[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by ACM

Yep the -ves like the missing DSG Box and Bluetooth are major -ves for me. Can live without the Xenons and memory seats (which are indeed good to have) but Bluetooth is too important in todays times. I have for a short period moved from the Aria (Which I sold off) back to my earlier Laura which too misses the Bluetooth and the add-on accessories just are no fun and not as convenient. (having to switch on and switch off the extra unit, plus the fact that the sound is not coming from the car speakers as also the fact that one has to mute the car sound system separately when getting a call and then again unmute them. It hurts when one has been pampered.

Don't how precise the auto wipers on the Yeti are but the ones on my Laura are not sensitive enough and they tend to not react fast enough to the rain compared to the ones in the Aria. So in my Laura I actually miss the manual intermittent mode since the sensors are not sufficiently sensitive to rain. I Guess this would have improved in the later Laura and surely in the Yeti. The Laura sound system is superb (especially the 12 speaker one but the one with 8 speakers is also very nice and the integrated touchscreen Head Unit on the Yeti is superb relative to the first gen Laura and base model units. I eye it when I see any superb pass by at eye level.

The Hill control is neat but I think the Yeti does not have the park brake assist which as you know being like an auto brake reduces the leg effort further by holding the brakes on a Traffic Signal automatically rather than one having to engage the parking brake and shift to N. Actually without this Auto Park Brake the right leg in AT vehicles does have to put in even more effort than in a manual while the left leg is totally free.

Congrats - Do keep reporting in.

Yes the bluetooth is a silly thing to miss, but luckily it can be integrated like OE easily. The Skoda bluetooth kit is for around 20k, and there are aftermarket kits for half the price. With these you can dial from the head unit and answer calls from the steering wheel, etc.

DSG would have been great, but this car is seriously light to drive. It just doesn't bother me in traffic. I don't really miss an auto in this to be honest.

The auto wipers work well most of the time, unless you are driving fast. Then it helps to just put them on continuously. I find these as good or bad as the ones on the BMW.

The Yeti sound system is crisp and clear, just lacking on some of the bass in the Laura.

You are talking of Auto Hold. It would have been nice, much more so if the car was an auto. But even if it was an auto I don't know how much I would have used it. I don't like to keep a car stationary in D, and I know in the BMWs you can move it to N with auto hold on. Not sure if that's possible in VAG cars.

Thanks will keep everyone updated. The car is at 11,220kms as of today.

[Akshay1234]

Pics will be up ASAP guys, sorry for the delay

The car is running quite a bit, at 12xxx kms now. Did a 360 odd km round trip today to Mulshi and back. In some places there were no roads, in some places there were excellent roads, and the Yeti never failed to impress.

My drive today had many different types of conditions. It included the expressway which was a joy to cruise on. The car is just as good as a sedan, I didn't miss any other car of mine even going around bends. In some places before the expressway and after, there were just potholes and stones. I manged to go through those terrible bits of road much faster and more comfortable than all the sedans, and even some SUVs. Went to see some under construction buildings, and had to climb up a steep-ish slushy road. Could really make out the difference with 4x4, it seemed like a piece of cake (this was nothing compared to OTRs but it was off road for me all right). Used hill descent on the way down, it was nice to let the car do everything with me just steering.

On the way back decided to try the JNPT road, and go via Uran. Now here too at one point there was literally a stream I had to cross through while getting to the Uran road. And it was full of large stones/rocks. I am lucky I didn't cut a tire or anything on those. All in all manged to try out the Yeti in as many different ways as possible in a day, from high speed driving, to driving through slush, stones/potholes, and a damn stream.

I think the Yeti is one of the most versatile cars on the road today, if I had to choose only 1 car from my garage to live with everyday it may just be the Yeti with a remap.

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

it may just be the Yeti with a remap.

I like this part the best.

How I wish one of my close friends had a Yeti? Its really versatile. There are so many places you can explore with such a vehicle. Maybe a few years down the line I may get a used one.

[iTNerd]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Pics will be up ASAP guys, sorry for the delay

The car is running quite a bit, at 12xxx kms now. Did a 360 odd km round trip today to Mulshi and back. In some places there were no roads, in some places there were excellent roads, and the Yeti never failed to impress.

My drive today had many different types of conditions. It included the expressway which was a joy to cruise on. The car is just as good as a sedan, I didn't miss any other car of mine even going around bends. In some places before the expressway and after, there were just potholes and stones. I manged to go through those terrible bits of road much faster and more comfortable than all the sedans, and even some SUVs. Went to see some under construction buildings, and had to climb up a steep-ish slushy road. Could really make out the difference with 4x4, it seemed like a piece of cake (this was nothing compared to OTRs but it was off road for me all right). Used hill descent on the way down, it was nice to let the car do everything with me just steering.

