I haven't ridden in a Cashcow - I certainly didn't even consider buying one for a variety of reasons - but I have heard comments that rear seat legroom is much less than in the Yeti so presumably that is where the extra boot space comes from, in part at least.

True. It is more cramped in the Nissan. Must say I forgot to mention this as one of my positives: rear legroom and space is astounding. Not Superb astounding of course but very good. I had three guys back there going to Edinburgh and back and none of them complained going up or down. Not even once! And they are all swimmers with broad shoulders to boot!

The Yeti also scores over the Cashcow when you start loading vertically. The Cashcow's sloping rear window reduces its total available space significantly. But I hate driving without being able to see through my internal mirror so only pack this way as a last, last resort.

Same here. I've driven with the middle out, or just with the middle one down as an armrest and the road noise does not seem to be any different.

My thanks to Mike & 900000 !

True. It is more cramped in the Nissan. Must say I forgot to mention this as one of my positives: rear legroom and space is astounding. Not Superb astounding of course but very good. I had three guys back there going to Edinburgh and back and none of them complained going up or down. Not even once! And they are all swimmers with broad shoulders to boot!

The Yeti also scores over the Cashcow when you start loading vertically. The Cashcow's sloping rear window reduces its total available space significantly. But I hate driving without being able to see through my internal mirror so only pack this way as a last, last resort.

I've looked at the Kumquat, and would indeed note it fails the 'me behind me' test (I'm 6'4") where as the Yeti it worked just lovely. Still no.1 option to me!

I know I've resurected an old thread, but was interested in the comments Johann made below.

I will also fit the new rear indicator bulbs, as well as attempt the auto boot open modification for which the springs arrived just before Christmas.

Why did you change the indicator bulbs?

And what's this auto boot open mod?

I know I've resurected an old thread, but was interested in the comments Johann made below.

Why did you change the indicator bulbs?

And what's this auto boot open mod?

A blast from the past. hehehe

The indicator story can be found here:

http://briskoda.net/...-my-yeti-today/

The standard indicator lenses appear orange from behind and I changed them so they "disappear" and look the same as the reverse lights.

Before:

After:

The automatic boot opening was from this Octavia thread: http://briskoda.net/...boot-completed/. A total flop on the Yeti since the boot is near vertical and the forces just don't work alas.

Oh well, there you go. Thanks

The cruise control is the same as my old Octavia, so I'm used to it and have no problem with it, other than you can no longer just up click to increase by 1 Km or down click to decrease by 1km. I miss that.

Only just noticed this (because I read the whole thread thinking it was current; must have clicked in the wrong place!).

One can adjust the cruise control speed up and down 1 click, by using the Set and Resume buttons on the indicator stalk when the cruise control is active. I sometimes find this very useful to set the right speed; though to be honest my use of cruise control at all is minimal.

Well I have now had my Yeti for some time. I did more miles than most in a month and truth be told more than I thought I would or will keep up with. It is just such a lovely car that the Mazda and V5 stayed at home. Though neither of them have winter tyres and the Mazda especially is a handful as it is rear wheel drive…

But back to the Yeti. I had my A2 for nine years as nothing could match its spread of abilities. I love cars and car design and know pretty much all that is going on in the industry. So from the mule stage I’ve been following the Yeti’s birth. But never actually thought I’d buy one to be honest. Only when I started reading the specs and realised it had the clever Roomster seats that can be changed and left at home did my ears really perk up. And then the clincher was that the sunroof could open and it was not a Cashcow-Peugeot-Roomster fixed fishbowl affair.

One thing I still don’t quite like is that black rear bumper. From the day I first laid eyes on this car on the Internet (the 3rd of March 2009 according to my email records) I said (to my car mad friends via email) the rear bumper looks like a total afterthought in not being painted. There is a black valance on the front bumper and this line is continued along the side skirts and then at the rear bumper this line jumps up. Why? Well to save something to do for the first facelift I imagine. But then by looking at the dimension pictures in all the Yeti brochures you see that they colour coded the side valances as well as the entire rear bumper - which is also wrong in my book. (Having this black line under any car helps slim the visual bulk). But I suspect that is what they will do come the first facelift - though I hope not. I asked my dealer and James if it could be colour coded but alas the rear bumper is of a different texture than something that can be painted so it would always have looked slightly different. So I had to let this be… But I was hoping for something like this:

Then I found this forum and my expectations for the Yeti just grew. It does things in the Germanic way I know and like. There is an underlying logic to everything it does. (Some we don’t quite get but I’m sure if we get to read the German list requirements of why the sunroof blind closes at night we will all say, yes, that does in fact make sense!) So everything is as easy to operate as I had hoped. Bar the hopeless cruise control stalk that shares its position with the indicator. I guess Golfs and Passats have this same arrangement too. Oh to have a Mercedes separate cruise stalk…

Handling exceeded expectations I have to say. I only had the 17†wheels on for about 500 miles before getting the winters on. But even on those the ride was years and years better than the rock hard A2. Yet it still went around corners like it was on rails! And some of the speed bumps around my house I can now take at about 40 whereas in the A2 you could do no more than 20mph. LOVE that. They are also much quieter than the winter tyres.

