NGee

An excellent idea. I look forward to hearing what (if anything) they have to say.

Interestingly, I spoke with a VW independent today. After confirming the engine type and date he advised that the cambelt interval was 5 years, or 60,000 miles (I think! - certainly 5 years). This was for the CR170 engine since late 2009, which I think means all Yeti's. He also quoted under £400 for the change, which is a bit more reasonable since the actual kit is c. £220. I would prefer a definitive answer which could be cited publicly, but this chap is well regarded and probably knows more than the main dealer service desk.

I've just been advised that the Haldex oil change is required every three years irrespective of mileage. My recollection was that it was due every 60,000 km rather than on fixed interval. Can anyone confirm what they have been recommended? Oh, and the cost quoted was £61, which doesn't seem too bad. Also, the cambelt kit replacement is being described as required at 4 years or 120,000 miles. Again, can anyone confirm if this is what they have done/been advised? This is a rather steeper £500!!!! :(

On mine - blank, TPS reset, Off Road, ESP off, blank (from memory!)

Interesting. I've noticed the brakes binding after washing as mentioned, but never heard of the same happening to the clutch. Same principal, clearly. Apparently it's happening quite a lot a moment

Thought I'd post this as a warning/advisory... Went to start the Yeti this morning; couldn't engage any gear with the engine running. Clutch felt normal, but just wouldn't engage. Tried it with the engine off, no probably selecting any gear. Googling suggested a slave cylinder problem, which would be rather premature, and would have resulted in a "goodwill" conversation with Skoda (!!!!). I arranged for the local Skoda garage to receive the car, and called the RAC out for the recovery. When he arrives, the RAC man has a quick check of the symptoms, and diagnoses a stuck clutch. It's a bit wet around here; probably something a few owners have noticed. The combination of water, debris, heat and clutch operation creates a paste effect between the two plates. If it doesn't dry out before the engine is stopped it can sometimes form a glue. This is what had happened - I'd had to wade the car up our road to higher ground where I parked, so the clutch would have been wet and then left overnight. The fix isn't particular pretty, or mechanically sympathetic. Engine off - engage 1st gear - handbrake off - turn engine over. But it worked, the clutch free up straight away and then just needed a drive to get it dry. Given that getting the clutch out apparently means removing the transmission and is therefore very expensive, this might be worth bearing in mind if anyone else has similar problems. Be lucky. Nick

If it's not too late already, here are my thoughts. I ordered my Yeti without the upgraded speakers, and I "ummed and ahhed" about it for a couple of weeks. I decided I wanted to add them to my order and called the dealer, only to find the last date for amendments had been the day before. As it stands, the standard speaker package I would rate as "acceptable" or perhaps a little higher. Having heard the upgraded speaker package I would describe that as being "very good indeed" or higher. A considerable improvement. In short - get the better speakers!!!!!

My car is grey. In winter, against a grey road, under a grey sky, I can imagine that I'm less visible than ideal. The "auto light" sensor doesn't think it's quite dark enough to put the main lights on. Under these circumstances I feel that DRL are very useful to have as a permanent thing. I'm not so sure they add much under our current conditions (bright bright sunshine and long days) but even now if you enter a tunnel of trees the brightness levels drop sharply, and a couple of points of light must assist others. I must confess that I'm not a fan of the overly elaborate LED versions, but I think the Yeti DRL's do exactly what's required without any drama.

With such short journeys you'll never get a diesel engine warm enough to either benefit from the potentially high mpg or to properly look after the engine. Skoda specifically recommend against diesel engines for this sort of driving, since you will inevitably end up ruining the dpf. http://www.skoda.co.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Brochures/15364_DPF_Leaflet_v2.pdf I was under the impression that changes to the MOT rules coming soon will make dpf deletion a fail? Even if it's not an automatic fail, I would think the tightening of tailpipe emissions would make it difficult for a diesel to pass without a dpf. At 5k miles a year, does mpg really matter much? You'll only use a couple of tanks more of unleaded than diesel, which will be at least partly offset by the 5p a litre difference in price.

Not used this one, but used Drive The Deal to buy my Yeti. They stopped supplying them for a little while (not sure why) but are back in the game now... Yeti 1.2TSI Elegance £19235 list price £17024 Drive The Deal price £2147 discount That's about 11.5% discount (I think!)

I can now give a snow report for Vector 4's! In a word; brilliant. Had to drive 15 miles over mostly single-track, untreated roads today. It was clear that at very most a handful of vehicles had used these routes today, and there were a few moderately steep hills to contend with. I estimate there was about 3 - 4 inches of snow over the road - that wet heavy snow that then freezes into hard icy snow. I kept my speeds moderate, and there was no loss of grip on either ascent or decent of the hills, on corners, or even on braking. Experimentally, I tried a couple of "hard" stops from 40mph on straights. Fuss free. The car just slows down and then stops. There were a few judders from the ABS working, but not many. Not a quick as braking on dry tarmac, but very confidence inspiring. I got out for a brief walk, and it was very slippery on foot, so this was a good test. Tried pulling away from standing still (on flat and inclines). Just pulls away. Down the steepest hill I let the Hill Decent do it's thing, which it did perfectly. So, in conclusion, the Vector 4's work well in the warm, dry and wet (perhaps a little less lateral grip, but nothing dramatic), and work well in snow and ice. Think I'll be getting these again!

+1 from me. Used these people quite a few times now, always entirely satisfactory. For the Yeti, the item you're after is Bosch A980S (twin pack, front screen).

