drum

That'll be Arnold Clark Inverness -- you have my sympathies !!

I have an Ateca now; after coming from 2 Yetis and am so far very pleased with it. Similar solid build with no rattles but the main selling point for me was the larger boot space, - with a spare wheel , this was always my drawback with the Yeti .Also just the more modern execution of the whole vehicle. Of course one of the other advantages was being able to escape from our nearest Skoda dealership ( Arnold Clark) , and living in the North of Scotland there was no realistic alternative . Bannermans - the Seat dealership - a pleasure to deal with. Test drive -' take the car for as long as you want and make sure you really like it'. No salesman breathing down your neck , no pressure at all.. For anyone considering a change from the Yeti I would suggest the Ateca as a definite consideration.

Seriously - is this progress ? or just being shafted by car manufacturers making their products unnecessarily complex to the extent that anything diy becomes impossible or prohibitivly expensive , where cars are now becoming like white goods - cheaper to throw away than get repaired. How does this square with the VW emissions row and saving the environment? . Big business - big con in my opinion. I'm looking for an old Landrover !!

Coming up to 2 years since I bought an Elegance 150 4x4 Estate to replace a Yeti 4x4 . Does anyone else have one ? . Mine has been fault free, no rattles , no DPF problems and on winter tyres takes me anywhere I want to go without drama . Would just be interested to find out what other owners think of this particular model.

Its four wheels and an engine for getting you from A to B. Enjoy , and stop obsessing .

I have an Elegance 150tdi 4x4 Estate - -- in Topaz Brown !!. Not my favourite colour but actually looks pretty good when clean and got it for a really good price. Probably the best 'sleeper' car I've ever owned.'' How the h--ll can't I keep up with this old guy in a brown estate car ?''

I'm now on my 6th Skoda - 3 Fabia Tdi estates, 2 Yeti 140 Tdi 4x4 and now an Octavia 150 4x4 estate and can honestly say, that of all the cars I have owned over far too many years from Ford Populars to VW Golfs to Subaru Imprezas, in terms of quality , value for money , reliability and overall cost of ownership they have proved to be excellent. However, I feel that Skoda , having done a fantastic job under the VW brand are now in danger of becoming too 'mainstream' in their image and pricing and losing that difference that has made them such a success these last few years.

Well, having two old Grey Fergies, dirty hands and skinned knuckles are the norm

Navy blue bib and brace overalls for me

I'm lucky enough to have a garage compressor and one of these puckka PCL gauges. Over the years I've acquired several different gauges , dial types, digital etc etc. Most of which, give quite different readings . Interestingly the PCL gauge and the gauge from my late fathers 1968 Rover 2000 TC always give identical readings -- Interesting ?

TDI for me as well

I've gone from a 140 4x4 Yeti to a 150 4x4 Octavia Estate. Mixed feelings really. I think I preferred the yeti for its interior feeling of spaciousness but for me the boot was just too small for my purposes and of course, despite being more powerfull the Octavia fuel consumption is a fair bit better. I think you will be quite happy with either.

I've gone from a 140 yeti tdi 4x4 to an octavia estate 150 4x4 and can confirm that there is no problem in swapping the wheels. ( I use 16" steels for my winter tyres).

Two eyes and a right foot work much better in my opinion

Mine go into a plastic tub the first time I swap summer/winter and stay there until I sell the car

I looked at the Sportage and was impressed in many ways but agree that the view out the back was not good. Also seemed to be much bigger than the Yeti on the outside but inside very little different. Ended up buying an Octavia estate 4x4 but to be honest still miss my Yeti - if only the boot had been a wee bit bigger --.

I bought a new Octavia 150 4x4 estate a few months back and put on my personal reg. Few weeks later got this letter and card from Skoda Assist with the card expiry date before the date on which the letter was postmarked- few phone calls and assume (hope) its been sorted out now. Came from Subaru to Skoda about 8 years ago I suppose. Subaru used to be magic and lost their way and sadly I detect the same for Skoda- sales volume v.s customer care- well for Subaru the sales volume never happened !

Where are the mods ? This discussion has no relevance.

Wow Andyvee thats really opened my eyes to all the possibilities of making my driving experience so much more fulfilling. Sorry or being such a luddite

And since I'm the guy that started this thread off, perhaps I should have the final word. I'm not against technology per se but against technology simply because cars have so much inbuilt computing power that manufacturers seem bent on shoving stuff in that doesn't increase driving enjoyment, reliability or indeed fixability when things go wrong. Do we really need CANBUS to connect so many things together that a simple fault becomes a diagnostic and expensive nightmare ?. Fine if its a £300 laptop - you can bite the bullet and get another but a £25000 car - well your'e kind of trapped aren't you ?. Engine management ,ASR,ABS,Haldex -fine I can go along with all that sort of stuff because of emissions,economy and safety etc but all these options for lighting, wipers , mirrors, windows,infotainment (for gods whats that all about ?) etc etc -- what does any of that add to your driving ability , awareness or concentration, more likely to increase your chances of being distracted and having an accident in my opinion. And looking ahead -- what on earth is going to happen a few years down the line when a simple problem is going to render an otherwise sound car beyond economic repair ?. How do we reconcile that with environmental concerns ?

Iv'e had a 150 Elegance 4x4 estate for about 6 weeks now and generally I'm fairly pleased with it so far. Everything works, no faults and seems well put together although perhaps not the feeling of solidarity compared to my two previously Yetis or my many Subarus, but I suppose thats how things are going nowadays where lightness and efficiency are the watchword. We've had lots of snow and ice here recently -11c and largely untreated roads and I have to say it gets you everywhere you want to go safely and securely with lots of grip - and all that boot space compared to the Yeti !. Its running on 16inch steels on Vredestein Wintrac Extremes ( kept over from my last Yeti) and can't recommend winter tyres highly enough- a world of difference for all you folk who have never tried them. All in all a good car - but aren't Skodas beginning to get a wee bit expensive ?

And lets be honest- how many of us play around with all this new stuff when we get the car and think 'wow ---' and then just forget about it and use the car as we always used to.

So that will be why everything in the South grinds to a halt when 10mm of snow falls - its not parameters or cars ;its getting from A to B and whats going on around you. After all its only 4 wheels and an engine with you in control the rest is by the way.

Have you put winter wheels and tyres on are are happily driving along in a blizzard and suddenly TPM decides to bong and flash simply because you haven't gone into setup to inform the car of the changes- thats dangerous and unnecessary, the Suzuki just gets on with the job.

I am now on my 6th Skoda. Three Fabia 1.9 Tdi estates , two Yeti 140 se 4x4 and now an Octavia Elegance tdi 150 4x4 estate and strangely I find that I am using my 7 year old Suzuki Swift 1.3 DDi more and more - no flashing lights , no worries about regens ,screens upon screens of info and options, all these things that seem to be of so much concern to most posters ( including me) are not an issue- turn the key- it starts - and gets you where you want to go cheaply, totally reliably and reasonably comfortably. Are Skoda losing the plot ?.