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The much awaited Skoda Rapid was launched at a grand function at a premium location in the capital. With the launch of this car, the customers have now come to know that the price of this car ranges between Rs 6.75 lakh to 9.19 lakh. The car has been designed especially for the Indian market and currently, the company has attractive offers on all the eight variants of the model.

The ex-showroom prices of the different variants are as follows:

• Skoda Rapid Active 1.6 MPI MT - Rs 675,000
• Skoda Rapid Ambition 1.6 MPI MT - Rs 709,000
• Skoda Rapid Elegance 1.6 MPI MT- Rs 799,000
• Skoda Rapid Ambition 1.6 MPI AT - Rs 809,000
  Skoda Rapid Elegance 1.6 MPI AT- Rs 899,000
• Skoda Rapid Active 1.6 TDI CR - Rs 795,000
• Skoda Rapid Ambition 1.6 TDI CR - Rs 829,000
• Skoda Rapid Elegance 1.6 TDI CR - Rs 919,000

The customers will be able to choose from five different colors: Candy White, Deep Black Pearl, Brilliant Silver, Cappuccino Beige and Flash Red.

There are five petrol variants and three are diesel variants. The new Skoda Rapid has three basic variants: one is diesel engine with manual transmission and the other two are petrol engines, of which one is manual and the other is automatic. All these variants are priced keeping in mind  the comfort, design, and safety of the passengers. The car has been decently priced and promises to give a good competition to other cars in the C segment.

Some other competitors include Hyundai Verna Fluidic, Honda City and Volkswagen Vento, Tata Manza, and Toyota Etios, but have a different price bracket. Although Verna and Vento are available in diesel variants, City is available only in petrol variants. Also, these variants are powered by two types of engines, 1.4L and 1.6L and the price range of Verna varies between 6.99 to 10.90 lakh. Honda City’s 1.5L petrol variants range between Rs 7.49 lakh to 10.08 lakh.

The engine of Rapid is the same as that of Ventro that is 1.6L petrol/diesel with dual transmission modes. Still Rapid has a better chance to stand in the market as its base price is lower than Ventro. Although Honda City has a few important features than Ventro, like steering mounts and parking sensors, and rates better than performance too, but the car is more costly than Rapid and also does not offer so many petrol and diesel variants. So the car is excellent choice not just for the price conscious consumers, but also spoils them with an array of choices.

Although the Rapid has new looks, we just cannot help noticing its striking similarity between Volkswagen’s Ventro, but it seems to have been designed a little different from the other models of Skoda. The Rapid is a combined effort of Skoda and Volkswagen and the partnership seems to be working really well. The low production costs and the sharing of components by both the companies will benefit both the companies in the long run. The car is very comfortable to drive, with some high-end technical excellence.

Mr. Thomas Kuehl, the Member of the Board and Director of sales & Marketing of Skoda AUTO India remarked that “ŠKODA Auto India marks a crucial milestone in India with the launch of Rapid. We intend to strengthen our presence in the highly competitive C segment in the country with this launch. We are confident that this car will become the cornerstone for the ŠKODA brand in India. It’s distinctly fresh, young, smart and clear-cut design makes Rapid a well-balanced car and therefore successfully fills the gap between ŠKODA Fabia and the current Laura.”

He added that “The Rapid is positioned as a family car, compact enough for the city and spacious enough for longer trips. Our plans for the Rapid in India are fairly ambitious, given that we expect it to become the bestselling car in our model line-up in India, in the near future.” So the company has high hopes from this new launch and although it currently has 90 dealerships, the company expects that this number will become almost 100 by the end of this year.