1 minute ago, Dexta Man said:

I was out in the snow this year doing my bit as a Wessex 4x4 Response member. Didn't encounter any problems with traction, steering etc. The real problem was other inexperienced drivers! 1.9 DSG Yeti.

 

Did it have winter, all season or summer tyres fitted?

Usual tyres, all season. Just a very light right foot. Had a few scary moments when people came down a hill behind me and ended up very close to me!

 

All season, thats the difference. Most people have summer tyres.

 

I also have a 1.2 Manual Yeti which is rubbish in the snow.  It had newish Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons tyres but had no front wheel grip going up a modest incline.

I suspect the lack of weight over the front wheels from the light 1.2 petrol engine, combined with the relatively wide wheels prevented the tyres from 

cutting into the snow.

The Yeti with these tyres was great for braking or turning corners etc. There was just no grip going uphill.

 

Oddly 1.2 TSI Fabia or Roomster can go up snowy inclines with good winter or all season tyres, and come down them.

Which suggests it could be the larger 17 inch wheels and tyres which are the problem.

Yes my two previous 2wd yetis, both diesel were hopeless in snow as the 17" wheels with wide tyres just span on top rather than diggin in.

 

Very embarrasing to be beeped to get out of the way by a taxi behind me when the car would not move forward or back on a flat section of road with about 6 inches of snow cover! Taxi eventually drove around me through deeper rutted snow.

Just out of interest, what was the taxi?

Some sort of Japanese car from memory

@Jons3y   Mk2 Fabia vRS with 180ps or more and a DQ200 DSG are fine on 215/40 R 17's of the correct type for winter so unlikely that it is the 17" rims, 

and 215 or 225 tyres should not be an issue with a Yeti.

Well this yeti with a snow experienced driver of many years, fitted with top rated 4 season tyres failed to get up a modest slope that was accessible by other vehicles fitted with summer tyres. So there does seem to be an issue with the Yeti set up as a petrol FWD. Or to put it briefly, its crap in snow.

It also understeers quite badly when the grip is bad, then all of a sudden changes behaviours and throws its tail out instead. All in all, very unpredictable.

I had a leased 1.2 DSG auto until few months ago, only had one serious bout of snow and had no problems with it.   From memory the tyres were Nexen

 

I suspect the type of tyres is going to make all the difference, maybe I was just lucky and those particular tyres were fairly happy to bite the newly fallen snow.

Or perhaps it is just because there is so much traffic in Surrey, light throttle creeping forward in queues is normal, that the DSG box had learnt what to do.

 

However, as others have already said, a winter tyre, or winter biased all season tyre, is going to be much better in snow.

19 hours ago, enor said:

It also understeers quite badly when the grip is bad, then all of a sudden changes behaviours and throws its tail out instead. All in all, very unpredictable.

That suggests poor driving more than a problem with the car.

13 minutes ago, Llanigraham said:

That suggests poor driving more than a problem with the car.

 

You know, that might be it. It's just strange that during my 30 years with a License, the Yetis are the only cars I've driven in the snow (and we have lots of it here in Sweden) that have behaved like this in my hands.

18 hours ago, enor said:

 

You know, that might be it. It's just strange that during my 30 years with a License, the Yetis are the only cars I've driven in the snow (and we have lots of it here in Sweden) that have behaved like this in my hands.

 

Have to admit you caused a wry smile there, enor.  Thirty years of driving in the conditions you experience is not to be dismissed.....

 

And,  welcome, to you, enor  :-)

Many in the UK drive in UK winter conditions every winter and have done for decades.

Obviously different from Sweden in the UK where there might be fresh snow until the ploughs, blowers, gritter etc get to the roads then they are treated or driven over by others.

 

Point being not that often might people in the UK drive lots of miles for journeys where it is miles of driving 'on snow'. 

Maybe slush, ice, new fresh falling snow but not hard compacted snow for that long or at much of a speed.

 

There are front wheel drives, rear wheels drives, part time or full time all wheel drives or 4x4's etc.

Plenty small capacity turbo petrols with revvy engines and Automatics and Semi Automatics / DSG's about doing just fine on winter roads.

 

I have never found anything particularly odd or poor about any fwd VW Group vehicles when driving in winter or snow and nothing that different with a Yeti.

No idea why a Yeti should be that different either other than maybe a bit higher than others, but not more than say a VW Caddy. that comes in different lengths.

They get about pretty well in winter around the world.

Edited 24 December, 20187 yr by Skoffski

A lot of it boils down to the rather poor feedback one gets thru the electric power steering, and the strange balance it has. The Yetis are my first VAG cars (if you don't count an old 1969 VW Beetle I once had) so my reference is mainly various SAABs and Volvos - which have all been much better than the Yeti in slippery conditions. 

 

However - despite this, I love my Yeti. I have never before felt so much "at home" in a car that I upgraded directly from it to a virtually identical-but-newer car before. The Yeti just feels _right_ to me, despite the winter behavior.

Edited 24 December, 20187 yr by enor

Yes. The shorter wheelbase of the Yeti ought to make it more willing to turn in than the Saab though, not more prone to understeer. 

It's just as well those that complain about the Yeti's lack of grip in snow did not have to drive the much lighter rear wheel cars of the 60s.
But it made you a better driver, and without the aids such as traction control and ABS etc.

On 16/11/2018 at 20:01, Dexta Man said:

I was out in the snow this year doing my bit as a Wessex 4x4 Response member. Didn't encounter any problems with traction, steering etc. The real problem was other inexperienced drivers! 1.9 DSG Yeti.

 

I didn't think the 1.9 PD lump was fitted to Yeti's
Thought all the diesels were 2.0

I think cars from the 70's and 80's were sometimes more capable on snow? I remember crossing the peninnes in an Astra with very wide low profile tyres, when everything else was more or less stopped due to heavy snow. I have driven numerous different cars in heavy snow and made reasonable progress. More recently a Skoda Superb mark 1 was quite capable in snow. I consider that I am an experienced driver and over the years have done enough driving in snow to know how to do so safely and make progress.

 

However my first Yeti, a 110 tdi 2wd was completely immobilised by heavy snow, when other cars could still move and get around my stationary vehicle, as was my second Yeti, a 1.6tdi greenline. Really annoying to be beeped by cars because I am holding them up, but just couln't get the car to move off.

 

Present 150 tdi 4x4 was unfazed by snow during beast from the east though, even on summer tyres. I was able to move safely when most cars around me could not. I still have this car but have winter tyres on this time so should be even more capable.

My Yeti 110 tsi 2wd experience is exactly the same as yours, Ken.  Even my Roomster Scout with its wide, low profile tyres was more capable and I was at least able to move with the traffic.

 

The most "snow-capable" car I have owned was an Allegro on standard  tyres.  Despite its lack of electronic wizardry, nothing seemed to stop it.  It would have ran rings around my Roomster and Yeti.  And my old Berlingo, come to that.

 

Now retired, I have the luxury of leaving the Yeti in the garage whenever snow is imminent 

 

 

My logbook says 1968cc so I think of it as a 1.9 although statistically it is nearer the magic 2,000cc

Use it frequently down my field which is currently very wet and muddy grass. Not a problem.

BTW I also have four Fordson Dexta's of which two are still going strong after 60 years! The other two are "work in progress"!!