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CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
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Jun
10
Written by:
Martin Ward
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
 We went to the Skoda factory 60km north of Prague to drive some pre-production Yeti models. Full production starts very soon on left hand drive versions with an on sale date of 17th September in the UK. Skoda expect to sell 3,000 units next year.
The Yeti is a difficult car to categorise as it sits in between a number of sectors. Its closest rival will be the Nissan Qashqai and the most recent entrant to the market, the Kia Soul. There are many other models which are very similar in size including, from the SUV sector: the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage. There are also C sector Hatchback models such as the Vauxhall Astra, VW Golf, Peugeot 308 and Ford Focus. From the MPV sector there is the Vauxhall Meriva, Ford C-Max and new crossovers which include the Peugeot 3008, Hyundai IX35 and Nissan Qazana, so a complicated and mixed bag of direct competitors. The chart below shows length measurements in millimetres of some of the competitors of the Skoda Yeti.
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Skoda Yeti
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4223
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Ford Focus
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4337
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Kia Soul
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4105
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Kia Sportage
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4350
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Nissan Qashqai
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4315
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Vauxhall Astra
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4249
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Vauxhall Meriva
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4052
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 The Yeti is based on the Octavia platform so it is quite a large car with plenty of cabin space and it has an adequate luggage area. The rear seats easily accommodate three adults but have a very clever system where the centre seat can be removed and the two outer seats can then be moved inwards, leaving two separate seats with plenty of shoulder room. If extra carrying space is needed, all the rear seats can be removed very quickly and easily, turning the Yeti into a van and providing a lot of flexibility.
 There will be three models available at launch: S - 19% of sales, SE - 53% of sales and Elegance - 28% of sales. There will be both 2WD and 4WD available with Skoda expecting 25% of sales to be the 4WD but this may be a bit optimistic. The engine line up will be: 1.2 litre TSI 105bhp petrol, 2.0 litre CR diesel with 110bhp, 140bhp or 170bhp and 1.8 litre 160bhp petrol. Some of the engines will be used exclusively for the 4x4 model.
We drove a number of Yeti models on a variety of roads close to the plant and most of them were appalling so did not do the Yeti any justice but it did test the suspension. On the motorway it was fine, quiet and refined but on the numerous pot holed roads it felt very hard and the chassis never settled down. I would now like to try it around my home to see if the comfort improves but some of the roads in the UK are not much better than the Czech Republic. The car does sit high off the road so some harshness can be expected on this type of semi-off road vehicle but I’m not sure the typical Skoda buyer would expect such a hard ride. The 2WD models may be set up to be more user friendly for the UK market.
 The quality on the Yeti is as good as you would expect from Skoda which has come on in leaps and bounds in the past few years and put many other manufacturers to shame. The fit and finish and materials used are of very high quality.
No prices have been finalised yet but I would guess it will start at around £14,500 which should look to be good value for a car with unique styling, high quality and very good versatility.
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