Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDi: 1,00,000 Kms in 2.5 Years


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History:-
In my family everyone loves to travel. Profession of my parents is dependent on travelling. Upton 2008 we had different cars from Indian manufacturers. Best car we had was Tata safari. I was just a 10 year old when we had safari so I just knew that it was good car who served us well with very large maintenance cost. With some problem we left with no cars to use so from 2008- 2012 we used rented cars and public transport to complete our needs. Average usage of car in our family is 4000 km/month. In 2012 things was doing good, then my parents planned to have an own car.

Choosing a car:
My parents didn’t had any interest In the specification of the car. They just wanted to buy car to complete our needs. I will explain things year wise.

2012:
in the end of 2012 we saw an advertise of vw polo about huge discount and special offers. As our running was going to be 4000 km/month we wanted to buy a diesel polo but discount was on only petrol polo. My father done bargaining and booked polo petrol tredeline at on road 4.75 lakh rs. We were given huge discount (My father is serious about discounts). Polo had two months of waiting period at that time. I was praying that parents should not change the decision of buying the polo as I was fan of vw and skoda. But it happened in starting of 2013.

2013:
My family used to stay in new Mumbai and I was living in hostel in Pune. One day I got call from father that go to xyz place and pick or used indica 2003 diesel. I was like “we are waiting for polo?” and father said we are buying indica with the same amount as booking for polo. Indica gave lot of pain in ownership. We bought it for 1 lakh then spend 1 lakh on maintained and 30k on accidental repair. Still car was not working well, it was impossible to take her outstation. Thought of buying brand new diesel car stated in mind.

End of 2013:
Skoda introduced a scheme of buy in 2014 and pay in 2015. My parents was interested in this scheme so we proceeded to buy Skoda rapid (detail about buying below).

2014:
After lot of problem and solutions we were delivered our rapid on March 2014.

Why Skoda Rapid?
We used to stay in rural area in my childhood, so we were know about only one affordable and good car which was skoda Octavia. Octavia had very good reputation and status in urban/rural india. Image of skoda in our mind was best car maker in india. Only competitor for rapid at that time was verna and vento. I was not know that there is twin of rapid which is vento . I was known verna had issues with maintaince and bumpy ride quality so verna was out(city and ciaz diesel was not launched). We only left with one option skoda rapid. without thinking of anything, without doing test drive we decided to buy skoda rapid.

Buying detail:
Now importance of discount come in buying procedure. My father wanted an huge discount on rapid diesel. Jmd nerul was our dealership, they told us that they have lot of my2013 car which are now discontinued (1.6 tdi) and they car gave huge discount on these cars. We never interested in features in the car so we proceeded. At first we quoted 8.5 lakh for rapid active tdi. Active version didn’t had any features, not even music system so we decided to go for ambition after thinking for 15 days. We didn’t had any hurry of buying car so we was least excited. Rapid ambition tdi was quoted 9 lakh on road after the discount of 1.5 lakh rs. We decided to buy silver colour. Loan was made through vw finance. As we had rented flat there was some problem with verification so it took four month to take delivery of the car. On 26 march 2014 my family went o take delivery of the car. At that time dealer asked us to buy beige colour so he can give more 50 k discount but this time we didn’t wanted to spend more time we liked silver colour so we rejected offer. My family took delivery of car on same day.

Final price:
902000 rs on road with
1] 5 year and 1 lakh km warranty
2] Bajaj alliance zero depth insurance
3] 1 year road side assistance.

We never interested for car detailing as skoda told us it have 6 year warranty on rusting and 3 year warranty on paint. So we started using car even without seat covers.
After buying a car I started exploring features and specs of the car. I got to know that it is wonderful car with high maintained cost after reading online reviews.
Now on this date car have complete 1 lakh km in just 2.5 years. Below are the likes dislikes and service details of the car after 1 lakh km of driving in 2.5 years.

Likes:

