rafi_arch

A yeti where it belongs... Nice photo ! Off topic: Just curious, Nikon or Canon ?

Oooo... Like them black roof rails. And of course the green badges. "HappYetiing" !

Answering the invitation: 1) Heat management (engine / coolant heat I guess) - OK, never saw the gauge passing the middle (90 deg C) mark, even when driving uphill. 2) Speaking of which, I was skeptic about a 1.2 L engine on a 1,300 Kg car, but was surprised from the test drive and decided to go for it. Amazing how this "small" engine quietly pulls uphill the "heavy" Yeti without significant effort. Mind you, my precedent Fiat Doblo was the same weight, with a 1.9 L atmospheric Diesel engine, needing to press the accelerator pedal down to the floor and wishing the floor was 5 cm deeper in order to feel the car moving forward... Slowly, the Doblo was doing the job (thanks to the relatively high -12.5 Kgm - torque of the Desel engine). Just trying to imagine the huge 30 Kgm torque of the 2.0 L TDI ! 3) A.C. works very well. Best A.C. among all cars owned. Hope "Champion" staff knows well ho to deal with the system, if need will arise. Frankly, can't forget two different trips to the Kineret Lake (where "oriki" lives) returning home with a dead A.C. (on the Doblo) due to +40 deg C (and higher) outside temp and bad maintenance from Fiat staff. Also, an earlier trip there, with the MY '87 1.3 L Peugeot 309 that barely pulled uphill with the "ticking" engine (bad ignition forwarding / engine management). Just for summary - although there is no such a thing the "perfect product" - the best and pleasant car we owned so far !

From looking at an enlarged copy of the front picture, I can see some strange "manipulation". The upper ends of the bumper looks "photoshoped" or masked. The "round fogs covers" looks as masking the absence of the fogs ! Look at the difference at the edge of the front light where it meets other body parts and where it meets the "fog mask". To me it looks as the front light lens continues behind that mask. Otherwise, why do they have to mask the fogs ?! I'm afraid one of the Yeti's main personality signs - is gone... Edit: I think I understand the connection of above two masks:The fogs have being moved to the bumper edges !

Just washed the Yeti yesterday afternoon for the second time with the pressure washer, so I can confirm water amount usage, by reading of the water counter before and after: 0.06995 m3 = 70 liters of water. This gives 10 min. total usage of the washer as it takes 420 liters / hour. Quite reasonable when thinking about 6.25 m3 (6250 liters) per month it takes to water our 30 m2 lawn.

There are plenty of them. Most done in the last years as part of urban road design concept to reduce need of traffic lights, make junctions safer and traffic more fluent.

Weird... My 1.2 TSI Ambition is fitted with front speakers (2 tweeters + 2 woofers) on the SWING system. Fader function is missing as there are no rear door speakers. From further reading on forums I can understand that the fader function is automatically enabled as soon as rear speakers are fitted.

Interesting... This leads me to some questions: Is your wheel alignment correct ? If so, Are you mostly driving alone, so weight differences between left / right side influences tire wear (I doubt an average of 80 Kg difference may influence) Or there is a great difference of weight between sides of car due to construction, like engine / clutch / gearbox placement (I also doubt there is, as IMO it would affect dynamic behavior of the car).

I can confirm (w. spare, raised boot floor, rough measures): W (between wheel arches): 102 cm L (plastic sill to raised floor lip behind the seats): 70 cm h (floor to shelf underline): 45 cm => 321 L H (floor to boot area ceiling underline): 85 cm => 607 L

There was an old joke from the pre 21'th century Skoda era: "How do you double the value of a Skoda ? You just top up the fuel tank..." As being born in Romania and lived there until age of 9, I can still remember well those rear engined Skodas on the streets of Bucharest. Also the old Dacia 1100 and 1300. In the late 80's they (1300 model / Renault 12 replica) were imported to Israel as "Dacia Delta" and brought bad reputation to Dacia. In the last few years, the Logan was imported here, but obviously under the brand of Renault - because of the trauma left by Dacia on the local car market ! BTW, Duster is not imported here...

