IT'S always dangerous to give a car a name which it has to live up to.

Skoda took a chance christening its flagship the Superb, although in this instance few people would argue against its accuracy.

I'm not so sure about the car I have just been driving, however, the 1.6-litre, 105bhp Skoda Rapid.

Not that there's anything really wrong with the car's performance. It pulls well, has respectable acceleration and a good top speed. But Rapid conjures up images of a high performance saloon or hatchback, and it's not that.

Now had they called it the Skoda Frugal they really would have been accurate. I found it one of the most economical I have ever driven and on one occasion it even set a new mpg record for me.

Careful driving meant the car never dropped below 60 miles per gallon on any journey, and on one 30 mile trip over a mixture of roads I actually clocked up an average of 78 miles per gallon.

That's almost 14mpg better than the company's claimed average, a feat totally unexpected as manufacturers always tend to quote on the high side for obvious reasons.

What's even more surprising is that Skoda produces a Rapid which it claims is even more frugal than the one I sampled, the Rapid GreenLine, which comes with stop/start and low rolling resistance tyres.

And all this from a generously proportioned family car which fits neatly between the company's Fabia and Octavia models in terms of size.

It offers rear seat passengers very generous legroom and a luggage area which is huge for a car of its size. The space beneath the tailgate boasts 550 litres of luggage room with the rear seatbacks upright and a cavernous 1,490 litres with them lowered.

The dashboard layout is neat and practical, and while there is a lack of soft touch plastics the design is appealing and user friendly.

In fact there are a whole host of features on the car which are well thought out and practical. There's the specs case just above the driver's head, the cupholders back and front and of course the Rapid was the first Skoda to add a built-in ice scraper, located on the inside of the fuel filler cap for easy access.

And just to make it even more user friendly the scraper doubles up as a magnifying glass, in case you can't quite make out all the details on your road map.

On the road the Rapid offers a comfortable ride and good road holding. The low down torque means there is no lack of power even when you have five people on board.

And even though the car is a genuine five door model it has a coupe-like appearance which, combined with its clean lines and sharp angles, make it visually very attractive.

Rapid may not be the ideal name for this car but in every other respect it ticks all the boxes and is a very worthy addition to the Skoda model range.