Well somewhat prematurely my beloved Yeti – ‘Snowy’ (the Fuhrer names all worthy cars) has to go. PCP not actually due to expire until Nov 2013 but the Fuhrer has lost her car park space and that combined with one or two other factors means that having two cars would be madness.

What I do not want however is for the better half to loose her ability to drive; took me ages to persuade her into a smart fortwo! No chance of her driving the Yeti despite the fact she adores it because a) it is simply too big – in her opinion and if man/woman was meant to drive a car with 3 pedals he/she would have 3 legs. Of course there is the DSG but ‘a)’ is insurmountable and I dislike DSG’s without the flappy paddle option (of course I know you can retro fit it but still leaves the fact that she won’t contemplate manoeuvring the Yeti’s vast bulk….

So, both the smart and the Yeti have to go and a compromise in between has been found. Yet to sign the paperwork but Hobins in Manchester have been their usual helpful selves.

Gold star for the first correct guess.

Does Snowy go back to Hobins?

I know a potential buyer....

Well somewhat prematurely my beloved Yeti – ‘Snowy’ (the Fuhrer names all worthy cars) has to go. PCP not actually due to expire until Nov 2013 but the Fuhrer has lost her car park space and that combined with one or two other factors means that having two cars would be madness.

What I do not want however is for the better half to loose her ability to drive; took me ages to persuade her into a smart fortwo! No chance of her driving the Yeti despite the fact she adores it because a) it is simply too big – in her opinion and if man/woman was meant to drive a car with 3 pedals he/she would have 3 legs. Of course there is the DSG but ‘a)’ is insurmountable and I dislike DSG’s without the flappy paddle option (of course I know you can retro fit it but still leaves the fact that she won’t contemplate manoeuvring the Yeti’s vast bulk….

So, both the smart and the Yeti have to go and a compromise in between has been found. Yet to sign the paperwork but Hobins in Manchester have been their usual helpful selves.

Gold star for the first correct guess.

Bad luck! Fabia?

Chris

Tandem

Threeshoes is spot on. Rally green vRS Furby with the usual black wheels/black roof combo to be ordered. Seems that delivery times are almost as bad as with the Yeti so looking at Sept/Oct. At first I was going for the vRS estate but Fuhrer concerns over it's immense length....! Yet to actually order the furby, hopefully sort that out tomorrow now we are both in agreement.

Anyway, the Yeti will indeed go back to Hobins - when the vRS arrives obviously. It will go back with 4 winter tyres. It's a std Elegance with the exception of polished and unblemished Annapurnas and the under body protection kit. So far it has done a mere 17500 miles and been utterly faultless to boot.

Hobins were positively salivating at me trading snowy in. I was shown a new market survey showing the Yeti to be the 2nd best performing depreciation wise on the market. Q5 was first with the Abarth twins 500/500c 3rd and 4th.

Seems plenty of room in the Fabia but the race bikes will have to go al fresco. Should cope with the pike fishing gear just fine though. First purchase will of course be a set of winter boots, those I found to be far more important than 4wd.

I shall miss the Yeti despite the undoubted charms of the vRS, we both shall. My 40th car and firmly in the top 3 best cars I have ever owned.

I'm sure you are right to re-organise your fleet. In particular -having seen the outcome of a Smart car which was entirely innocently rear ended-I wouldn't want anyone I was fond of to be out on the roads in one.

The Yeti is an extremely easy drive and no larger in terms of the space it occupies than most golf size cars. The fact it has a good view all round and (on mine rear parking sensors)mean it is unusually easy to manouvre.

I know exactly what you mean re the Yeti and its size but convincing the better half is an exercise in futility. I will stick my neck out and say the Yeti is THE most relaxing drve I have ever had not a quality to be sniffed at on today's roads. The smart is the second in the Fluffy household. The first was very much loved but this one - a Highstyle special edition has been pretty hum drum and has simply not had the character to hide its many obvious shortcomings. The plan was to replace the smart with either a Panda TwinAir duologic or a Citigo AST Elegance but word has it that the AST transmission rivals the smart's in it's naffness and then the withdrawal of a parking space worth at least £15 a day forced a rethink on the fleet anyway.

Edited 14 May, 201214 yr by Fluffy destroyer of worlds

The mkII Fabia vRS is a pretty quick point to point car. I'm sure you'll have fun with it.

Interested to see how you find the ride with it's lowered suspension and 17"rims and low profile tyres. I didn't find it that bad when I tested one, although it's obviously not in the same class as a Yeti.

Personally I prefer the look of the estate as the mkII has a high roofline but for small external dimensions the hatch is quite roomy for a 4m car.

I lean towards the estate too but it was a flat Nein from the Fuhrer. I found the Yeti ride/handling compromise to be well nigh perfect, hard to imagine its even better on 16's but I don't doubt it. Previous to the Yeti I had an imported 156 GTA Selespeed and that was lowered on Eibachs and had Konis FSD's and a Q2 diff to boot. The vRS won't come close to that in the 'go' stakes but it should provide a more than acceptable half way house that will also suit the Fuhrer - she was utterly terrified of the Alfa and despite the transmission would go nowhere near it. I find the Fabia's looks somewhat 'gawky' but endearing, no issue really. I needed something in the Skoda stable that was automatic, robust, roomy, economical and fun. The vRS seems to tick all the boxes. We shall see.

That's the first time I've ever heard any Hobin group dealership as being 'helpful'!

Utterly brilliant with me especially after the atrocious experience I had at Claybank.

A friend with a Mazda would agree with you though, maybe it's just the Skoda side of the operation.

I would like the first guess please,

I see Hobins have a white 61 plate Fabia vRS with Amundsen, climatronic and MDI in stock so I'm going for that!

Ian