My Mrs. and I both think the world of our Yeti, and 15 years is a long time on a forum. I've never kept a car so long. Bought it new from Marlborough Skoda in West London in April 2011. It was worth the journey from Devon at the time. They have long since gone. In that time quite a few members have (obviously enough) come and gone and people have been incredibly helpful and amicable. It's one of the good forums.

But, nothing stays the same and we get older and the aging process brings it's ups and downs.

Actually it's my Mrs. who has mainly prompted this diatribe, so blame her, not me 🙂

It's starting to look like I will have to part ways with the Yeti and go for something else. The good lady has, in fairly recent months, been told she has something called Lumbar Canal Central Stenosis. Or thereabouts. In her case, one of the problems caused is, when entering the car, being unable to lift her leg high enough to clear the passenger door sill (which, incidentally, is 420mm from the ground). It's becoming a problem. The raised height of the Yeti has been a wonderful thing all this time - and remains so for me - but no longer for her. I have trawled through the sill height of practically every new car in the UK. It needs to be something like 365 or 370mm from the ground rather than the Yeti's 420mm and not many reasonable sized hatchbacks or estates have a door sill that low. Most new cars nowadays seem to be SUV type configuration and are higher than the traditional saloon or hatch used to be.

I might finish up part exchanging it against the new car or using 'We Buy Any Car' or something similar. Maybe Autotrader. Or might offer it here to see if it gets any interest. I'm reluctant to advertise it for sale privately on something like Autotrader due to the preponderance of tyre kickers and time wasters and in 2003 I was 'car-jacked' when selling a car privately and swore I'd never put myself in that position again.

It's currently got my 16 inch steel wheels on it with four almost new 215/60/16 Goodyear All Season tyres fitted but to sell it I'll put the OEM 17 inch Dolomite alloys back on it and will likely sell the steelies independantly from the car sale with the 4 Goodyears on them.

I pinned a possible replacement down to a Seat Leon hatch or estate or a Toyota Corolla hatch or estate. The Kia Ceed is OK but they just stopped selling them. A Golf hatch comes close (ish) re. sill height but I'm leaning towards a bigger boot and there's no new Golf Estate. A Jazz comes close re. sill height but it's a bit small (but it does have those handy Magic rear seats).

I want another automatic and would, ideally, like a spare wheel. An EV is tricky due to severe difficulty in running cable to a wallbox. A petrol ICE or Hybrid is OK. Max length roughly between 3.4 and 3.7 metres. Max width to get it in the garage is 1800mm or a fraction more .... 1850 is too wide. Yes, I agree, I'm fussy.

If anyone can think of any alternatives to my possible choices ot Seat Leon Estate or Toyota Corolla Estate then speak now or foreverhold your peace .... but remember the door sill height has to be 370mm or less from the ground.

Lastly I would seek advice from anyone with any knowledge of selling a car that has private plates on it (which mine does). Does it look suspicious to a prospective purchaser to sell a car that has just had a new reg. number put on the car prior to sale? Or is it perfectly acceptable? When new the car was registered with my own personal plates on it therefore there isn't an "original" number issued by the DVLA to be put back on the car (which is the scenario quoted by the DVLA advice on their website when applying to put the plate back on retention). Obviously I have every scrap of paper ever issued regarding purchase of the car and subsequent servicing etc. If the car goes to 'We Buy Any Car' do they arrange to have the private plate put on retention and a new number issued and put on the car. Clearly if part exchanging at a main dealer when buying the replacement new car they would deal with it. At least I assume they do??

Sorry for long post.

Oh, I mean't to ask .... if I were to have a private person come round to my house to view the car it's fairly obvious they will say they want to drive it. Given my experience in 2003 when a "prospective purchaser" visited and finished up driving off with the car and with me on the ground with various injuries ..... I'm somewhat hesitant. Furthermore there's the question of a stranger driving the car without me knowing they are genuinely insured. In fact they wouldn't drive the car without proof of insurance. What do others do??

Ta.

Edited 12 December, 202512 Dec by oldstan

Briskoda Cars for sale might be a good place to advertise a Yeti.

I hadn't realised there was an actual section just for cars for sale. Or if I did know I'd forgotten.😧

That's helpful, thanks.

I wouldn't worry about the removal of the private plate causing an issue. A buyer's history check will show the 'date of last V5 issued', which will be for the plate change. You have the paperwork, so no concern.

I always use AutoTrader to sell my cars - it disguises your number, and you attract serious potential buyers. I sold my hobby Audi A2 recently and had 1800 views in 3 weeks. EBay and Gumtree arent very good in my view.

On insurance, get that issue out of the way before you agree for someone to look at it - please bring temporary insurance proof for my registration (it costs £15/20 a day), which might see off any characters.

Car-wise, is a Skoda Scala any good for you? It's basically a Golf like the Leon, but it might be a good option to trade the Yeti against. I know yours is too old for a dealer to retail, but they likely have an arrangement with a local trade r to take the 'older stuff'. The Yeti is still very saleable.

What model of Yeti do you have and what's the mileage out of interest?

Edited 10 December, 202510 Dec by Prezafab

Many thanks for the above.