As far as I learned from a topic here, the bolts are part of the original Skoda crossbars, and serve as stoppers / place indicators for the bars fixing device, which is intended to take the load. Almost sure they are M6, but I doubt the bolts can bear great shear forces. About limitations of "fitting times" I don't know (is there something in the original Skoda bars manual ?). I can't see signs of "self locking nuts" (with nylon washer) in the thread inserts. BTW, "self locking nuts" are designed for one use only ! But the bolts themselves can be fitted with a "locking tape" wrapped around the thread. About the material of the threads in the roof bars- I can see they are some kind of insert- not sure about the material, but I suspect harder than aluminum alloy. Take care not to use too long bolts, as they can reach the outer wall of the roof bars and damage them from inside (roof bars are hollow aluminum profiles). Myself used them just once, fitting 2 DIY crossbars aluminum profiles, by help of 4 "corner shaped" hardware pieces. Used the crossbars to carry some long items from my carpenter to my home. A short haul and drove slowly avoiding sudden braking.

So does the Lavor. I assume all washers do the same. 5 min. estimated by me. Next time I'll time it with the help of my son and the timer / stoper app. or better, take a reading of the water counter- after all it is nearby, and has 1/1000 cubic meter reading accuracy.

5 minutes of total pump operations. Do you operate the pressure washer continuously for an hour ? If it isn't a water cooled machine I doubt if you can operate it for such a long period without risk of damage. Aniway, one hour takes huge amount of water - something we surely can't afford in Israel.

Washing the Yeti by hand took about 2 x 12 liter buckets, but it's not enough having to clean the alloys throughly, so it can take about 30-35 liters for a good "hand Yeti wash". Yesterday tried the new Lavor pressure washer. Specs claim for max. 420 liters / min. Assuming a total of about 5 min. of pump usage, it gives about 35 liters for a Yeti wash session, with relatively long pump usage periods for the alloys- using the turbo lance. BTW, wasn't satisfied with the detergent used. It's a car shampoo (+ wax ?) found in my DIY closet. I'l have to search for a suitable snow foaming product.

Just received my LAVOR pressure water cleaner, this afternoon. A quiet impressive kit. Also Lavor Italy staff were very helpful, promptly sending me PDF manual upon request prior making the order- a habit I have to reveal things further than by advertising stuff about products I'm interested in. Tech. specs. claim aluminum pump head. Further impressions to be posted... (picture from the sales site)

YOU TALKIN' TO ME ?

Why envy ? IMO pressure washers are affordable in EU, in Israel they are still pricey (even not "pro level" washers). I have to be envious about prices in EU. Just ordered this week a LAVOR pressure washer for equiv. of about 150 euro while in EU it is sold for less than 100 euro- as I could see on EU sales sites. Obviously, KARCHER are much pricey. Why fear about water waste ? Pressure washers are known to use about only 20% water comparing to same job done with garden hose ! About the cat- I don't know- we have a dog...

Neither sign of this...

Certainly off topic...It belongs to DPReview forums / Nature and Wildlife Photography forum. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/1051 If I take the challenge - the cat is (might be) at the top, first third from left.

It happens this week there is a bargain price for a "LAVOR Skipper Junior 130" cold water pressure cleaner on a sales site. Does someone know this Italian brand and despite it's "made in China" - is it a quality product ? Does someone here own such or similar LAVOR product ? Of course its price is much lower than KARCHER's price. Opinions will be appreciated. http://www.lavorchina.cn/Products.asp?MID=38&NID=160

I'm not saying wind noise on the Yeti is a real issue- just quoting at least one review I read at the time. Neither wind noise is an issue for me. You should hear what wind noise on the almost upright windshield and high cabin of the Fiat Doblo (MY 2002) is ! Just commented that the good headroom of the Yeti's cabin is achieved upon aerodynamic price, compared to Qashqai. I don't think aerodynamics really matters that much in the SUVs class. Cabin headroom matters more and Yeti wins against Qashqai.

What "hit" me in the Qashqai was the windshield / ceiling joint. For real ! While trying to accommodate on the driver's seat at the showroom, raised myself a bit on the seat- as I was used to do in my precedent huge car including an upper front ceiling shelf- I hit my head into that area, as the windshield / roof are very low, In the name of aerodynamics. That's why Yetis are commented to suffer of wind noise issue (no problem for me comparing to the wind noise of the Fiat Doblo !). But at least- no harm to Yeti driver's heads !

Betty the Yeti & _____ the Beetle... (has it a name already ?) Enjoy !

It's OK CFB, wasn't offended by your post. It's good sometimes someone make others stop an rethink. Wipe that humble face. As I use to say- Happy YETIing !

Oh, forgot to mention, even once got help on the "Fabia forum" with DRLs on/off procedure. Even "Fabia forum" SUCKS ! (oh no, here we start again...) Seriously now - with that out of the way, let's continue happy "YETIing" !