There are tons of things I like. But then I think most of you guys bought your Yeti for the same reasons. I won’t dwell on them. The seats are amazingly comfortable, the electric seats have far better adjustment than the non-electric passenger seat, I like the memory for the mirrors and seat set to each key, I like how the passenger mirror drops when I select reverse, I love how the Bolero fades a track to nothing when you skip to another track, I love the one click indicators, I love the DSG box that just knows when to gear down as I go down a hill, that changes gear without me noticing, I love the rear seats’ versatility, I love the sunroof – and boy is it HUGE, I love the SD card music, the Bluetooth audio streaming, the Park Assist and the pictogram showing the front and rear parking sensors on the Bolero, I love that only the driver can really see how fast he is driving. The list goes on and on and on...

But there are a few minor niggles too.... I don’t like the tiny boot. For such a relatively large car it is pathetically small. Furthermore I could not fit everything I had had in the A2’s lower boot around its space saver spare back in the Yeti!!! Blame the wrong-way-around spare for one thing, but all those foam boxes take up a HUGE amount of space in themselves. Maybe I must just leave THEM at home!

Other niggles include what seems to be the same thing I HATE on my iPhone: one volume that controls everything. Why, oh why?! So first thing I did was set the Bluetooth pairing volume. But then you can’t hear people when they call you and you turn up the volume, only to be deafened next time the phone pairs again. Tedious changing of this volume up and down all the time... Sticking to the Bolero it must be the slowest CD changing radio on the planet with the most daftest incomprehensible CD load and eject buttons known to man. Hate that thing’s CD function with a passion. And then with all that screen real estate it can’t even show the time… Grrr. And no one but the driver can see the time in the car.

They also penny pinched by not moving the bonnet release from the left to the right of the car. And I really don't like how the heated mirrors don't have a timed switch. More penny pinching.

One last tiny Audi thing I miss is clicking buttons. Every Audi’s buttons click from the window to the radio to the climate control. Thus you always get an audible confirmation that you did in fact do what you had intended. Not the end of the world but one of those small things few people notice in an Audi.

One thing I thought would be much, much better is the fuel consumption however. I’m no granny when I drive but I did expect a bit better fuel consumption than the 33mpg I get now… 42 on the motorway is just about acceptable, but a 33 average is a LOT lower than what I’m used to. But then I did know any car would be worse than the A2! I’m no fool.

Would I buy another one? In a heartbeat. Am I recommending it to everyone? Oh yes. Do my friends and colleagues like it? Oh yes, they can’t believe how amazing a car it is but then when they hear it was near £30,000 before discount their eyes do water and the “but it is a…†words do get uttered. But one and all like it I have to say. As do I. It is the best car I’ve ever owned and thus far I’ve only scratched the surface of what he is capable of.

Hi, Johann,

Thanks for your views, v good. I noticed your mention of the VW Transporter, I had one of those between 1996 -2001, what a fantastic vehicle it was, I knew of some people who had them as their everyday 'car' as they thought that they were that excellant to drive, and I agreed. I had my MK1 focus 1.6 ghia for nine years from new and found it to be an excellant car all round, eventually however it had to go and I changed to a Mercedes B class in 2011,....big mistake....hated it, that high floor, left hand drive orientated windscreen washers, fear of servicing high costs, uncomfortable ingress and egress, etc etc, So,having not liked the look of the Yeti when i first saw it in 09, i set out to replace the merc late last year, well i drove them all, qashqai,tiguan,meriva,pegoet, suzeki sx4, and was dissapointed with all them compared to my beloved now departed focus. The most dissapointing and annoying thing that i have found with all these cars except the sx4, is that the centre console extends from the dash through to the gearstick and this has the effect of keeping your left leg virtually straight, ie, i cannot lean it to the left towards the gear stick and this has become a habit that i could do in the focus [and merc] later model focus had the same problem which is why i had never upgraded the mk1, i waited for the new C max to come out last year only to find that on the test drive it was akin to what i imagine driving a one man submarine would be like ! cramped and claustrophobic or what? Eventually i had a peep inside a parked yeti and to cut a long story short, i had two test drives and Lo and behold!... i found that i could move and twist bend my left leg to any angle that i pleased, and the driving position and visibillity and 'feel' of the yeti was superb. I'm now waiting for my brand new yeti [March] to arrive, oh, and i now like the slightly querky yeti look. p.s. sold the merc last november, now driving my transit and wifes fiesta :zzz:

