First Impressions on returning to a Yeti... ...

[Freshacre]

After 2 and a bit years spent away in a 4*4 Superb Elegance, it just happened that there was a gizmo-laden 4*4 Yeti on display in the Showroom, and with an auto box, rooflight, and heated screen all built in, and after very little haggle time the deal was done.

 

In the three days I've had the thing I've done a fair few miles, left leg securely strapped to the floor to prevent unexpected emergency stops.  In that time I've been reminded of all the 'little' things that I have missed while owning the 'Berb.

 

Hill hold - could not understand why this was omitted on the bigger 4*4, and I missed it almost daily;  self dipping central mirror - what a boon to be able to set and forget again;  sunset glass rearwards - again i could never fathom this not being a part of the big estate car's spec;  tiny turning circle - the limo was OK but the Yeti runs rings around it;  decent mobile headlights - the beams, both hi and lo, work as a single focussed pool of light whereas on the Superb the main high beam was distinctly yellow in colour and not as bright as i felt it should be, as well as seeming to operate in a different time and place;  the seats, all the seats, seats up, seats down, seats tumbled, seats vanished, hedges disappeared - oh, the joy of peering into previously private parts of Powys, and the simple stresslessness of space for stuff sans seats.

 

Being a 170, even though a DSG, it goes, like the Estate like **** off a shovel, and as it is closer-coupled and less of a wallower than the 'Berb I can turn directly into a corner without starting to turn 100 yards before i got there.  I never did get used to that quirk whereby the car required advance warning of every bend.  This has to be one of the true joys of being back in the Yeti, that of driving a tall go-kart that obeys instantly.  When we all acquired our Yetii back in the dim and distant days of '09 and '10 there seemed to be two subjects that irked.  First was the positioning of the central rear-view mirror, which has now been shifted up the screen by a good few yards, and the second was the tendency to pitter-patter over bumps with the accompanying rhythm section clattering out its own beat depending upon the relative severity of the bumps and holes.  This has been a revelation!  This Yeti is oh-so-smooth and silent - and I've tested it on my favourite pot-holed tarmac C-grade highway that abounds here. Credit where it is due, whatever 'they' have done, they've sorted it - unless my increasingly apparent senility has affected my ability to, er, remember.  And talking of old stuff, and talking of seats, i had forgotten how easy it is to get in and out of the thing having spent the two and a bit years employing a rope and some pulleys to rise up out of the bowels of the 'Berb's buttock-holding recesses.  Now i simply swivel, and my feet find the ground, and there we are.

 

So - it goes real lovely, it has an airy cabin thanks to the skylight which I must learn to be wary of.... I fiddled with the round knobby thing in the roof and before I was aware of what had happened I had to fetch a towel to blot my hair dry.  Above the mesh it had tilted and moved and water did as water does, and cascaded forwards through the widening gap all over me and the Dawg - who was just as surprised as me and twice as offended.  She takes great care of her hair.

 

And on the night of delivery I had to load up all the band kit and head off up the Wales map to a village pub where we had been asked to play at the Wake for a recently deceased Irishman.  The Yeti was loaded to the Plimsoll line with amps and mics and mixers and guitars and bouzoukis - all easily stuffed, then un-stuffed, and finally stuffed again as we began to head for home.  As you do after a triumphant sending off where the mourners sang and danced with abandon, I reflected on what worked and what wasn't so good, and i didn't notice, 100 yards up the road from the pub, one of the revellers weaving his way up the pavement, then the road, then the pavement, then the road.  I continued to reflect after I had re-stuffed the bouzouki and two guitars which had tumbled around my ears after I had effected a 'manual' emergency stop with BOTH feet fighting for space on the single pedal that wasn't the accelerator... ... It won't happen again.  The bluddy car stood on its nose, such was the united pressure upon the pedal.

 

What don't i like?  well - I'm not terribly keen on the interior brown, though fortunately the bits I see are the usual dark grey;  and I am not yet certain about the magnetic brown metallic , though it does seem to melt nicely into the mud on the roads, kindly left by the thousands of Massey Ferguson tractors that frequent these parts without stopping to wash their wheels before leaving the fields to join the tarmac.  One distinct advantage, and this especially for Wakev, I can now manage to run the gauntlet of all the farm collies in the county simply because they cannot see the thing.  It so merges with the mud that, to them, it is just another mound of mud dropped by their man on manoeuvres!