1] 1.6 tdi is superb engine. Upton today I never felt car is underpowered. Car easily go up to 200 km/hr on express highways.it have raw power and torque up to 4000 rpm.
2] Part failure rate is really low compared to other manufacturers like maruti. Upton today we only replaced fuel pump and dickey lock in the warranty.
3] Build quality is like a tank. Whenever I sit in car I get feeling of the safety. We had only one small accident upto today. On toll plaza while every car is stopped a truck decided to change the lane and hit driver’s door of the car. We all family was in car and I was on driver seat. Ever after impact of truck car was stable and it only had dent on the door. We were expecting that there will be huge damage on the car.
4] Mileage- for my driving car consistently give mileage of 21 kmpl on highways and 19 kmpl in city. If my father is driving then car gave 23 kmpl on highway. I was wondered how car can gave more mileage than aria rating later I got to know that my car is part of the vw immesion scam.
5] Range of the car.- for long drives like pune to delhi, pune to banglore this car is really good. Tank capacity of the car is 55 litre with the extra fuel fro fuel pump and top up we can max fill 65 litres in the car. Maximum range of car I achieved is 1400 km in one tank. Usually in daily driving range is 1150 km in one tank.
6] Quality of the car- even after one lakh km there is no sign of rattles in the car. Car is running on stock clutch. We only changed break pad s at 83000 km. they still had some life left but we did change.
7] First I felt we bought car with less features but later I discovered this car so many hidden features. I was not aware that my car have abs. best feature I like is rolling window up and down with remote.
8] A.C. of the car is really small. So it doesn’t affect mileage of the car. It takes 5 min to chill the car but works great after that.
9] Car handling is really good. I drove car up to 180 kmhr but still she was stable as the 80kmhr. Steering gain weight as speed increases.

Dislikes:

1] Heavy clutch and less low end power take out all the fun to drive factor in the traffic.
2] Huge centre tunnel makes car good for only four passengers. Apart from these I didn’t find any dislike.

How I completed 1 Lakh km in2.5years?
Most of running of the car is done of the national highways 4. Around 80% of running is done on highway
Mumbai - pune trips- 100
Pune – Ahmedabad:- 3
Pune – Bangalore:- 2
Pune – Shegaon:- 4
Pune – Hyderabad:- 3
Pune – Belgum- 10
Pune- Satara/chiplun/nashik -30
From last one year I daily drive car for 130 km as my collage is 50 km away from my home. At first year of ownership daily running of the car was 50 km. so if I combine all these running average running of the cars comes to 110 km per day and 3300 km per month. We even had some busy months where we complete 5000 km in 15 days.

Maintain ace and reliability:-

1] First check-up 7500 km-
Everything was free, they filled ac gas and top up oil.
2] First free service 15000km-
Bill was around 7500 rs. It was normal service without any repairs.
3] Second service 29000 km-
This was first paid service. We were not known about lot of things about service we spend 14000 rs on first paid service. Service experience was really awesome. Fuel pump was replace under warranty without any issues.
4] Third service 53000 km-
Servicing bill was 10000 rs with normal service without any repairs.
5] Fourth service 68000 km-
This was worst service I ever got from jmd nerul. It was month end they didn’t done anything properly and bill was around 14000 for servicing and 3000 for windshield repair. I was not worried about bill cost but work they did was really bad. I had some argument with manger but later I ended matter for better service in future.[frustration]
6] Sixth service and accidental repair 83000 km:-
This was best service i ever got from jmd nerul. Service bill was 9000 rs. First time I changed any part of the car which was disk pad. Even service centre guys were amazed to see disc pad are lasted for 83000 km still had lot of life in them. For second year we didn’t had insurance for car. I have mentioned about accident on toll plaza. Normal repairing cost was coming near 35000 as door, mirror needed to be replaced. But luckily the repaired car for just 20000 rs and gave us bill which they usually give to insurance company. This was moment I realized Skoda service is way better than it used to before. Repair was done very good car was in service centre for 5 days. Just after 1 hour of repair we had trip to Hyderabad from Mumbai. This is what I, love about Skoda, get inside and go anywhere in india without worry.

Tires:
I changed tires to Bridgestone b250 at 54000 km. I think these have some life left. Now I am planning to change the tires to same type as it only had one puncture in 50000 k even that was man made puncture by the puncture repairs guys in the night at shirdi.
Stock Apollo used to have puncture every week. But these were soft tires and had good sound than b250.

Money spend on accessories:
1] Seat covers- 2400. (2 months after buying)
2] Bluetooth- 2000 rs
3] Box mattings- 1000 rs
4] Bulb upgrade to 100w- 1800 rs

DIY I do on car
1] air filter cleaning – I do it every 3000 km as I use car in dirty environment
2] vcds tweaks
3] Seat cleaning and seat cover washing.

Condition of the car at 1 lakh km
1] Engine feels like new may be belt will need to be changed in next 50000 km
2] Break disc will be changed in 5000 km
3] Suspension mounts are need to be replaces but apart from than everything in suspension is good.
4] Tires need to be changed
5] Paint is as new as first day
6] Everything is functional as first day.