On the way back decided to try the JNPT road, and go via Uran. Now here too at one point there was literally a stream I had to cross through while getting to the Uran road. And it was full of large stones/rocks. I am lucky I didn't cut a tire or anything on those. All in all manged to try out the Yeti in as many different ways as possible in a day, from high speed driving, to driving through slush, stones/potholes, and a damn stream.

I think the Yeti is one of the most versatile cars on the road today, if I had to choose only 1 car from my garage to live with everyday it may just be the Yeti with a remap.

Great that you had started ripping the car! However, I would strongly suggest to change the tyres to at least HT/AT sooner. It makes a whole lot of difference when driving on the unknown lanes. I bought this car with the intention to use it on occasional touring to the hills (once a month or two).

However, now the yeti has become my sole primary car as it is so practical:
1. Compact size in urban center allows for easy maneuvering and parking.
2. Luxury and comfort ride for 4/5 in all weather condition/roads
3. Tough and abuse friendly just like a German leopard tank
4. very responsive engine means overtaking is a breeze.
5. Diesel economy. And highly efficient too.
6. Oh, did I not mention its a 'dragster' on highways
7. Perfect vehicle for outstation trips. In fact, I had run it on its home turf (aka Himalayas) for half of the total mileage so far. And that's when you truly appreciate this class of vehicle.

Found a video on Yeti 4x4 Haldex demonstration (no audio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNWhVUgpWfk

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by robimahanta

I like this part the best.

How I wish one of my close friends had a Yeti? Its really versatile. There are so many places you can explore with such a vehicle. Maybe a few years down the line I may get a used one.

Haha hopefully someday. Right now I'm busy with the other cars

Yes you will get a brilliant deal on a used one. You need to add a VAG suv to complete your garage.

Originally Posted by iTNerd

Great that you had started ripping the car! However, I would strongly suggest to change the tyres to at least HT/AT sooner. It makes a whole lot of difference when driving on the unknown lanes. I bought this car with the intention to use it on occasional touring to the hills (once a month or two).

Yes a tyre change is certainly on the cards. I guess in a few thousand kms. Surprisingly the Goodyears handled everything pretty well, the only negatives I have with them now are the noise and the stiff ride. Right now the first thing I want to do is get xenon headlights. The current headlights are woefully inadequate.

Agree with all the points you say. Was impressed with the mileage I got too of 14.6kmpl. Seemed pretty good considering I wasn't really cruising and was accelerating and overtaking quite a bit.

[Akshay1234]

How to solve door squeeks -

Surprisingly, most of us Yeti owners face squeeks from the doors. This is very unusual for a well built Euro car. This post basically deals with how to fix them.

You need to buy a lubricant. I bought Gummi Pfedge which I think is German after recommendations from Briskoda. You may also buy any other rubber/silicon lubricant.

Now the front doors, once opened on top they have a felt lining, and a rubber beading. This extends from the top towards the front where it slopes down a bit. Lubricant needs to be applied on the felt, and on the rubber. Now besides this on the inside part of the door, not the hinged side, but the other, on the top near the window there is a little rubber block. Lubricant needs to be applied on that too.

Now that you are done with the door, the top part of the inner beading attached to the car body itself needs the lubricant. And also the metal part of the body, where the door makes contact with, needs a small dose of the lubricant too.

The rear doors need the same procedure as the front, except they don't have the beading sloping down and it is flat on top. And the rear doors have those inner rubber blocks on the hinged side, and the other side.

The inner frame for the rear doors needs the same lubricant treatment too.

Now to test if you are going to get squeeks, all you need to do it push the window glass in with your palm while the door is shut. If you hear a squeek then it is going to be magnified while driving. Once you have applied enough lubricant, there should be no noise when you push in the window glass from the outside.

Once you are done with these steps your Yeti's cabin will be back to Euro car cabin silence.

Do note - this will last a few months depending on car usage and will have to be done often on. Luckily it is a 10 min job max.

[iTNerd]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

How to solve door squeeks -

Surprisingly, most of us Yeti owners face squeeks from the doors. This is very unusual for a well built Euro car. This post basically deals with how to fix them.

You need to buy a lubricant. I bought Gummi Pfedge which I think is German after recommendations from Briskoda. You may also buy any other rubber/silicon lubricant.