 

My final first impression concerns that so-called infotainment system.  What a great bit of kit.  Full stop.

 

All in all then this was a "good thing" to have done.  While I enjoyed the large effortless motoring experience of the 28k miles I think that this Yeti will do as my first one did - and put a ruddy great grin all over my face whenever I swivel into it.  Unless I am assaulted by various instruments again and end up wearing a bouzouki necklace... ... ..

 

George 

[Ryeman]

Any word on the new ~188hp diesel from the 'berb being available ?

[domhnall]

I'm just about to go in the opposite direction George, just ordered a 1.4 tsi Octavia SEL with extra xenon lights. Was tempted by another 1.2 yeti tsi but I've started doing some more motorway trips again so the yeti's economy isn't too great when you get above 60. Will be interesting to see how it goes. 

 

The yeti has been the most problem ridden Skoda I've ever owned but then it's the first one in 20 years that I have kept for more than three years.

Edited 9 May, 2015 by domhnall

[Freshacre]

I'm just about to go in the opposite direction George, just ordered a 1.4 tsi Octavia SEL with extra xenon lights. Was tempted by another 1.2 yeti tsi but I've started doing some more motorway trips again so the yeti's economy isn't too great when you get above 60. Will be interesting to see how it goes. 

 

The yeti has been the most problem ridden Skoda I've ever owned but then it's the first one in 20 years that I have kept for more than three years.

 

The Xenon lights in my view (!) are so worth it.  Before the Yeti I had never appreciated just how good good lights could be!

 

In terms of reliability, my original Yeti didn't have many hassles at all, whereas the 'Berb had some pretty serious issues eating tyres and vibration.  Sinclair got to the bottom of it by finding TWO faults - the settings were markedly out in terms of chassis set up - and there was a pulverised wheel bearing too!

 

I hope you enjoy better motoring in the Octavia - and certainly better economy.  I found the 170 engine gave decent economy coupled with some electrifying performance.

 

Interestingly this L and K 170 DSG is costing about £300 to insure where the superb was only £210 with Allianz who have the Yeti in "special measures" insurance-wise - and yet they underpin Skoda insurance for them, as they do for BMW .

[domhnall]

the motoring in the yeti has been fine, it's great fun to drive on twisty roads but when we load up for a family trip and have to take Christmas presents then packing can be "interesting". Economy is never better than 38 mpg and the air con failed twice and we had to have the interior replaced after 3 months due to the sunroof drains being installed so they drained INSIDE the car. Since those were fixed it has been trouble free.  

[CFB]

Welcome back George.

[wakev]

.  One distinct advantage, and this especially for Wakev, I can now manage to run the gauntlet of all the farm collies in the county simply because they cannot see the thing.  It so merges with the mud that, to them, it is just another mound of mud dropped by their man on manoeuvres!

 

George 

 

 

               

[hmibennett]

There are still many things about my Yetis that I miss - I think George has picked up on most of them - but like domhnall I found 'economy' on the motorway pretty dreadful in both 2.0 diesel and 1.8 petrol versions that I owned, and I have found that, despite 'retirement', I now do more motorway driving than I thought I would, with grandchildren in Milton Keynes and another (well, on the way!) in Rotherham.  My 1.6 diesel Qashqai, despite the smaller engine and (I would guess) heavier car, and also 4x4 like both Yetis, is much easier on the juice.  Computer readouts used to give me about 47mpg overall in the diesel Yeti, 34mpg overall in the petrol yeti but 53+ in the Qashqai: quite a difference (and the insurance and road tax are significantly cheaper).

 

Yes, I miss many of the Yeti's qualities (although the QQ has some compensatory features) and might well return to the fold IF Skoda produce a LWB version and IF the new engines are more economical AND lower tax-rated.

[Freshacre]

The "cost to change" a car way exceeds any running costs, and yet we'll happily fork out for the thrill of a fresh set of wheels and that intoxicating 'new car' smell.

 

That said, like you Inspector, I resent a £60-70 brim-up, and the annuals of tax and insurance, though in reality it is something we would willingly keep paying in order to retain the freedom that a car brings.

 

Funny people, people!