Currently reading: New Skoda Rapid Spaceback ScoutLine revealed

Rugged variant of the Skoda Rapid Spaceback goes on sale in Europe later this month but won't be coming to the UK

a more rugged version of the Skoda Rapid Spaceback dubbed the ScoutLine will go on sale in Europe in July

Skoda has already confirmed the model will not be coming to the UK. The ScoutLine features more rugged styling than that of the standard car and is designed, according to Skoda, to help the Czech brand forge a more emotional connetion with its customers.

New styling elements on the ScoutLine include redesigned front and rear bumpers, which have been styled to give the car an off-road look, as well as new side skirts. The car can be ordered with either 16in or 17in alloy wheels.

Power will come from engines already featuring as part of the Rapid Spaceback range, although they do not include the brand's frugal Greenline line-up. The three petrol options range from 89bhp to 123bhp, with two diesels offering 89bhp and 114bhp.

Skoda is pitching the Rapid Spaceback ScoutLine at a range of buyers that is younger than its traditional customer base. It's a tactic the brand has tried before, when it released the Skoda Octavia Scout, a sporty Monte Carlo version of the Rapid Spaceback in 2014 and a similarly badged version of the Fabia in February of this year.

Although the new model isn't coming to the UK, we already get a Scout-badged version of the Octavia in this country.

Skoda says it has sold more than 105,000 Rapid Spacebacks in Europe since the car's launch in 2013, with 72,400 models sold last year.

Get the latest car news, reviews and galleries from Autocar direct to your inbox every week. Enter your email address below:

Advertisement

Read our review

Car review
Skoda Rapid Spaceback
The Skoda Rapid Spaceback offers a little more interior room than conventional hatchbacks

The hatchback treatment makes Skoda’s budget Rapid that bit more palatable. Roomy, usable, well-priced and quite refined

Join the debate

Comments
6
Add a comment…
230SL 9 July 2015

Having driven one, I was very

Having driven one, I was very disappointed, it managed to wallow a bit, while also thumping noisily into potholes (I know drive around them, but sometimes you miss one)was if they had made it poor on purpose to get you into a Polo, have also thought the same after driving an Ibiza ST which suffered excessive road noise.
The Spaceback is a nice looking car though.
abkq 8 July 2015

Maybe I need to see a real

Maybe I need to see a real one. Pictures can be deceptive. And looking at a real one means walking past it or around it so the perspective is always changing. That's the test of whether a design works or not.
Daniel Joseph 8 July 2015

Might just be me...

abkq wrote:

Maybe I need to see a real one. Pictures can be deceptive. And looking at a real one means walking past it or around it so the perspective is always changing. That's the test of whether a design works or not.

Definitely agree with that. I walked around a couple of Spacebacks on display outside our local supermarket. The basic model on smaller wheels actually looked ok, if a little "round shouldered" from the rear three-quarter view. The high specification model with the glass roof big alloys and low profile tyres just looked slightly odd, to my eye at least. The new Fabia Estate, which I saw more recently, actually looked better proportioned and more "planted" on the road.

Daniel Joseph 8 July 2015

There's a problem...

I agree with abkq that it's a nice clean design without any of the superfluous ornamentation that spoils so many current designs. However, when I saw one in the metal recently, it looked a bit tall and narrow. The darkened glass roof and hatchback and, oddly, the larger diameter alloy wheels seemed somehow to exacerbate this. It also has a more fundamental problem: the Rapid Spaceback 'S' lists from £13,500 and has 415/1380 litres of boot space with the rear seats up/down. The Fabia estate 'S' lists from £12,460 and has 530/1395 litres of boot space with the rear seats up/down. So, that's an extra grand for what, exactly?