Rapid progress

A fresh new face and a retuned engine have increased the appeal of the car.

- Rishabh Bhaskar 

I ’ll have to begin by making a confession. I was never a fan of the Skoda Rapid, mainly for the Fabia-inspired front end that simply did not gel with the rest of the car, and I couldn’t see a reason why one would want to pick up a Rapid instead of its handsome cousin, the VW Vento. Skoda India has been listening and has given its mid-size sedan first proper facelift in five years. So what’s it all about?

DESIGN

You won’t go wrong in thinking that the new Rapid looks like the offspring of the new Superb and Octavia, when viewed head-on. The new face is sharper and sleeker than before, and it finally looks like it belongs to the rest of the car.

I liked the new headlamp cluster too. The double-barrel set-up gets projectors for the low beam and a multi-reflector unit for the main beam. Below these are the LED DRLs that look great and add to the premium look of the car. The front bumper features a larger air dam with a honeycomb effect and new oval-shaped fog lamps, encased in a rectangular glass cover.

The side profile again appears sharper, thanks to the shape of the bonnet. However, past the A-pillar and all the way to tail, it is identical to the previous model, save for the new turbine blade-shaped alloys. The rear bumper gets minor changes while the boot gets a thin chrome strip at the bottom and a neatly integrated spoiler at the top.