Skoda Rapid Spaceback review

The Rapid Spaceback isn’t for people who are interested in driving. Its steering is glassy, remote, and not even slightly confidence-inspiring. Work up the courage to tip the Rapid into a bend at speed and, to its credit, you’re met with reasonable reserves of grip and a sensible amount of roll. But generally speaking, this is not a car to revel in driving down a twisty B-road. Its chassis and steering encourage a more relaxed driving style that doesn’t trouble the upper third of the rev counter, or even demand you keep both hands on the steering wheel.

Happily the 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine – tested here in its most powerful, 108bhp form – is as good here as it is elsewhere in the Skoda range. Quiet, punchy enough to see off the 0-62mph sprint in less than ten seconds and economical. Skoda claims 61.4mpg combined, and we saw mid-Fifties on a long motorway run with a B-road at one end, and a few miles of rush-hour London at the other. The six-speed manual is smooth-shifting and the clutch, brakes and accelerator are all progressive, making the Rapid easy to drive smoothly at any speed. This is the engine and gearbox combination we’d choose.

The driving position is reasonable – the steering wheel gets reach and rake adjustment, which isn’t always the case in cars that major on value – but the ride is fidgety and there’s quite a lot of wind noise, compromising the Rapid’s long-distance hauling abilities. That said, nothing about the Rapid encourages you to pay any attention to its dynamic attributes. It’s just a ‘car’, and because it doesn’t do anything insultingly terribly, you tend to ignore it and think about other things. The moron in the Mondeo in front of you. What to have for dinner. The Rapid is never at the forefront of your mind, however, whenever or wherever you’re driving it, so the fact it doesn’t ride quite as well as it could somehow doesn’t matter. You just get in and drive the thing.