Now the front doors, once opened on top they have a felt lining, and a rubber beading. This extends from the top towards the front where it slopes down a bit. Lubricant needs to be applied on the felt, and on the rubber. Now besides this on the inside part of the door, not the hinged side, but the other, on the top near the window there is a little rubber block. Lubricant needs to be applied on that too.

Now that you are done with the door, the top part of the inner beading attached to the car body itself needs the lubricant. And also the metal part of the body, where the door makes contact with, needs a small dose of the lubricant too.

The rear doors need the same procedure as the front, except they don't have the beading sloping down and it is flat on top. And the rear doors have those inner rubber blocks on the hinged side, and the other side.

The inner frame for the rear doors needs the same lubricant treatment too.

Now to test if you are going to get squeeks, all you need to do it push the window glass in with your palm while the door is shut. If you hear a squeek then it is going to be magnified while driving. Once you have applied enough lubricant, there should be no noise when you push in the window glass from the outside.

Once you are done with these steps your Yeti's cabin will be back to Euro car cabin silence.

Do note - this will last a few months depending on car usage and will have to be done often on. Luckily it is a 10 min job max.

I do this religiously once in 2-3 months. Behemoth (or was it someone else?) recommended the lubrication early on if I remember. Also note, if you don't have any paper in the paper clip (one in windshield), it squeeks/rattles too and at first, I assumed it was coming from the odomoter console and even tried lubricating the chrome rings on the dials. Only when I placed some paper/receipts in the clip, the squeeks stop.

[Akshay1234]

So here's a little update. Borrowed a VCDS cable to mess around with, and though most of the options were enabled I did manage to enable a few things.

XDS - Saw an option for it, so ticked it. And adjusted it to strong. This is an electronic differential. So lets see if it makes a difference with the cornering of the car, not that its bad anyway being an AWD.

Also I used to find the brakes a bit spongy, or weak at some times. So I changed the brake assist from average to strong. The pedal seems a bit harder, but hopefully the braking will be a bit better.

Will update further after driving around more.

[Akshay1234]

So after the updates, have driven the Yeti around a bit. And man those 2 updates have made such a difference to the car, and made it quite a bit more fun to drive.

The brake pedal used to be extra soft, which wouldn't give me a feeling of confidence when I needed to brake hard. It seemed that the brakes lacked bite. Now after setting the brake assist to high, the pedal has become firmer and the braking distance can be judged much better. This is a must for any Yeti owner with VCDS.

The XDS has made a diffence to the cornering abilities. The turn in is much sharper, and the car holds the line better through a turn. Though the car didn't have any issues with traction being an AWD it just feels much more nimble with the XDS activated. Amazing what electronics can do.

Also tried to activate brake pad wear, and the low washer fluid warning. But it seems the Yeti doesn't have these features so I will need to deactivate them since both are showing warnings.

The car is being detailed on Tuesday, after which I will have lots of pics to put up here.

[abbey4u]

I will be driving to leh starting tonight in my Yeti. will update how it performed

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by abbey4u

I will be driving to leh starting tonight in my Yeti. will update how it performed

That's great. Looking forward to hearing how the Yeti performs in Leh, and whether the ground clearance is enough for some of the tougher areas.

[Akshay1234]

So the Yeti got detailed today. I figured it was a good opportunity to grab some pics. Unfortunately I didn't have my DSLR so you guys will have to make do with the phone pics. The car has done 15,600kms now, running a lot more than we had thought it would. I will write in more detail about the ownership experience till date in another post. For now the pics -

The brown actually looks better than one would think. And the black bumpers ad a nice contrast to it. Was planning on painting them body colour, but these are just too practical.







Here are the front seats, a nice place to be in. Supportive seats, and quite a few features. I like the upholstery pattern. Believe it has Napa leather, a slightly different shade from the Superb. Space is more than enough.


The centre console, with the Bolero head unit, climate control and below that the offroad, esp and parking sensor buttons.


The rear seat, has more space than you would think. The front seats are set up for 6 footers, but enough legroom at the back for an average sized person. Underthigh support could have been better though. These are Varioflex seats which you can remove, fold, recline, slide, etc.


The centre seat folds down to form a big armrest. Makes it seem like a proper 4 seater.


The boot is smaller than the Laura, but yet can hold a decent amount of luggage with the parcel shelf removed. Its got some storage bins underneath the floor, and even comes with nets, etc to carry different sorts of things.


The rear passengers have to make do with this vent. Surprisingly this has more air flow than the b pillar vents on the Superb. Keeps the rear passengers reasonably comfortable.


