The Skoda Rapid Sedan is due for a launch in India on the 16th of November. The Rapid Sedan is a Volkswagen Vento cloaked in Skoda clothes, which means that apart from a few minor cosmetic changes to differentiate the two cars, most of the specifications of the Vento and the Rapid remain very similar. The Rapid Sedan will sit a notch under the Vento in terms of price positioning and will also offer a feature or two lesser than the Vento.
- One feature that will be missing on the Skoda Rapid is the steering mounted audio controls. While the Vento is available in only two variants, Trendline and Highline, the Rapid will be available in three variants, Active, Ambition and Elegance. Engines though will be the same 1.6 Liter petrol and the 1.6 Liter common rail turbo diesel mills producing an identical power output of 105 Bhp, while peak torque ouyput for the petrol engine is 160 NM while that for the diesel engine is 255 Nm.
- Skoda Rapid C-segment Sedan
While manual five speed tranmissions will be standard equipment on both the petrol and diesel variants of the Rapid, an automatic gearbox might be initially available only for the petrol engined Rapid. At the launch, the Rapid Diesel will not get an automatic transmission. This information was relayed to us by UTV Bloomberg-Autocar show editor, Renuka Kirpalani, who is currently driving the Rapid Sedan at the media drive.
The Skoda Rapid Sedan will be priced 20 to 30 thousand rupees lower than the Volkswagen Vento Sedan, which could make it the second least priced car in the Indian C-segment space, pricier only than the Nissan Sunny Sedan, which was launched at a killer price tag of INR 5.85 Lakhs a couple of months ago. With Skoda India all set to launch the Rapid Sedan at a price lower than the Volkswagen Vento, it would be quite interesting to see whether the lower priced Rapid eats into the sales of the Vento.
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