Australian Yeti owners?

[pixor]

I've really enjoyed my Octavia MK2 while living in Scotland, and am about to emigrate to Sydney. Unfortunately it means bye bye to the faithful Octy, but it also means I'm going to buy a Yeti when in Oz

Reason for the Yeti is that I am a photographer in my spare time, and I intend to travel about Oz a lot and make the most of the experience, and expect to be using a fair few unmade roads to get to interesting places.

Are there any Australian Yeti owners here, and how do you find it? I'm not bothered about how good it is on ice and snow, but I'd like to know the air con is up to the job

[domhnall]

Given that the air con is the same as on the octy you should feel quite at home when you get a yeti. In fact the yeti is so much like the Octavia I have to remind myself sometimes that I changed car. It's much more fun on wee twisty roads when driven briskly and on unmade tracks it's in its element. We have some friends who stay up some unmade tracks in perthshire and the octy only went their once on a nerve wracking crawl. Went back in the yeti and what took us 40 minutes nervously inching along in the octy took 10 mins in the yeti. Mud, water all handled superbly and mines not even 4x4

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[YETI DREAMER]

Have you seen the top gear test on the skoda yeti???????? .

The yeti was driven inside a warehouse that was set on fire for ten miniutes and the aircon only lost 1deg c.

Not bad at 150deg c.. B) B) It should work fine.

[CFB]

I've really enjoyed my Octavia MK2 while living in Scotland, and am about to emigrate to Sydney. Unfortunately it means bye bye to the faithful Octy, but it also means I'm going to buy a Yeti when in Oz

Reason for the Yeti is that I am a photographer in my spare time, and I intend to travel about Oz a lot and make the most of the experience, and expect to be using a fair few unmade roads to get to interesting places.

Are there any Australian Yeti owners here, and how do you find it? I'm not bothered about how good it is on ice and snow, but I'd like to know the air con is up to the job

I can see your only problem is likely to be finding a Skoda dealer within a reasonable distance.

Not sure about over east but in WA they are few and far between.

The Aussies only have 4 models available too.

TP of the range is a 4x4DSG at $39,000 OTR (£25600)

[pixor]

I can see your only problem is likely to be finding a Skoda dealer within a reasonable distance.

Not sure about over east but in WA they are few and far between.

The Aussies only have 4 models available too.

TP of the range is a 4x4DSG at $39,000 OTR (£25600)

We're moving to Sydney, so a dealer should be no problem. I noticed that the 4x4 version was only available with the 140bhp diesel. I had been hoping to get back to a nice, refined petrol again! Having said that, I believe the CR diesels are a bit smoother?

[900000]

We're moving to Sydney, so a dealer should be no problem. I noticed that the 4x4 version was only available with the 140bhp diesel. I had been hoping to get back to a nice, refined petrol again! Having said that, I believe the CR diesels are a bit smoother?

Far, far smoother than a PD. Very petrol-like actually.

[rockhopper]

I believe the CR diesels are a bit smoother?

Yes, much better than the PD engine I had in my previous Octavia. They don't sound as good as the BMW 530d engine in my previous car though

[pixor]

Tell me about it! I had a 530i - my favourite engine ever!

Still, an average 44mpg in my Octy is an improvement on 27mpg

[Jake02]

Hi pixor, I'm not a Yeti owner (just yet anyway ) but I am a 'local' as such here in Sydney with my Octavia RS (that's one thing you'll have to get used to here, no v in vRS). Modern-day Skoda is a 'new' brand to Australia, having only launched here in late 2007. I got mine in July 2008 when they sold 40 cars in that month. Last month Skoda sold 609 cars and while that isn't that many, it's their best ever result and enough to comfortably outsell many other Euro brands (Citroen, Renault, Peugeot, Land Rover, Volvo - pretty much every Euro brand except BMW, Merc, Audi and VW) so while you won't see many Skodas around, they're becoming vastly more popular.

In all honestly, I hate my Octavia's air-con. It's crap and because of the amount of glass in the car, it really struggles. I hope that the Yeti's air-con is better (how could it not be really and it should be too)! But yes, around Sydney it's fine, just on the open road (particularly in Summer) you need to put the fan up high.

It's true that we have a 2-engined lineup too. Australian motoring is rather conservative in some respects (it's such a shock to me that the Mazda3 is the number one selling car here) so most cars here are automatics unfortunately (the Aus Superb lineup is DSG-only) and Toyota sells BIG here. Instead of family wagons or hatches like in Europe, compact SUVs do big business here and MPVs barely exist (people preferring their Holden (Chevy in the UK) Captivas, Ford Territorys and Toyota Klugers) and more recently, 4WDs have been proving too costly to run so 2WD variants have been introduced of many SUVs, hence the Yeti 2WD. Here VWAG Australia cars go by their power (in kW not hp) figure and then by the type of engine, so the Yeti 140CR in the UK is called the Yeti 103TDI (103kW/140hp 2.0L TDI). At the moment we have the Yeti 1.2TSI and 2.0TDI and while the 2.0TDI is great, you know the 1.2TSI isn't going to sell. Such a small power figure in such a big car isn't going to work and I've heard from Skoda Aus that they're already planning on the 1.4TSI.

In the first half of this year though, the Yeti 1.8TSI 4x4 is joining the range and should be about $3,000 cheaper than the 2.0TDI (so about A$32,000) and I'd recommend that over the 2.0TDI. Also, you won't find many Yeti owners because the Yeti has only been on sale here for about four months. Sorry for the long one, but I just thought I'd welcome you and give you a little info on the Aus car market!

