TopDrawer

Startin's at Powick (just outside Worcester, 5 minutes to M5), which is not too far from Cardiff, have an Elegance demonstrator - diesel but i don't know what size. I took it out a couple of weeks ago - no pressure from them - just gave me the keys for an hour.

The current Tiguan is about to be facelifted - it is to be formally launched at Geneva on 1 March, but, thanks to internet leaks, images are everywhere. I understand that VW have stopped taking orders for the outgoing model - the new ones are approx 6 months delivery. The cabin is largely from a Golf Plus, which I have, but having been in a mate's Tiguan, the quality is a big step up. Having recently test driven a Yeti, I would say the interior is on a par with my Golf Plus, the Tiguan noticeably better. As for a dealer sending you off to a rival's for a test drive - just how little work do they expect to do to get a sale.

During our visit to a dealer last weekend to test drive a Yeti, the dealer went to lengths to stress that a diesel would not be suitable for us (approx 5k a year, mostly shortish journeys) due to potential problems with the diesel particulate filter. I already knew this and we wanted a petrol anyway, but good to note he was on the ball there. He did say its amazing how many don't listen and then complain when the vehicle shuts down and they're not covered by the warranty/breakdown.

Cripes, that's good to know. Renders it pretty useless for me then, although the acoustic indicators will still help - I have the rear ones on my Golf and they're really useful.

And on a related subject, does the park assist work in a narrow street? Our road is a narrow Victorian one, with parked cars each side and a narrow single lane in the middle. Normal length spaces can be difficult to get into because the narrow width limits the amount the front can swing out - you need a shallow angle of entry, so to speak. Does the sensor read both sides for obstacles as its reversing and adjust accordingly?

I'm in the middle - Bridgnorth not too far away - I'll give them a call, thanks. The place in the Forest weren't familiar with the 1.4 introduced last July ... "1.4 Sir? No such thing."

Hard to believe but it was uglier than that - had a large backlit dial offset to the left which would have broken in an instant and, seemingly, no way to access any radio! I'm in Herefordshire.

Thanks for all your helpful replies. It seems I should take another test drive! Unfortunately my other nearest dealer didn't acquit himself too well in response to my opening phone call - "1.4 Sir? No such thing, they only do a 1.2 or a 1.8 ...". Still, at least I managed to speak to him, which is more than I've been able to do at VW - three unreturned messages, and having eventually spoken to a salesman, an unfulfilled promise to get back to me with delivery dates. No wonder the online brokers are so attractive - I had the same experience when I bought the Golf Plus - I went through Drive the Deal eventually. The satnav wasn't like any Skoda or VAG item, goodness knows why it was there. Yes it was very windy on Saturday, but this was a constant wind rush - conceivably one of the offside doorseals could have been faulty although it sounded more remote than that. There were no cross bars only the factory fit bars. The noise and the mirrors were my main concern - I'll try and get another test drive and report back.

Oh, dealers don't tell fibs do they? He said 13 weeks for petrol, much, much longer for diesel.

Hello guys - first post here, but have been devouring info about the Yeti as its on my (very) shortlist to replace my current Golf Plus (Yeti or another Golf Plus). Took a test drive on Saturday - Startin at Powick gave us the keys for an hour and off we went with high expectations. I have to say that I came away somewhat underwhelmed and now I'm in two minds. We had an Elegance diesel 4 x 4, not sure which one but as I want a 1.4 SE petrol, it wasn't important. My main beef with the Golf is that its quite noisy (1.6 petrol) and having read great things about the silent Yeti, I was surprised by the amount of wind noise - we did a short motorway run ay 70mph and it was quite intrusive. Other things I didn't like were the small wing mirrors which didn't show enough and bizarrely, the central computer matrix was leaning noticably to the left! The wing mirror control was very flimsy. It was fitted with a sat-nav which was horribly plastic - even the dealer apologised for it - but I'd just have the standard touch screen radio anyway. The seats on the other hand were excellent - far better and bigger than the Golf's. Are the Elegance seats the same as the SE's but with leather? Has anyone views on the wind noise issue? Is it the roof bars? Can they be removed? Dealer was quoting 13 weeks delivery, but VW's are similar, so I'm in a quandry!