Dr Phibes

My other half has taken on the task of naming cars in our household (her earlier masterpieces include Rolf the Golf and Hocus Focus). When we got our first Yeti, it was immediately named Buzz for no good reason that I could see. As it turns out, this was eerily prescient as: 1) Buzz Lightyear is a well know fictional character 2) A lightyear is a measure of vast distance 3) Our Buzz did indeed rack up a vast mileage before we traded him in a couple of weeks ago. His replacement is called Skippy. No, I have no idea why. Phibes.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more support for steel grey. Our first Yeti was steel grey and in my opinion it's a lovely colour which suits the car well and hides dirt surprisingly well (and I speak as someone who lives at the end of a track that consistantly covers our cars in either mud or dust). Why is our new monster white then? Well we felt like a change, I've always though that Yetis look particularly good in white and the money we saved by ordering a non-metallic colour paid for a tow bar. Phibes.

+2 They are by far and away the best garage we have dealt with, both in terms of the deals offered and the overall experience. Phibes

I'd ask if I were you. Sales of these things must have rocketed since you posted your pictures. Phibes.

Tomorrow we are picking up our shiny new candy white 140 Elegance, the replacement for our faithful steel grey 140 SE which has racked up an unfeasibly large mileage in the 18 months we've had it. It's not all good news though. I'm also chopping in my much loved MX-5 for a 1,2 Fabia because we need two cars capable of transporting the mutt and all her equipment. Tomorrow will be a day of mixed emotions and no mistake. Phibes.

After seeing Iain's magnificent machine, I was instantly on to our dealer (same place as did iain's yeti) to see if there was still time to add the wheel arch protectors to our shiny new candy white Yeti. This wasn't a problem but it did slightly extended the long wait until we could get our new monster as the protectors have to be allowed to set in place for at least 24 hours after fitting. We're picking up the car tomorrow and after seeing Iain's pictures, I'm sure it will have been worth the extra wait. Phibes.

In the end, we did decide to get a tow bar but it's coming attached to a shiny new Yeti :-). I believe it's more or less the same procedure i.e. it's all taken care of by the garage once the car has been delivered so if you can hang on until March (hopefully), I can let you know how things worked out. Phibes.

Hi Breckie, Don't know if you've got your towbar sorted out but if not, it might be worth having a chat with West End Garage in Broxburn. I asked about the possibility of fitting a towbar to my year old SM which doesn't have any of the factory prep and they quoted around £450 for a detachable towbar with single electrics. They say it does all the important stuff about reprogramming the EPS, disabling the rear parking sensors etc. when a trailer is attached. As I say,I haven't had it done myself but it may be worth checking out. Phibes.

There's a couple of other 'City of' ships to keep an eye out for. My Yeti arrived in Port of Tyne on the City of Rome and I'd been keeping an eye on at least one other 'City of' ship whose name I can't now remember. http://www.portoftyne.co.uk/business-divisions/marine-and-environmental-services/shipping-movements/expected-shipping/ will show you all the ships expected into Port of Tyne in the near future. Looks like the next ship due from Emden is called the Nordic Ace so maybe things have changed again. Hope this helps, Phibes.

In my experience, when performing upon the steering wheel bongos, a three spoke wheel offers superior timbre and variation of response. Phibes.

Hi Onesque, I had a look under our yeti (SE, build week 37/10, rough road pack) and it looks identical to your pictures. I guess Skoda must have changed the specification at some point. Phibes.

Hi Edmund, I live in the middle of the Scottish countryside and had exactly the same reaction as you when I first drove our Yeti in the dark. The dipped beams are excellent and main beam does a good job of lighting up the way ahead but there's a dark mottled area just in front of the car which is a bit off-putting at first. I'd be interested to know if more powerful bulbs reduce this effect though I am getting used to it. Phibes.

Something that caught me out when I was tracking the progress of my Yeti is that the tracking of the ships appears to be done by shore mounted devices with a fairly short range. When the ship moves out of range, the web site just shows its last reported position. It's entirely possible that your ship will suddenly cross the North Sea with a single bound and appear off the British coast. Enjoy your Yeti when it arrives. Phibes.

I was in the Czech Republic for 5 days a few weeks ago and saw a grand total of 5 Yetis including the one in Prague airport and one belonging to a security company which was festooned with dayglo stripes and flashing lights and which I thought looked rather good (though I may have been feeling the effects of the excellent Czech beer at the time). Phibes

While we were picking up our Yeti on Saturday (which so far has been everything we hoped it would be), our dealer mentioned that we were lucky to have got the heated front windscreen as (all together now) there was a problem with the supplier not being able to meet demand, so much so that he believed that Skoda were no longer accepting orders for this particular option. Playing with the online configuration tool this morning, it would appear that the heated windscreen has indeed disappeared from the options list. It might be worthwhile for people who have ordered this particular extra and are facing long waits for their Yeti to investigate whether deleting this option would speed things up a bit. Hope this is useful information, Phibes

Tomorrow! We ordered it on the 17th of July so it's only taken 12 weeks to get here which seems very good going compared to the horrific waits some other people in the forum are experiencing. Phibes

Browsing through the Yeti online accessory catalogue this morning, I came across this: http://www.accessories.skoda.co.uk/productdetail.aspx?p_no=ZGB000035602 So even if you can't order it from the factory, you should be able to get your dealer to fit it. Hope this helps, Phibes

I've just been on the phone to our dealer arranging to collect our TDI 140 SE on Saturday (yippee!). He's informed me that owing to a supplier's inability to meet the demand for certain components (now where have I heard that before?), our Yeti has arrived equipped with Annapurna alloys rather than the default Dolomites. I'm pleased about this because I prefer the look of the Annapurnas but it suggests that it's not only a lack of sunroofs that's causing Yeti waiting times to get longer and longer. Thought people on the forum (especially those taking delivery of a SE in the near future) might be interested to hear about this. Phibes

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. As a 6 footer myself, I was wondering whether having the heated front windscreen makes any difference to the standard mirror position? I realise that this hasn't been an option for too long so I may have to wait until we get our SM (currently schedules for the start of November) to find out. Phibes.