economy: I was pleasantly surprised when the car returned a FE of 18 Kmpl on a 600 Km drive from Bangalore to Hyderabad. 10% city and 90% highway composition for this particular drive. FE was calculated using tank full to tank full method. In city, mileage is around 12kmpl with AC on @24 degrees centigrade with all windows up.
3. Stability: The car is stable at high speeds with good handling characteristics
4. Interiors: This is my personal opinion. I find the minimalist approach inside the Rapid quite appealing to my tastes. My wife finds it boring.

Dislikes:
1. Engine: At the risk of sounding contradictory, I wish this engine has better tractability at lower rpm. Turbo lag is quite evident in city driving conditions. It is easy to stall this engine if you are not careful with the clutch in traffic. Off course, this can be avoided with a learning curve.
2. Electronics/Interiors: Everything feels upside down in this car! I often switch on the wiper when I want to turn on the indicator and engage the car in 6th gear when I want to engage reverse. Having to drive a Korean car alongside this car doesn’t help either.
3. Alloy wheels: The alloys in the Ambition variant are nowhere as attractive as the ones on the higher variants. I do not want to compromise the warranty by upgrading to after market alloys. So, I can only admire and envy alloys on your Heissenberg.
4. Seats: I found the front drivers seat could have been better. I am of small frame and I found the seat to be moderately comfortable. However, my friend with a bigger frame found it slightly uncomfortable. I might play with the height adjustment to see if this improves.

Closing thoughts: I have driven this car for 900 km thus far, and enjoyed every bit of it. I have no concerns on the safety of the car and it’s build quality but, I dread the fact that I may have to deal with Skoda’s A.S.S. in the future. Already, my experience with PPS Skoda has been far from perfect. I hope they make me change my opinion about them. It I is a gem of a car and I will simply try to enjoy it to the maximum extent possible.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

Last Tuesday evening, I was held up in office till late evening around 9 PM, and was fairly exhausted after a whole day of being stuck at work. (The last few months of relatively relaxed work from home style of working have spoilt me). Normally, I would have driven straight home, but instead decided to blow off some steam and decided to drive up to the International Airport and back. Therefore, picked up a friend and we embarked on the roughly 80 odd KM roundtrip which took us about an hour to complete.

Planned Upgrades:

With regard to upcoming mods and upgrades, since childhood, we have all had that guilty pleasure of mimicking that growl a car's exhaust makes while pretending to drive with our hands, and I was no different. My previous vehicle was a diesel and therefore I wasn't very enthused about messing around with the exhaust on that. However I was nurturing an itch to upgrade the exhaust on my Rapid. Cards on the table, I'm really not looking for any performance upgrades at this point. Maybe a few years down the line. This itch is purely to satiate the inner child in me, which wants to hear that yummy loud exhaust note.

P.S: Suhaas did recommended in all honesty that I do not bother upgrading the exhaust, as being a 3 Litre TSI engine, it is unlikely to sound very good. All the above advice given to me was all contingent on me really wanting the exhaust upgrade, despite the above disclaimer.

Hi Tejas! Nice to see you here. Trust you are keeping safe and well during this pandemic!

Reading your thread brought back memories for me, i.e. when I had taken delivery of my car over 5 years ago. I must say, I am ecstatic for you! The Rapid 1.0 is a fantastic car and the right choice for someone getting into the scene.

Regarding your itch to get an aftermarket-exhaust, allow me to weigh in:

I have burned my fingers trying to get the right exhaust setup for my car.

My first stint with ProRace Customs was an absolute disaster. One look at the exhaust will tell you everything that's wrong with custom exhaust work in the country - sharp angled bends, poorly welded piping, oversized piping, poor fitment, etc. The results were apparent from day one - strange whooshing sound, constant knocking against the rear axle and heat-shield, etc. I had assumed I had done enough research on the subject before heading to ProRace but evidently, I hadn't.

My second stint - reverting to stock piping/muffler and replacing the cat-con with a downpipe for an actual tangible improvement in performance - was the right way forward, but this did nothing for the exhaust note that I continued to crave. The Borla ProXS muffler I procured made the whole exhaust experience unbearable and I had to get rid of it at the earliest.

Moving to a Magnaflow muffler was the right call at the end of the day, but I could not continue running the resonator-delete setup as it was much too loud for everyday driving and the cops had begun making the lives of all enthusiasts hell, for installing aftermarket exhausts. So I installed the stock resonator for now - the note is quite muted with just a little thrum and bass. I would have liked it a little snarlier but I guess I will leave it like this.

Do let me know if you are free sometime. We could go for a spin in my car and that would help you decide.

Bottom line - try and avoid getting an aftermarket exhaust given the current climate created by the cops and the RTO for deviating from original equipment. If you must, QTP valves are the way to go! Don't alter the piping, don't remove or change anything in the setup. Simply install a cut-out before or after the resonator and you are good to go.

[tejascshetty]

Originally Posted by Utham123

Thank you for your detailed review. Your review along with TeamBHP’s official review were instrumental in narrowing down my decision to bring home the Rapid. Your review served as a one stop reference for all my questions on the rapid. Your review covers the minute details as well, which is great for a prospective buyer, such as myself. I wanted to thank you before, but, I was not a member then. Finally, I am a proud member of this community

Closing thoughts: I have driven this car for 900 km thus far, and enjoyed every bit of it. I have no concerns on the safety of the car and it’s build quality but, I dread the fact that I may have to deal with Skoda’s A.S.S. in the future. Already, my experience with PPS Skoda has been far from perfect. I hope they make me change my opinion about them. It I is a gem of a car and I will simply try to enjoy it to the maximum extent possible.

