What's the news?
Remember the Skoda Rapid? No, you probably don't - it's Skoda's mid-size hatch, sitting between the Fabia and the Octavia in size terms, and has always been somewhat built down to a price. Although it's Skoda's second-best selling car worldwide, here in Ireland it's barely a blip - just 363 sales so far this year, and the only Skoda behind it in the sales charts is the diminutive Citigo.
That could be about to change, though, as Skoda is gearing up to release and reveal an all-new Rapid before the end of the year. The Vision RS concept car, shown last week at the Paris motor show, was a heavy hint in the direction that Skoda's going with the new car. Today, we have this first, somewhat occluded, image of the new car. We also have confirmation that it won't be called Rapid anymore.
It'll be, once again, a five-door hatch (the longer fastback shape is being dropped) and will be at the smaller, cheaper end of the C-segment (think Focus, Corolla, Astra) class, leaving space at the upper end for the larger, more sophisticated Octavia. It'll be based on the same MQB-A0 platform that we've already seen under the Volkswagen Polo, SEAT Ibiza, and SEAT Arona, and will likely be the largest car that can be built on that platform.
Skoda claims that using MQB-A0 "enables the brand's typical combination of compact exterior dimensions and generous interior space, along with the use of numerous innovative assistance systems in that segment." Expect vastly more sophistication than you get in the current Rapid, with options such as large touchscreen infotainment systems, and rather less in the way of cheap, tacky plastic.
In price terms, it'll probably stick quite close to the pricing of the current Rapid, which will allow the next Octavia to become a little more expensive and sophisticated. Now all we need is the new car's name. Estelle, anyone?