I did the same, and the All Seasons did very well (albeit through a snow-less winter). I've not noticed any deterioration in the handling as the temperatures rise, and I'm now debating whether to keep them on or change back to the part worn Dunlops sitting in my garage. This would save the cost of having them swapped around, but what shall I do with the Dunlops if I keep the Goodyears? Sell them? Is there a market for part worns? N

My previous car had bi-xenon headlights, similar to my Yeti. It was a 2004 car, and when sold in 2010 the original set of headlights were still going strong. Very strong. Absolutely no sign of diminishing of light levels, and this was with a lot of night driving miles. The car was sold within my wider circle of acquaintances, and before Xmas the new owner still reported how impressive the lights were at night. No mention of having to replace the xenon bulbs, which leads me to think they're still fine after 8 years and now nearly 200,000 miles. Nick

Hampshire Police currently have a 170PS 4x4 Elegance on evaluation loan in the north of the county. Generally getting a very favourable reception. Makes a good area car, although it gets a little wallowy through tight bends at high speed. The livery makes it look a bit van like, but its a nice place to spend a shift and the boot takes all the kit easily. I'll try and grab a picture next week for the board.

Last week I had my first TPM warning. A bonging noise, yellow warning indicator, and (most helpfully) "Check tires" message on maxidot. Didn't tell me which tire to check, and they visually looked fine. Checked all of them at the front off-side was down about 20% compared to the others.

I've swapped out the Dunlops on my Yeti for Goodyear Vector 4's. The Dunlops have done nearly 20k miles, with 4mm tread remaining all round. They were less than stellar on snow and ice with nearly full tread, and I didn't fancy risking it with half as much! The Vectors have now done 500 miles, so should be scrubbed in. So far they've been driven on dry warm roads, wet warm roads, dry cold roads and wet cold roads. No ice or snow, and the temperatures haven't been very warm or very cold. They haven't yet had to deal with very wet (eg: lots of standing water) roads either. Initial impressions: Dry handling very good. No noticeable difference to the summer Dunlops, except that they feel very marginally less sharp on tight "slalom" turns. Wet handling very good. No noticeable difference to the summer Dunlops. Cold roads. Feel more responsive than the Dunlops. Cornering and braking feel more confident. Warm roads. No noticeable difference to the Dunlops - bar the slight variance mentioned on tight turns. Noise. Seem perhaps slightly quieter on dry roads, especially cold dry roads. Not much in it on wet roads, but noticeable louder when ploughing through puddles - quite a roar! Ride quality. Difficult to judge fairly, since they're new rather than part worn, but they feel perhaps a little better than the Dunlops. Fuel consumption. No measurable difference. So in conclusion, so far I'm very impressed. It's early days, but I've found no weaknesses at all yet. I will report again in a few thousand more miles, and perhaps after some grotty weather. Incidentally, these were purchased through Oponeo - which (if I'm honest) felt like a bit of punt, as they seem to be a new company, are based in Poland etc etc. Ordered on Sunday morning, dispatched from the Goodyear factory in Germany (I think) on Monday and arrived on Friday. They were about £70 cheaper than the closest competitor, and I've no complaints whatsoever with them. Cheers Nick

I've just booked my first service at the behest of Maxidot. Car will have done 19,000 at the point of service. Winchester Motor Company have quoted £165 (ish, including VAT) for the work.

Over the last 2,500 (ish) miles the MFD says 46.5mpg and calculation suggests 44.4mpg. The difference seems to have got less as the miles have added up, but the rate of change has now slowed a lot. I think that's a 4.7% variance, if my maths is correct. What I can't work out is why there is a variance, unless it is programmed in. But then I would expect it to be consistent between all cars of the same type... Ngee

Either link the mirror heaters to the rear screen heater, or put a timer/tell-tale light on the mirror heaters. The current arrangement is wholly unsatisfactory.

My personal rule - if it's dim enough to need the instrument lighting on it's dim enough to put the main lights on. The automatic lights tend to agree with me (which I'm not sure is supportive or detractive to my argument!) But to answer your question, I don't think this a user selectable option via maxidot. Ngee

There is a warning when washer levels drop low. During the recent grotty weather, mine came on and the washer fluid still lasted another whole day of heavy use. I filled the reservoir up then, so don't know how much was left. As I have HID lights the first and every fifth (?) windscreen wash also wash the headlights. Personally I would have prefered to have a button to allow me to control the headlight washing, but it's no great issue. I've had to put nearly undiluted washer fluid in this last time, to avoid the reservoir turning into a block of ice!

Mine was build around March 2010. No problems with HID lights, and I leave the selector switch in AUTO virtually all the time. Wouldn't be without them!

Official mpg figures are obtained (as I recall) with a fully warmed up and run-in engine. They are also obtained on a rolling road to eliminate many other variables. They are really only much use to give comparative consumption figures between different cars, and are often difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in reality. Having said that, I've got 45.5mpg indicated over the last 900 miles, which compares favourably to the official combined figure of 46.3mpg. And I'm probably going faster overall than the official tests!

I've got the Gobi leather interior. The last three cars I've owned have all had leather interior. I just like sitting on dead cow. All the colours have been light - beige, grey, grey and now mushroomy/putty colour. Never really liked black leather in cars. These are the first heated seats I've had, and I must say I love them. I probably wouldn't have paid extra for them - but I might in the future if need be! Within a minute or so the seat base and back gets toasty warm, which is lovely as the temperature drops. Yes, the lighter colours need a little more work to keep clean. I try and clean and feed the seats every three months or so. My work trousers are black, and tend to leak a bit of colour into the seats, so the drivers seat needs care more often. On the plus side, muddy marks etc from kids just wipe off. I've never managed to catch or rip any leather seat on anything. So far, the Gobi leather seems to be wearing well and looks like it will have a long life. I'd buy a leather finished Yeti again!