Congratulations on your purchase! I hope you have an enjoyable experience with your vehicle! The ambition variant is the variant to go for, and with a few discounts thrown in, it is a tempting proposition. But at 9.13 Lakhs onroad, Bengaluru and with a few planned upgrades, the Rider variant was a deal just too good to pass on.

By the way, a few of us Rapid TSI enthusiasts have a seperate whatsapp group where we discuss our ownership experiences and plan drives. Do join the same if you are interested!

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Hi Tejas! Nice to see you here. Trust you are keeping safe and well during this pandemic!

Reading your thread brought back memories for me, i.e. when I had taken delivery of my car over 5 years ago. I must say, I am ecstatic for you! The Rapid 1.0 is a fantastic car and the right choice for someone getting into the scene.

Regarding your itch to get an aftermarket-exhaust, allow me to weigh in:

I have burned my fingers trying to get the right exhaust setup for my car.

My first stint with ProRace Customs was an absolute disaster. One look at the exhaust will tell you everything that's wrong with custom exhaust work in the country - sharp angled bends, poorly welded piping, oversized piping, poor fitment, etc. The results were apparent from day one - strange whooshing sound, constant knocking against the rear axle and heat-shield, etc. I had assumed I had done enough research on the subject before heading to ProRace but evidently, I hadn't.

My second stint - reverting to stock piping/muffler and replacing the cat-con with a downpipe for an actual tangible improvement in performance - was the right way forward, but this did nothing for the exhaust note that I continued to crave. The Borla ProXS muffler I procured made the whole exhaust experience unbearable and I had to get rid of it at the earliest.

Moving to a Magnaflow muffler was the right call at the end of the day, but I could not continue running the resonator-delete setup as it was much too loud for everyday driving and the cops had begun making the lives of all enthusiasts hell, for installing aftermarket exhausts. So I installed the stock resonator for now - the note is quite muted with just a little thrum and bass. I would have liked it a little snarlier but I guess I will leave it like this.

Do let me know if you are free sometime. We could go for a spin in my car and that would help you decide.

Bottom line - try and avoid getting an aftermarket exhaust given the current climate created by the cops and the RTO for deviating from original equipment. If you must, QTP valves are the way to go! Don't alter the piping, don't remove or change anything in the setup. Simply install a cut-out before or after the resonator and you are good to go.

Thank you so much for your time Suhaas and apologies for the delayed response. Your words have indeed swayed me away from tinkering with the exhaust system for now. Lets give it some time, and see if the climate improves for the same!

Will definitely be taking you up on your offer to go for a spin in your car though!

[NST440]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

[list=1][*]The absence of steering wheel controls is a real pain in the arse. reading!

That’s a great review of an equally awesome vehicle with lovely alloys and I must congratulate you for this decision of yours.

Since I am contemplating buying a rapid rider variant, the only thing holding me back is the lack of steering mounted controls and only front switches for power window, although my dealer has said that the power window module can be swapped for four door one prior to delivery on payment, have you had any luck with any alternative to lack of steering controls?

Have seen some YouTube videos but do not know about their reliability, also they work with android HU only and I shall be fitting my pioneer player in the cabin since sound is supreme to me. Can you please throw some light on the steering mounted controls alternatives in case you came through any.

[tejascshetty]

Originally Posted by NST440

That’s a great review of an equally awesome vehicle with lovely alloys and I must congratulate you for this decision of yours.

Since I am contemplating buying a rapid rider variant, the only thing holding me back is the lack of steering mounted controls and only front switches for power window, although my dealer has said that the power window module can be swapped for four door one prior to delivery on payment, have you had any luck with any alternative to lack of steering controls?

Have seen some YouTube videos but do not know about their reliability, also they work with android HU only and I shall be fitting my pioneer player in the cabin since sound is supreme to me. Can you please throw some light on the steering mounted controls alternatives in case you came through any.

Hi! Thank you for your wishes.

You should close your eyes and go ahead with the Rapid Rider. In the current market, would not give any other option a second glance especially in the sub INR 10 lakh budget range. That being said however, I believe that the Vento Turbo Edition (if you can get your hands on one) would be a better VFM deal. While it may not come with Steering wheel controls, it does atleast come with a leather wrapped steering which is also a flat bottom unit. Its a superb looking unit, as compared to the Rapid Rider's steering wheel, which is quite drab.

With regard to your queries on any alternate for a steering mounted audio controls, there are a few options I have considered. However, it will take some time for me to go through with the same. I want to get a consolidated job done, which includes getting the seat covers done in leather, and getting the steering wrapped in leather as well. Therefore, I will have to get the steering mounted controls done at that time. Will update this thread at that juncture

[NST440]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

.

I will have to get the steering mounted controls done at that time. Will update this thread at that juncture

Thank You, eagerly awaiting your response and seriously hoping a solution in this regard.

On a separate note, It’s a beautiful colour you chose and hope you are pampering it with all the cosmetics 🙂. Do throw some light on the fuel average you are getting, now that you must have driven her for good no. of kilometres.

Happy driving. Cheers.

[vamsi.vadrevu]

Originally Posted by tejascshetty

Therefore, I will have to get the steering mounted controls done at that time. Will update this thread at that juncture

Is it really possible to get steering mounted controls aftermarket??