Fluffy destroyer of worlds

No because it was on the 2nd year of a PCP deal. Miss the Yeti a lot and maybe when/if the rumoured baby Yeti is launched I will swop the vRS. Mind you if shmbo can get used to a vRS - currently all she has had experience of is a couple of smart fortwo's, then who knows I might persuade her into a fully grown Yeti. She adored the Yeti but was totally against having to drive it due to its 'vast size'.

Well my Furby vRS has arrived and with huge reluctance I have handed back one of the best cars I have ever had. Going down to one car meant having a small automatic, a Yeti could qualify on the latter point but as far as the wife is concerned it could never be considered as small so with great reluctance Snowy had to go. As a result Lookers (lately Hobin’s of Bury New Rd Manchester) have an immaculate Candy white 140 Tdi Elegance to sell. It has polished Annapurnas, underbody protection, mud flaps, side protection film etc, rubber mats, black leather and the LED boot light upgrade (damned useful). Left the roof rails black to complete the mock Tudor effect and I have even left the Brodit mount in for the SatNav of choice (never remotely impressed with the inbuilt Columbus Nav). Just over 23k miles new on a 60 plate it’s had one service at 18k (on the variable schedule) and has been utterly faultless, not so much as a squeak or a rattle. The Dunlops are barely worn as I had winter rubber on for 4/5 months for each of the two years I have had it (winter boots now sold). Despite my best efforts I never had to add a drop of oil as it simply didn’t use any. Out of 40+ cars I have owned it is one of just two that has had zero defects during my time of ownership – the other was a Punto GT Turbo of all things! It needs/deserves a good home; Lookers are asking £17,995 for it. I presume there is some room for haggling in that!

No problem Simon - I am also a Simon btw i'll try and PM you with address details though the ancient office browser I am using hates anything to do with Briskoda, might have to wait till I get home

225/50 R17 94v are the size. I am in North Manchester - Blackley to be more precise.

4 winter tyres to fit standard 17” alloy on any Yeti for sale. Sadly I am having to change my Yeti for a car that is both automatic and more compact as we are going down from a two car family to a one and the wife much that she loves the Yeti can’t contemplate coping with its bulk or it’s manual-ness (she has a smart fortwo). Happily the new car will be a spanking new Fabia vRS which is a nice compromise, nevertheless the Yeti will be sorely missed. Not wishing to go down the admittedly ideal route of Winters on 16” steelies I chose to purchase 4 Matador Nordica winter tyres and simply put them on the Annapurna alloys in November and change back to the Dunlops in April. Matador for those who don’t know, are a sub brand of Continental and the tyres have been an utter revelation in icy/snowy/wet conditions. So much so that the first thing I will be doing with the Fabia is to sort Winter tyres out for that. I experienced no noise or fuel penalty as compared to the standard Dunlops but I did discover an amazing ability to safely motor through icy/snowy conditions, especially during the winter of 2010/11. My Yeti is a 4X4 but I swiftly came to the conclusion that the 4X4 element was useless unless you had the grip to exploit it and Winter tyres certainly give you that. I reckon I have done about 5,000 miles on the Matadors and they appear as new though they were purchased in November 2010. I am asking £100 for the 4, buyer to collect.

Utterly brilliant with me especially after the atrocious experience I had at Claybank. A friend with a Mazda would agree with you though, maybe it's just the Skoda side of the operation.

I lean towards the estate too but it was a flat Nein from the Fuhrer. I found the Yeti ride/handling compromise to be well nigh perfect, hard to imagine its even better on 16's but I don't doubt it. Previous to the Yeti I had an imported 156 GTA Selespeed and that was lowered on Eibachs and had Konis FSD's and a Q2 diff to boot. The vRS won't come close to that in the 'go' stakes but it should provide a more than acceptable half way house that will also suit the Fuhrer - she was utterly terrified of the Alfa and despite the transmission would go nowhere near it. I find the Fabia's looks somewhat 'gawky' but endearing, no issue really. I needed something in the Skoda stable that was automatic, robust, roomy, economical and fun. The vRS seems to tick all the boxes. We shall see.

I know exactly what you mean re the Yeti and its size but convincing the better half is an exercise in futility. I will stick my neck out and say the Yeti is THE most relaxing drve I have ever had not a quality to be sniffed at on today's roads. The smart is the second in the Fluffy household. The first was very much loved but this one - a Highstyle special edition has been pretty hum drum and has simply not had the character to hide its many obvious shortcomings. The plan was to replace the smart with either a Panda TwinAir duologic or a Citigo AST Elegance but word has it that the AST transmission rivals the smart's in it's naffness and then the withdrawal of a parking space worth at least £15 a day forced a rethink on the fleet anyway.

