Skoda has grown its roomy Rapid range by adding a hatchback. It's a family car that's high on value-for-money and space, writes William Scholes
AS you may have noticed, it is normal form to show the front of a car as the main picture with one of these reviews.
It allows you to see the car's 'face' and to size up its identity. Car companies invest a lot of time and money in this sort of thing - it's what allows you to instinctively recognise that the vehicle filling your rear view mirror is a BMW without waiting to read the badge on the tailgate after it has passed.
Indeed, there are entire design studios stuffed with creative types wearing black polo neck sweaters and novel facial hair tasked with working out how best to juggle the combination of badge, grille and headlamps so that the car's visage projects the correct identity.
This week I've opted to use a picture of the back of the car because, in this case, it's what of most interest.
That's not because the front of the Skoda Rapid is too ugly for public consumption in a family newspaper - it's not, and actually looks rather neat - but because this particular car is all about the hind quarters.
So keen is Skoda to impress this upon us that it has even invented a word to describe it: Spaceback.
To most eyes the Rapid Spaceback probably looks more like a hatchback than something so revolutionary that it requires a new name, but you can't blame Skoda for trying.
In silhouette the Spaceback looks not unlike another car from elsewhere in the far-flung Volkswagen Group galaxy which also wears a madey-uppy name, Audi's A3 Sportback.
That's no bad thing, even if on second glance the Skoda doesn't have the same level of detailing or balance to its proportions that the Audi - a much more expensive car - is imbued with.
However, Skoda will sell you a Spaceback with something called a 'style pack' which lifts the appearance no end thanks to a full-length glass roof, black tailgate and gloss black door mirror caps.
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