Hi, Johann,

Thanks for your views, v good. I noticed your mention of the VW Transporter, I had one of those between 1996 -2001, what a fantastic vehicle it was, I knew of some people who had them as their everyday 'car' as they thought that they were that excellant to drive, and I agreed. I had my MK1 focus 1.6 ghia for nine years from new and found it to be an excellant car all round, eventually however it had to go and I changed to a Mercedes B class in 2011,....big mistake....hated it, that high floor, left hand drive orientated windscreen washers, fear of servicing high costs, uncomfortable ingress and egress, etc etc, So,having not liked the look of the Yeti when i first saw it in 09, i set out to replace the merc late last year, well i drove them all, qashqai,tiguan,meriva,pegoet, suzeki sx4, and was dissapointed with all them compared to my beloved now departed focus. The most dissapointing and annoying thing that i have found with all these cars except the sx4, is that the centre console extends from the dash through to the gearstick and this has the effect of keeping your left leg virtually straight, ie, i cannot lean it to the left towards the gear stick and this has become a habit that i could do in the focus [and merc] later model focus had the same problem which is why i had never upgraded the mk1, i waited for the new C max to come out last year only to find that on the test drive it was akin to what i imagine driving a one man submarine would be like ! cramped and claustrophobic or what? Eventually i had a peep inside a parked yeti and to cut a long story short, i had two test drives and Lo and behold!... i found that i could move and twist bend my left leg to any angle that i pleased, and the driving position and visibillity and 'feel' of the yeti was superb. I'm now waiting for my brand new yeti [March] to arrive, oh, and i now like the slightly querky yeti look. p.s. sold the merc last november, now driving my transit and wifes fiesta :zzz:

Good things come to those that wait! you will love the Yeti I'm sure.

Thanks for your views, v good. I noticed your mention of the VW Transporter, I had one of those between 1996 -2001, what a fantastic vehicle it was, I knew of some people who had them as their everyday 'car' as they thought that they were that excellant to drive, and I agreed.

I am very lucky, I have a yeti and a T4 transporter. Yeti for every day and the T4 for camping :-)

Oh yes I forgot to mention the exclusivity. I LOVE that most of all I think. I had it in the A2 and now again - and more! Driving to Yorkshire this past Saturday (in a VW Transporter) we saw five A2s heading there and one Yeti. Coming down we saw two A2s and no Yetis! But then just over 19000 A2s potentially roam the UK still and less than 5000 Yetis. So makes sense.

As to seats out: they stay firmly in place! Only to be left at home when space is needed.

Brilliant write up, I totally agree with you on all points. It is without a doubt the best vehicle I've owned, even better than my old Freelander Serengeti.

Did a 200k round trip on Tuesday to collect a Haggis.

Extremely comfortable, as good as the Vel Satis. In fact the heated seat is better than the Renault's. A nice bit of heat therapy for my old back.

I found the Cruise Control simple to use, even in fairly heavy traffic.

Almost no noticeable turbo lag ( I sometimes thought the Renault had stalled)

I'm very happy with Skoddy (which I bought instead of the Evoque) although the documentation could be a lot better. I'm just reading sections as I come up across them.

Hi, Johann,

Thanks for your views, v good. I had my MK1 focus 1.6 ghia for nine years from new and found it to be an excellant car all round, eventually however it had to go and I changed to a Mercedes B class in 2011,....big mistake....hated it, that high floor, left hand drive orientated windscreen washers, fear of servicing high costs, uncomfortable ingress and egress, etc etc,

I have the same worries with my B Class, the price of it was the draw. When I choose it the yeti was not out or sniffed at. So I had a choice between a C4 picasso and B-Class. The price at the time being the same and the thought of buying a Merc was too tempting. I chopped in my Octavia and got the B-Class nice comfort but all too expensive to run. Service costs etc. Surprising though was the insurance cost, very low. Thats about its only redeeming feature. I have the Yeti in my sights now and will be getting one soon (hopefully). I would never buy another Merc, I have to say though the cruise control is the best I have had.