bargee1759

Did you get this sorted out? My 2012 Elegance 170tdi has the optional 3 spoke Sport MFSW but there's no controls on it for Cruise control, Cruise is all controlled from the left hand stalk which has the rocker switch as per your original photo

All cars are a compromise. You can't tow a caravan with a Ferrari! I bought the Yeti 9 years ago because I wanted a smallish 4x4 for rural winter driving as I'd moved house & commute to work on untreated roads at 5am. I've driven hot hatches & later quick turbo diesels for the first 20+ years of my driving career, but loved the Yeti when it came out. The fact that it was based on the vastly improved Golf 5/6 platform made it a definite shortlister. I was blown away by the interior quality too, but mostly how well it drove. The only thing that came close was the Kuga back then, & I tried all the Yeti's main rivals, & it was head & shoulders above the rest. The fact that the 170tdi 4x4 Elegance was ideally specced for my needs & was roughly £2k cheaper than it's rivals was the icing on the cake. The only reason I fitted the Eibachs wasn't to modify it but because I had a rear spring snap & I also had leaks on the front struts. I'd also used Eibachs before on an Alfa 156 & they transformed that car immeasurably without compromise, so it can be done. The Eibachs were also a fair bit cheaper than genuine standard Yeti springs & the combination of Eibachs & Bilstein B4s give the same normal road ride quality as standard, better infact over really sharp bumps & potholes, the Bilsteins are better quality & the damping feels more sophisticated than the standard dampers. The only compromise is I've lost about an inch of ground clearance, but as I don't do any more off-roading than normal farm tracks, it doesn't affect my requirements of the car, so it's perfect for my needs. As I'm oldish & we live in a low risk area, insurance with mods declared (including the stage 1 remap) is never more than £240 fully comp with protected NCB, so even that's not really a big compromise. The car's done 132K 100% mechanically reliable miles, 80k on the remap & economy is about 5% improved over standard, so once again, no compromise.

I run 16" winters on some old A4 alloys I bought 2nd hand off Fleabay 9 years ago (7J x16" ET45, 215/60/16) & the ride does improve, but as you say you can also loose some steering feel. However, I've found the choice of tyre just as important. The steering was more woolly with Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance 17"s than the 16" winter Pirelli Sottozero 3s I had at the time, surprising as the Sottozero's a heavily siped winter tyre. Similarly, I'm currently running Continental Premium Contact 6s on the 17" summer (standard Elegance) rims & the ride on those is almost equal to that of the 16", certainly better than any other 17" tyres I've had on the car bar the Goodyears. On the 17" I've run Dunlop Sport 01 factory fit (awful ride, wet performance poor at half worn & got noisy) Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance (quiet, economical & comfortable but very soft & imprecise on turn in & no feel, binned quickly) Continental Sportcontact 5, really sporty feeling with amazing steering feel & dry & wet grip, but not that comfortable) Continental Premiumcontact 6 (95% of the steering feel & the same grip as the SC5 but good ride quality, probably 90% as good as 16" winters) I've also driven other Yetis on Michelin Primacy & Nexens but the Continental Premiumcontact 6 is definitely the best combination I've driven on a Yeti. My car has also had Eibach Pro springs & Bilstein B4 dampers for the last 6 years which improves the handling & steering feel slightly, gives factory levels of normal ride quality, but a better low speed ride especially on really bad surfaces.

Any newer reviews/comments available on this subject please? I'm thinking of upgrading my rear ARB to a slightly stiffer item to reduce understeer, however I'm worried about adversely affecting the ride quality. I also have the Eibach springs which I initially also mistakenly fitted with Bilstein B6s after reading forums instead of sticking with my plan of using Koni FSDs. I didn't get on with the B6s at all, too compromised for me, too stiff. Great at high speed, but too stiff on the motorway & around town. I'd run Eibachs & Koni FSDs on a Alfa 156 before the Yeti, loved them & had no problems. A couple of years ago I also bought an Abarth 500 & put FSDs & Eibachs on that too, again with really good results. Certainly better than the B6/Eibach combination on the Yeti. Also a rear B6 always knocked at times, then a front started so I'd had enough & binned them. Unfortunately, FSDs weren't available at that time for the Yeti, so I went for B4s. What an improvement. For me this combination is what the Yeti should've been from the factory as it's less harsh over sharp bumps & potholes than standard, but the handling improvements from the Eibachs & better damping from the B4s over the cheap Skoda standard items is noticeable. People tell me the rear ARB would be a good upgrade, but I don't want to stiffen the car much more as I don't want to loose the superbly planted feel my Yeti currently has when pressing on down poorly surfaced lanes. Cheers.