Extras:
1] Being a mechanical engineer I learned lot of vw group. I usually do service at 20000 km. this car is been lowest maintained car I have seen after etios . even ciaz can’t match low maintained cost of polo/vento/rapid.
2] Now I can’t even dream of buying car apart from vw group.
3] Even after 1 lakh km car feels like new. Most of people thing car have done only around 40000 km when they drive the car.
4] skoda service is hit or miss. If you make good relations and give attention to service then decently you will get good service at low price.
5] I only spend 2400 rs on brake pads on car in 1 lakh km. this is what called as long term reliability. I have seen lot of Hyundai, maruti cars demanding for huge maintains at 50000 km. in our family we don’t sell cars so definitely this car will do 3 lakh km in coming years and I am sure she won’t demand any maintenance up to 3 lakh km. I have seen lot of Octavia/polo/vento/laura/rapid doing 3 lakh km without any extra maintenance and still drives like a new
6] We are family who prefer quality over the features. Rapid in beyond our expectation in quality.
6] Extremely happy customer of the skoda and vw group.[:)]

Below are the pictures of the car. most of the pictures are taken after 1 lakh km. only accident picture is from 80000 km.
 

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Re: Skoda Rapid 1.6 tdi - 100000 km in 2.5 years.

@nspnikhil

You are probably the luckiest and most satisfied skoda customer from all people i know.

1L km in 2.5 years....[clap]

Looking at those service costs............. I am envious of you.
 

bhvm

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Re: Skoda Rapid 1.6 tdi - 100000 km in 2.5 years.

A simple & Crisp review.
I am Surprised your Purchases are based on Discounts/ Finance rather than the car itself.

Still Skoda is a very good choice and Luckily, you got good service at reasonable prices.
I usually hear that Skoda service is horrible & Parts are too expensive.

The FE you get are astounding. What speeds are you driving?
 
Thread Starter #5
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Re: Skoda Rapid 1.6 tdi - 100000 km in 2.5 years.

Are you like for real, a really happy customer of skoda with very little service expenditure. :stupid:

FYI: i own two polo's
vw skoda have 1 year service interval so at first sight it seem to have higher service cost but it requires one service per or 15000 so at the end all manufacturers have almost same maintenance cost for respective class of car. vw service in pune is best. even vw service center give back remaining oil to the customers. i never tried pune skoda. my all service are done in navi mumbai.
 
Thread Starter #6
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Re: Skoda Rapid 1.6 tdi - 100000 km in 2.5 years.

A simple & Crisp review.
I am Surprised your Purchases are based on Discounts/ Finance rather than the car itself.

Still Skoda is a very good choice and Luckily, you got good service at reasonable prices.
I usually hear that Skoda service is horrible & Parts are too expensive.

The FE you get are astounding. What speeds are you driving?
vento/polo/rapid part cost is little bit higher than compactors. but laura/octavia/jetta/passat/superb/yeti have expensive parts . most of parts of these cars are imported. but polo/vento/rapid have made in india part so things are diffrent in care of these 3 cars. part failure rate is low so even if price is more these parts will last for more time. and skoda vw give warranty of 2 years on every part they sell.
most of time customers are fooled by service center for clutch repair. cost of the whole clutch replacement is around 20000 rs. but dont know why people pay 50000 for clutch replacement. most of time delers give wrong advice to replace the parts which dont have any problem. i think if person know very well about his car then service cost will be lower as they wont get cheaed by service center.[clap]

I usally drive car between 90-110 kmhr. i dont cross the turbo charger range which is 2400 rpm. car cruise at 100 kmhr on 2100 rpm so i think this is best rpm and speed because turbo give most possible output on this rpm.
my father drives better than me. he also drive at same speed i drive but with light foot and very less braking.
 

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Thread Starter #7
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Re: Skoda Rapid 1.6 tdi - 100000 km in 2.5 years.

@nspnikhil

You are probably the luckiest and most satisfied skoda customer from all people i know.

1L km in 2.5 years....[clap]

Looking at those service costs............. I am envious of you.
Skoda service is improved over the years. i also had some bad experiences but i know everything about this car so i tackled these issues very well. upcoming service will be done by me at home. i hope i will write good diy about 1.2,1.5,1.6,2.0 tdi engine servicing.[:)]
 
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Well written review Nikhil and surprised to here that your Rapid maintenance costs are lower than our Vento,which has run 1,05,000 Kms in 4.5 years and 92000 Kms in 3.5 years with us.
 