Threeshoes is spot on. Rally green vRS Furby with the usual black wheels/black roof combo to be ordered. Seems that delivery times are almost as bad as with the Yeti so looking at Sept/Oct. At first I was going for the vRS estate but Fuhrer concerns over it's immense length....! Yet to actually order the furby, hopefully sort that out tomorrow now we are both in agreement. Anyway, the Yeti will indeed go back to Hobins - when the vRS arrives obviously. It will go back with 4 winter tyres. It's a std Elegance with the exception of polished and unblemished Annapurnas and the under body protection kit. So far it has done a mere 17500 miles and been utterly faultless to boot. Hobins were positively salivating at me trading snowy in. I was shown a new market survey showing the Yeti to be the 2nd best performing depreciation wise on the market. Q5 was first with the Abarth twins 500/500c 3rd and 4th. Seems plenty of room in the Fabia but the race bikes will have to go al fresco. Should cope with the pike fishing gear just fine though. First purchase will of course be a set of winter boots, those I found to be far more important than 4wd. I shall miss the Yeti despite the undoubted charms of the vRS, we both shall. My 40th car and firmly in the top 3 best cars I have ever owned.

Well somewhat prematurely my beloved Yeti – ‘Snowy’ (the Fuhrer names all worthy cars) has to go. PCP not actually due to expire until Nov 2013 but the Fuhrer has lost her car park space and that combined with one or two other factors means that having two cars would be madness. What I do not want however is for the better half to loose her ability to drive; took me ages to persuade her into a smart fortwo! No chance of her driving the Yeti despite the fact she adores it because a) it is simply too big – in her opinion and if man/woman was meant to drive a car with 3 pedals he/she would have 3 legs. Of course there is the DSG but ‘a)’ is insurmountable and I dislike DSG’s without the flappy paddle option (of course I know you can retro fit it but still leaves the fact that she won’t contemplate manoeuvring the Yeti’s vast bulk…. So, both the smart and the Yeti have to go and a compromise in between has been found. Yet to sign the paperwork but Hobins in Manchester have been their usual helpful selves. Gold star for the first correct guess.

I too noticed the similarity between the Yeti and the Panda 4X4. The Panda (all variants) is actually very reliable and routinely does very well in European reliability surveys; strangely it has never caught on to the same extent as the Punto/500 in this country. As a keen skier I have also noticed that virtually the entire postal delivery system of Alpine Europe seems to depend on this little car it really is rather capable off road and remains to this day the only car ever to make it to Everest Base Camp. It’s not just Yeti owners that have noticed the similarity though; check out the CAR review on the 2012 my Panda with the 85bhp TwinAir motor. The conclusion actually mentions the Yeti. Actually quite fancy a 2012 Panda when the wife chops her fortwo this coming October. But only if the Citigo doesn’t cut the mustard for some obscure reason.

I tend to only look at car magazines for the pictures and news nowadays. I subscribe to Autocar and regularly get CAR and EVO – both excellent for very different reasons. As to the objectivity of the reports it’s getting to the stage where you can’t even take an average as opinions differ so widely. I wouldn’t even keep What Car or Auto Express in the small room for emergencies. Auto Express seems to be merely an extension of a Volkswagen handbook and What Car is so gloriously inconsistent (as already mentioned on this thread) that it’s almost worth buying for comedic value alone. I read the Qashqai v Greenline report whilst on the shelf in the newsagents beneath our towering edifice (if they will persist in ripping us off because they have a captive clientele then I will exact my revenge somehow..) I knew the Nissan was going to win before I turned a page and I wasn’t disappointed. I have not driven a Greenline but I have driven a couple of Qashqai’s and found them to be totally anodyne/inert/soulless – like most Nissans – GTR excepted. Nice pictures though….

Exactly, mind you although only slightly different I do prefer the Skoda styling. I wonder if VW will get into a strop because people buy the Citygo rather than the Up? In view of the 'issues' VW had with people prefering the Superb to other pricier VAG fare.

I find the MiTo - 'challenging' on the looks front - especially for an Alfa. I just didn't get on with the new VRs - perhaps I couldn't forgive it for not having a stonking big oil burner under the bonnet. I expected to be pilloried from hill to burn for chopping my beloved GTA - a pretty special one with Q2 diff, Koni FSDs and Eibach springs plus it was a Sillyspeed (very different to the 4 cylinder system I hasten to add) but no, turns out a lot of the GTA boys (and girls) run VRs Octavias as 'everyday' cars, seemed to be no stupid snobbery at all. Odd that some of my friends run VW and Audis and STILL won't vaguely consider a Skoda because of the badge, utter madness. Desperate for a go in the auto Citigo. Wife at end of tether with a dull fortwo which has been nowhere near as fun as her first (mark 1 ) smart car. Citigo looks ideal. Again, why would you buy the VW version? beats me!

Hmmm, nothing but positive comments from AlfaOwner contributors when I chopped my GTA for a Yeti. They are on there if you look hard enough. As any fool knows the MiTo is a Punto in drag and the 159 is or rather was a very pretty Saab chassied overweight Vauxhall. The Fabia is ok but none of its current engines currently compare to the MultiAir 170 jobbie. Bit of a disappointment compared to the old Furby, not the best in a crash either, only 4 starred in the NCAP ratings if I remember rightly. VRs lost it’s USP by going petrol, big shame that. Better get used to Alfa being part of VAG, gonna happen in the next 3 years if Marchionne’s Chrysler plan bombs.