Agreed a Scala is an obvious one to look at. As indeed I did a fortnight ago..... the floor to sill is too high. So is the Fabia and, of course, so is the Kamiq and Karoq.

On paper the Leon has the lowest sill of them all. I haven't actually put the tape measure to the Leon yet but on paper it's OK. She has tried getting into a Corolla (which happened to be an estate) and it was OK - and on paper it's also OK. And the Estate has a good size boot too (as does the Leon Estate) and it's automatic.

Appreciate the advice re. Autotrader. Certainly didn't fancy Ebay and I haven't got a Facebook account and have had little luck with my limited experience of Gumtree - but hadn't even considered that anyway.

My Yeti is 2011 1.2 DSG SE with cloth seats and no modifications or extras other than the steel wheels and Goodyear AllSeasons (if they were to be offered with the car) 45,491 miles. No paintwork at all, no accident damage. Spare wheel unused. Muscovado colour (sort of gold metallic).

I'm fairly confident about finding a buyer given it's condition, mileage and provenance but would need to get a couple of opinions regarding value. I did just one online check on a website and looked at others on offer on Autotrader and it seems as though the ones of a similar age (older and younger) with one owner and mileage in the 40k's go for a premium - which is encouraging. One or two of the nicer sounding ones had some really high prices, but that's always the case is it not?

Anyway, further thanks .... your thoughts were helpful.

Edited 11 December, 202511 Dec by oldstan

The 2023 Toyota Corolla Touring Sports 1.8 Hybrid 5dr estate with a sill height to ground of 375mm would seem to be a good fit for you. Excellent reviews and plenty of room inside.

In terms of swapping an older Yeti I wouldn’t give up on trying a trade-in when you find a replacement. Even older Yeti’s are in demand and as you have all papers etc. it is surely worth getting a trade in valuation - saves a load of hassle what with time wasters, test drives, finance etc. I ended up trading in my Yeti when I eventually swapped it (still one of best cars I have owned) and probably lost about £300-£400 over what I could have got privately BUT all I had too do was drive it to the dealers, sign a few papers and drive away in the new car. No hassle, no worries.

My reading of your post is that both you and your wife will be sad to see the Yeti go - and having owned mine since 2013 I can well understand why. I'm now familiar with the sill height issue - my wife, who also has a problem with her back, can only just clear the sill and a friend who frequently travels with us once seated has to lift her leg for her foot to clear the sill. Whilst I'm not yet at the point of considering parting with the Yeti I have been interested in the problems you have been having in finding a suitable replacement. And this lead me to wonder whether it is solely the accessing issue or whether there are other reasons that for you mean it may be the time to make the change; after all with a 15 year old car that day will come. For me when considering a change the sill height will I'm sure be a consideration but also the driving position - the high seats makes getting in and out easy - and the comfort of the seats; I've had cars where after an hour or so a break has been essential to relieve back pain.

All of this leads me to wonder whether, if it suited you, there would be a way to practically address you wife's problem so you could delay making a decision and see if anything else comes on the market that meets your needs. At the risk of seeming to have finally lost the plot (and some would say that ship sailed some time ago) would a low step help your wife in (and out?) of the car, something that could be easily stowed in the boot or behind the seat? The other possibility that occurred to me, watching my friend lifting her leg to swing her foot into the car (she doesn't seem to have a problem getting out) would be some sort of strop that would help your wife lift her foot without putting unnecessary strain on her back. Again, at the risk of being considered "different", these are made as dog tugs but the larger sizes could be wide enough to easily get a foot in and out and long enough without having to bend and hurt her back whilst helping to lift the foot. Realistically a new car may be the only option but perhaps something to think about even to help over the next couple of months or so whilst waiting for the replacement car - they are around £5-£10 in the usual places.

If you do move on from the Yeti I'll be sorry to see you go but then on the positive side I'll be one step closer to being the longest serving member on this forum still with his original Yeti.

Thanks - and apologies, both at the same time.

I didn't notice Expatman's post but have now seen it and taken notice of it. Very pertinent advice. Especialyy given the violent nature of the way one of my earlier cars was taken from me. I think I've spoken of it.

Regarding the note from Paul, above .... yes, thanks for that. In fact I have recently had a personal message from another contributor, to whom I've replied, thanking him for his suggestion..... which was extremely similar to your's, Paul, concerning the possibility of some sort of "leg lift".

Since receiving the suggestion I've formed one from one of my trouser belts. It's simply a leather type belt which at one end is formed (riveted) into a loop of sufficient size to get a shoe through (and with a small piece of leather riveted at the point where the join is in order to hold the loop "open" somewhat.) ---- and at the other end of the belt I've moved (riveted) the buckle part-way along the belt and used it to form another (adjustable) loop which the Mrs. can use as a handle to grasp the thing.

It seems to work just fine and she will try it out a few more times before we decide whether go to the expense of a replacement car. It might not now be needed.

I suppose, as has been pointed out, there will come a time when the Yeti has to go, but maybe it's a good idea to hang on to it if she can get by with the leg lifter. There is this dichotomy whereby I still like the car being higher from the ground but where she now finds that to be a problem and maybe the time will come when something happens to resolve it. But I hadn't thought of the leg lifter idea so thanks all round, fellas. By the way "Dichotomy" is word of ther day. 🙂