Also, when you get here, why not join the local VW/Audi/Skoda forum? http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/forum.php#skoda

[pixor]

Thanks Jake.

My Australian friend was trying to persuade me I need a V8, but I think those days are behind me now. I don't mind an auto, as I have a dodgy left leg - in fact I have a DSG box in my Octy, and it's pretty good.

My wife liked the look of the Audi Q3 - on the other hand, I rather like the lower price tag and no nonsense image of Skodas. There's no point in having a 4x4 if I'm worried about getting the odd stone chip on it!

I'll check out the forum - cheers!

[domhnall]

Hi pixor, I'm not a Yeti owner (just yet anyway ) but I am a 'local' as such here in Sydney with my Octavia RS (that's one thing you'll have to get used to here, no v in vRS). Modern-day Skoda is a 'new' brand to Australia, having only launched here in late 2007. I got mine in July 2008 when they sold 40 cars in that month. Last month Skoda sold 609 cars and while that isn't that many, it's their best ever result and enough to comfortably outsell many other Euro brands (Citroen, Renault, Peugeot, Land Rover, Volvo - pretty much every Euro brand except BMW, Merc, Audi and VW) so while you won't see many Skodas around, they're becoming vastly more popular.

In all honestly, I hate my Octavia's air-con. It's crap and because of the amount of glass in the car, it really struggles. I hope that the Yeti's air-con is better (how could it not be really and it should be too)! But yes, around Sydney it's fine, just on the open road (particularly in Summer) you need to put the fan up high.

At the moment we have the Yeti 1.2TSI and 2.0TDI and while the 2.0TDI is great, you know the 1.2TSI isn't going to sell. Such a small power figure in such a big car isn't going to work and I've heard from Skoda Aus that they're already planning on the 1.4TSI.

I beg to differ re the 1.2 engine, I have just moved from a 2.0 diesel octavia and the 1.2 tsi engine is fantastic in the yeti. It's also used in the Octavia and seems to manage in that car too. In fact my 1.2 performs much better than my wife's 1.9 TDi audi a3 (which is admittedly 9 years old). If by "isn't going to work" you mean that Australian drivers will not be able to get their heads around having smaller engines then that's different but the 1.4 brings a higher price tag and higher fuel consumption and in the UK higher tax. Some people just can't accept that modern engines can be smaller than was previously needed. A Canadian friend was recently arguing with me that a 2.0 litre engine was too small for a car like the Octavia. In the Canadian mind set the smallest engine you can get away with is a 3.0 litre. When I took him for a drive in the octy he accepted it worked but confidently predicted it would last less than 5000 miles!!!

Go try a 1.2 and prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

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[Jake02]

I beg to differ re the 1.2 engine, I have just moved from a 2.0 diesel octavia and the 1.2 tsi engine is fantastic in the yeti. It's also used in the Octavia and seems to manage in that car too. In fact my 1.2 performs much better than my wife's 1.9 TDi audi a3 (which is admittedly 9 years old). If by "isn't going to work" you mean that Australian drivers will not be able to get their heads around having smaller engines then that's different but the 1.4 brings a higher price tag and higher fuel consumption and in the UK higher tax. Some people just can't accept that modern engines can be smaller than was previously needed. A Canadian friend was recently arguing with me that a 2.0 litre engine was too small for a car like the Octavia. In the Canadian mind set the smallest engine you can get away with is a 3.0 litre. When I took him for a drive in the octy he accepted it worked but confidently predicted it would last less than 5000 miles!!!

Go try a 1.2 and prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

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Domhnall, I can appreciate where you're coming from and thank you for shedding a little light on the 1.2TSI as it's a fairly new engine to Australia with the Fabia only just being released and the top-selling Golf being the 1.4TSI. I myself can justify the 1.2TSI (because when on-road taxes and so on are included in the price, it's $10,000 cheaper than 2.0TDI 4x4) but for most consumers, where our top selling car for a number of years has been the Holden Commodore with a 3+ litre V6 and many being 5.7+ litre V8s, it seems less plausible. Australian fuel prices are £1 a litre so you can understand that saving costs aren't that high for many Australians unfortunately. Bring on the 1.8TSI!

[domhnall]

Domhnall, I can appreciate where you're coming from and thank you for shedding a little light on the 1.2TSI as it's a fairly new engine to Australia with the Fabia only just being released and the top-selling Golf being the 1.4TSI. I myself can justify the 1.2TSI (because when on-road taxes and so on are included in the price, it's $10,000 cheaper than 2.0TDI 4x4) but for most consumers, where our top selling car for a number of years has been the Holden Commodore with a 3+ litre V6 and many being 5.7+ litre V8s, it seems less plausible. Australian fuel prices are £1 a litre so you can understand that saving costs aren't that high for many Australians unfortunately. Bring on the 1.8TSI!

Ah so I was right, you meant that Aussies cant get their heads round the fact that when the engine is more efficient it doesn't have to be so big. Like my Canadian friend. He was adamant that an Octavia would be massively underpowered using a 2 litre. Such a small engine in a big car would inevitably wear out in no time. He was just baffled by the whole thing until he converted our fuel prices into dollars. He started to get the idea at that point.

This might be wrong but I regard people who don't see the need to cut back on how much of our finite resources they use a bit like someone going up to the all you can eat buffet and gorging on all the food and saying "I'm not bothered about the rest of you, I've got plenty!" :wonder: