The Top Gear Yeti

[pinkpanther]

Must say I agree with pretty much everything he says - we had 4 Yeti's in total and they are hugely impressive and undoubtedly the best car Skoda ever made.

 

It's successor (our current Karoq) is a very poor replacement.

 

Great to see this (famous) one is still around and in such fine fettle 👍

 

Petrol Ped

[Prezafab]

What don't you like about the Karoq 1.5? On paper it should drive better than the Yeti ?

Its never appealed to me because it looked a bit bland compared with the Yeti, but I assumed it was at least good to drive (more comfortable, more refined, more economical etc?)

[Schtum]

We have both a 2016 Yeti SE L Drive 150 TDI 4x4 manual remapped to c 185 hp and a 2019 Karoq SE L Drive 190 TDI 4x4 DSG.  

There's no contest.  The Karoq is by far the more capable car and much nicer to drive, especially on longer trips. 

[Prezafab]

That's what I would have thought. The Yeti has more character in looks and feel, but the Kafka is more refined?

 

We've never had a Karoq, but have had several Yetis and a couple of newer Tiguans. My thinking was that the Karoq would have had a lot of the rougher edges smoothed off - just like Tiguan mk1 vs Tiguan mk2. (Ps still a Yeti fan!)

[g7eor]

The Yeti stood out in a car park. The Karoq is just another car.

[Schtum]

9 hours ago, Prezafab said:

That's what I would have thought. The Yeti has more character in looks and feel, but the Kafka is more refined?

 

We've never had a Karoq, but have had several Yetis and a couple of newer Tiguans. My thinking was that the Karoq would have had a lot of the rougher edges smoothed off - just like Tiguan mk1 vs Tiguan mk2. (Ps still a Yeti fan!)

 

Pretty much the case. Before the Karoq, we had three 4Motion Tiguans in a row - 140, 177 and 184.  We replaced the last one with the Karoq as a Mk2 Tiguan to the same spec was going to be £40k + 

[pinkpanther]

23 hours ago, Prezafab said:

What don't you like about the Karoq 1.5? On paper it should drive better than the Yeti ?

Its never appealed to me because it looked a bit bland compared with the Yeti, but I assumed it was at least good to drive (more comfortable, more refined, more economical etc?)

I've just never bonded with it and don't especially enjoy driving / owning it.

 

Saying that it is averaging better MPG than my last TDi Yeti!

 

The Karoq is complex in operation (electronic handbrake / infotainment etc) whereas the Yeti was simplicity itself and somehow more than the sum of its parts.

 

Guess this was the reason I owned four Yetis in total!

 

Suspect this will be the only Karoq though.

[pinkpanther]

23 hours ago, Schtum said:

We have both a 2016 Yeti SE L Drive 150 TDI 4x4 manual remapped to c 185 hp and a 2019 Karoq SE L Drive 190 TDI 4x4 DSG.  

There's no contest.  The Karoq is by far the more capable car and much nicer to drive, especially on longer trips. 

I wonder if my Karoq being 2WD and having the torsion beam rear is part of the reason I preferred the drive of the Yeti?

 

I would have preferred a four-wheel drive Karoq, but I'm not a fan of DSG sadly 😕

[Schtum]

30 minutes ago, pinkpanther said:

I wonder if my Karoq being 2WD and having the torsion beam rear is part of the reason I preferred the drive of the Yeti?

 

I would have preferred a four-wheel drive Karoq, but I'm not a fan of DSG sadly 😕

 

Possibly, although when we test drove a Karoq is was a FWD manual model - 150 TDI I think.  As a keen driver, I found it quite light and sprightly and it handled well.  I saw the salesman sitting in the rear, grinning.  He said, "I don't usually get driven like this on test drives!"  

 

I love the DSG in our Karoq.  I have the transmission in Sport mode almost all the time and rarely if ever need to use the paddles.  Before I bought my manual Yeti, I test drove a DSG one of those and was unimpressed.  I find the 7 speed to be much nicer than the old 6 speed.

[pinkpanther]

10 hours ago, Schtum said:

 

Possibly, although when we test drove a Karoq is was a FWD manual model - 150 TDI I think.  As a keen driver, I found it quite light and sprightly and it handled well.  I saw the salesman sitting in the rear, grinning.  He said, "I don't usually get driven like this on test drives!"  

 

I love the DSG in our Karoq.  I have the transmission in Sport mode almost all the time and rarely if ever need to use the paddles.  Before I bought my manual Yeti, I test drove a DSG one of those and was unimpressed.  I find the 7 speed to be much nicer than the old 6 speed.

The Karoq I initially test drove was a 1.5 TSi DSG - not sure if 6 or 7 speed?

 

The salesman actually advised against going for a manual, as he felt the gearing  was not ideal and the car just worked better as an Automatic, albeit an automated manual one.

 

Unfortunately I didn't take his advice!

 

I've driven a few DSG /S-Tronic equipped cars and just don't get on with it, as it seems to change up too fast, or holds on to the gears too long in sport mode.

 

I'd also found low speed manoeuvres rather imprecise.

 

On reflection however I should have heeded the advice given whilst test driving.

[Ootohere]

You should have maybe bothered to find out that a FWD 1.5 TSI would have a DQ200 7 speed twin dry clutch DSG and a AWD or a 2.0 would not but it would be a 7 speed.

[EnterName]

A colleague at work has bought a beautiful 2.0TDI AWD Yeti.

Sadly, he's the sort of person who doesn't look after his cars, so I fear he will neglect this and run it into the ground.

Example: Below is one of the tyres off his old car when he replaced it. (It was so worn it lost air so was flat when he got to work. As he was away for the day on business, I got it changed for him.)

A shame if he does neglect it, as his new car was one of the last Yetis and really is a fine example.

For now.

[pinkpanther]

34 minutes ago, EnterName said:

A colleague at work has bought a beautiful 2.0TDI AWD Yeti.

Sadly, he's the sort of person who doesn't look after his cars, so I fear he will neglect this and run it into the ground.

Example: Below is one of the tyres off his old car when he replaced it. (It was so worn it lost air so was flat when he got to work. As he was away for the day on business, I got it changed for him.)

A shame if he does neglect it, as his new car was one of the last Yetis and really is a fine example.

For now.

😳

[pinkpanther]

3 hours ago, toot said:

You should have maybe bothered to find out that a FWD 1.5 TSI would have a DQ200 7 speed twin dry clutch DSG and a AWD or a 2.0 would not but it would be a 7 speed.

Not especially relevant to me at the time given I had no plans for a DSG.

 

Are they now more reliable?

 

[Ootohere]

Apparently not when it comes to DQ381,s but we find out about things over 5 year old after 5 years have passed, maybe the DQ200,s are now a bit less risky since 2018.

Vorsprung Durch Technik runs into problems when the Management penny pinch and spend more on promoting future models than actual R&D or addressing faults and snagging issues.

[Brijo]

On 22/09/2023 at 20:03, pinkpanther said:

Must say I agree with pretty much everything he says - we had 4 Yeti's in total and they are hugely impressive and undoubtedly the best car Skoda ever made.....

...

Petrol Ped

Did anyone who watched the video go on to the comments?  One of our Briskoda Yeti pioneers posted a 'memory lane' reply - I'm not naming him, but other people from way back will spot it.  Yeti drivers used to wave to each other in those days! 

[g7eor]

I have had the Karoq for over six months now and I still" Yeti spot" they stand out distinctively. I was at the National Memorial Arboretum a few weeks ago and saw seven Yetis in the car park

[Bexhillian]

At the Bedgebury National Pinetum near us, no Yetis but there was one of these

[CFB]

On 24/10/2023 at 21:57, Brijo said:

Did anyone who watched the video go on to the comments?  One of our Briskoda Yeti pioneers posted a 'memory lane' reply - I'm not naming him, but other people from way back will spot it.  Yeti drivers used to wave to each other in those days! 

I did indeed. I believe the yeti in question is red.

I think there are possibly two founder members as this one is a lady.

 

My first was also a 2009, a 110SE 4WD. I had another 2 after that and was looking forward to no 3. Sadly the Karoq didn’t meet my needs due to the sloping rear end so ended up trading up to a Kodiaq, a very nice car but I don’t have the connection with it as I did with the Yeti.

[Brijo]

On 31/10/2023 at 19:34, CFB said:

I did indeed. I believe the yeti in question is red.

I think there are possibly two founder members as this one is a lady.

 

Edited 3 November, 2023 by Brijo
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