Skoda Rapid vs Volkswagen Vento

[brandoo]

Car is fusion of Fabia and Vento and has taken good part of both the cars.
I believe skoda services has improved a lot and are at par with VW, i have experienced this personally.

Rapid will do word of good for Skoda as company is known for performance oriented products.

Lets not forget: its not vento v/s Rapid, both are from same company and are offering more choices. VW will be happy in churning out higher numbers be it Vento or Rapid

 

[madaneeraj]

Fusion- Well Vento is an extended Polo and rapid is an extended Fabia
Well after the success of Dzire there is a trend in industry to produce haches on a single platform- Linea and Punto, Micra and Sunny but worse is Swift and Dzire (or swift with boot), but as we say Maruti can sell car without engine, such great is the reach nad MASS

Coming back to Vento and Rapid debate, Rapid has tried to learn from the shortcomings of Vento. It's more refined with lesser NVH, better ride and better looks (subjective though). On design Vento, Jetta and even Passat resemble each other and not sure if this gives upmarket feel to Vento. On features, handling and drive too Rapid wins over Vento, attributing to slightly tuned (stiff suspension). Also due to some less weight Rapid feels quicker.
On ASS issue, Volkswagen is not too grat either but Skoda definately is improving. Look at that online booking of Rapid, atleast they are thinking.

For me I would put my money on Rapid if to choose between Rapid and Vento, but if I am really concerned, i would not want to loose my sleep over ASS and will look elsewhere.

 

[lohithmohan]

When it comes to spares I suppose VW spares would be not less than Skoda price as both of these are from the same stable.

It’s a company strategy to keep Skoda vehicle prices lesser than VW vehicles. In world market VW has been promoted as a niche'r product when compared to Skoda.

 

[soap]

Differences Between Skoda Rapid and VW Vento

I believe many must have heard that Skoda Rapid and VW Vento are the same cars with different badges. I was under the same impression until I test drove these cars - 50km+ on each car with cars taken from 2 showrooms of Skoda and 2 showrooms of VW. Test drove on narrow alleys and broken roads behind the glitzy EC of Bangalore; test drove on Outer Ring Road, Hosur Road and Old Airport Road in the wee hours when traffic was less and of course in the dreaded traffic of Whitefield. I also drove my colleagues Ventos.
I test drove the cars at the start of the year i.e. before the face lit version of VW came up (the one with touch screen). All cars were Diesel and manual. There is quite a bit a difference between the two cars

Disclosure: After our test drives, I bought Rapid. My uncle bought Vento. Both 1.5L diesel

1. Lets get the easy ones out the way first. Vento looks different from Rapid on the outside . OK, that is too obvious. But when I looked at the car more closely, I felt Vento's paint work was slightly better than Rapid. I dont like chrome but the chrome touch on the Vento is in very good taste and Rapid had none.
2. Once inside, almost every part is the same inside. Vento's steering wheel is flat at the bottom giving it a more premium feel compared the Rapid. Somehow, I felt the quality of parts inside Vento was slightly better than Rapid.
3. The clutch pedal position is very slightly high in Rapid compared to Vento. It was just that tinge of extra height on Rapid clutch which makes it slightly uncomfortable.
4. The rear space on Rapid is slightly more than that of Vento. Collaterally, the boot space in Rapid is less than Vento.
5. High end of Rapid comes with Halogen projector lamp while Vento does not get any
6. The mid variant of Rapid is much better equipped than mid variant of Vento.
7. There was a cost of difference of 40000 (after haggling with dealer) between the two cars with Vento being higher
8. Vento came with only one reverse gear light
9. The NVH level in Rapid is observably better than Vento once sitting inside.
10. Turbo lag on Vento is slightly more than that of Rapid. There is slightly lower low end torque in Vento compared to Rapid.
11. Steering is heavier on Rapid compared to Vento
12. The suspension setup is on stiffer side in Rapid compared to Vento