Thread Starter #9
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Well written review Nikhil and surprised to here that your Rapid maintenance costs are lower than our Vento,which has run 1,05,000 Kms in 4.5 years and 92000 Kms in 3.5 years with us.
I went through you ownership thread. I am sorry but i feel you have spend a lot money on maintainace and part replacement. In pune vw vento dosent need more than 9000 rs for periodic service. Vw also give service official service cost of 9000 rs. Dont know why your service center chargining this much amount for you. Even whole clutch replacement cost 20000 rs. Sturd replacemnt cost 6000 for front 4000 for rear and engune mount is around 4000 rs. I always seen cost doubled up for your repairs than offical cost guven by vw. Vento and rapid are same car manufatured at same line by vw at chakan. Skoda dosent manufacture rapid. Please have second advice before spending huge money on service. Vw and skoda are used for taxis worldwide for thier lowest maintainace cost because of highest drain interval and less part failure. I mostly driven my car on highway so defenetly my car is demanding less maintainace than car driven in city. In next service ask them to do only things which are guven in manual then service cost will be 9000 rs.
 

allhyundaicars

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I think one of the reasons the car has acted good is because of the highway running. I have always felt cars like vw skoda are not meant for Indian roads ( potholes , so much traffic , heat)

But I know these are one of the best cars to choose from for highway runs and your experience says the same.

Again you are enjoying eveRy penny you paid for.
 
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I concur with @allhyundaicars. Rapid has its own quirky problems for city drive (I own a Rapid and drive ~50 km everyday)

- the clutch pedal is a few mm above compared to other cars that I have driven. So, my left leg is slightly higher; which is pain because that's where my leg is for most of the time in the notorious stop and go traffic of Bangalore.
- the A/c compressor is actually small. The cooling is not the same compared to my earlier car, Fiesta. So, it is not as cool as the Fiesta esp. during summer.

I will soon start a new thread listing down all the quirks/pains that I have with my Skoda.

But there are some things of Skoda that just blew me away. I will put them in the thread as well. [:)]

- the mid-range torque just blows you away. Its what I call 'the surge effect'. A good combination of pedal-to-the-metal and 2500RPM makes the car take off. WHOOSH!!
- fantastic highway manners - it corners flat, no wobbling and the heavy steering. Fiesta was always low on top end torque and power. I could not really extract the best from the car. But Rapid solves this problem with its higher power and torque. I enter winding roads at 120kph and come out flat and take the next curve in the opposite side with no drama.

I will still haven't maxed out the car. But there was no strain on the engine even as I drove at 150kph
 
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Hmm... Kewl thread & :kewlpics:too.
Here is mine.
http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...oda-rapid-elegance-plus-ownership-review.html
most of time customers are fooled by service center for clutch repair. cost of the whole clutch replacement is around 20000 rs. but dont know why people pay 50000 for clutch replacement. most of time delers give wrong advice to replace the parts which dont have any problem. i think if person know very well about his car then service cost will be lower as they wont get cheaed by service center.[clap]
Recently I found rates of Rapid spare parts online, posting screen shots, , do you agree with them?
rps20160925_162904.jpg

rps20160925_162959.jpg
Well written review Nikhil and surprised to here that your Rapid maintenance costs are lower .
I think, @MS, you have spent more than Rs 50 k on clutch replacement, did you replaced the flywheels too?

I have always felt cars like vw skoda are not meant for Indian roads ( potholes , so much traffic , heat)
.
Rather, the Rapid is best among the other cars with soft suspension set up for potholes It has got GC of 168 mm. And Rapid has separate recommendations of air pressure in the tyres when moderately loaded & when fully loaded, so practically GC improves due tyre sidewall stiffness when fully loaded. So on potholes & speed breakers moderate care as required by other cars is enough for Rapid too.

Anyways, I have fitted Urathane cushions on the springs of suspension of my car as more often than not I am in hurry and may not be able to take moderate care on the potholes or speed breakers.

BTW, what problems do you feel due to heat & traffic?
 
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Hmm... Kewl thread & :kewlpics:too.
Rather, the Rapid is best among the other cars with soft suspension set up for potholes
I found Vento's suspension to be softer than Rapid. Ciaz and City are also much softer than Rapid. In fact, I felt these two cars soaked up potholes and humps much better (inside city limits and at lower speeds).
 
Thread Starter #15
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Hmm... Kewl thread & :kewlpics:too.
Here is mine.
http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...oda-rapid-elegance-plus-ownership-review.html

Recently I found rates of Rapid spare parts online, posting screen shots, , do you agree with them?
View attachment 209732

View attachment 209733
These price are from 2013. price of spares are lowered upto 30- 50% in last three years. i never find parts price of rapid and vento are expensive. defenrtly clutch price is higher than other cars but if you are getting 250nm of torque then car also need clutch which can transmit 250 nm torque so defenetly it will be costlier. people compares rapid/vento/polo clutch with 130 nm torque cars. it is unfair in my opinion. other pars like brakpads, suspension, headlights are same as maruti suzuki. but i dont think maruti give 2 year warrenty on its spare but skoda do.[clap]

price of fuel filter is now 1200 rs. it was 1900 rs three years before.
 
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