The MID also with a few options, to change various settings in the car. The controls for this are on the steering wheel.


The Bolero HU has a nice and bright screen, glare doesn't seem to affect it in the day. The climate control shows the changes for a few seconds on the Bolero screen.


The cooled box under the front armrest. Just capable of holding 2 cans, and keeping them slightly cooler than the inside car temperature. The aux port is here too.


The glovebox is cooled too. And it has the passenger airbag off switch. Its also illuminated, and of a decent size. Storage space in the car is really good. There is a drawer below the passenger seat which I forgot to take a pic of.


This pic shows the outside rear view mirror dimming. It dims along with the interior mirror and helps a lot in reducing glare of the morons behind who are permanently on high beam. Only the right mirror dims, which is good enough.


The visibility from the drivers seat is great, one of the reasons driving this in the city is so easy. Also visible is the auto dimming mirror sensor, and power button for the dimming feature.


A pic of the car with the DRLs on, only the top half of the fog lamp which has a separate filement lights up. Quite bright as you can see in this pic.


A closer look of the fog lamp. The upper bit which is on is the DRL. The lower part is the fog lamp, and also the cornering lamp below 40kmph.


Hope the pics are fine, after they were much delayed. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Ownership experience till date is coming up shortly.

[Akshay1234]

So after having owned the car for just over 10k kms, let me pen down a few thoughts on it.

Versatile is what this car is. It is happy pottering around in city traffic, cruising on the expressway at high speeds, doing a bit of off-roading, and being pushed around corners. It is not a people mover, and 4 people can travel in great comfort.

The gearbox and engine are very well matched, I think the Laura and this may just share the same ratios, need to check. Turbo lag isn't felt much in city driving, and on the highway too the engine has more than adequate power to drive quick. The 6th gear has an extra low ratio so if you are below a 100kmph and want to overtake a downshift is required.

Having an AWD is nice, no traction issues no matter what surface I want to launch it off. Where other more powerful cars would be struggling with traction (like a wet road) this car just shoots off. Of course I have done a tiny bit off mild off roading on a muddy trail, and could certainly make out the benefit of having 4x4. The off road mode is useful for such scenarios too, with hill descent control amongst a host of other features.

Mileage has never been in single digits, which is brilliant. Inside the city in moderate traffic it gives around 11.5-12. Highways make the engine give between 15-18 depending on how hard or sedately its driven.

The ride is a bit stiff at lower speeds, with the suspension making some thud noises. That is probably due to the stock Goodyear tyres. Once I change them to something better I expect the ride to improve significantly. Once the speed picks up the ride flattens out really well and not much can really make the car lose composure.

Wind does affect the car at high speeds (far above normal highway speeds), and some steering corrections are needed to keep it in line. But then that's due to the height of the car.

The handling was above average, and has gotten even better after I activated the electronic sports differential through VCDS. The car feels more nimble, and the turn in is improved and so are higher speed lane changes. It can really handle now, with the AWD system and all the electronic aids.

Brakes seemed to be a weak point for me. The feel was spongy, and it didn't really seem to have much bite till you really pushed the pedal. Looking up on forums like Briskoda made me believe I'm not the only one. Increase the brake assistance through VCDS, and the brake pedal has got a lot more firmer, and judging the braking distance is far easier now.

Feature wise I'm not really missing anything, bluetooth would have been nice. But then again its not my primary car so it doesn't matter. Can always add it if I need to. Its got pretty much everything else I could want.

The AC is surprisingly good for a European car. Much better than my vRS.

Headlights are another weak point on this car. In the city they are fine, but on a highway they are terrible. Going to upgrade these to xenons asap provided they are focused properly in the stock reflector and don't blind oncoming traffic.

Another thing that's been bothering me is that there is a bit more interior noise than I would have liked. Things like the door seals squeeking now and then, and some other little noises from the rear. I guess I'll just have to live with these, no car is perfect.

That's all for now.

P.S - I didn't know my car had the silver muffler tip till I got it detailed. I kept planning on going and installing it at the dealer, but then after it was detailed I realized I had it all along

[k_ajay]

Thanks for sharing the experience Akshay. Beautiful car and I hope to either own this or the new design version some day..

Have you ever come across a scenario or situation where you felt lacking, with respect to the ground clearance? Has 180mm tided you over everything it has so far faced, without any issues? It's GC is my only current concern about this car.

Hope you continue to have many more joyful kms with the car. Besta luck! Btw, lovely pics and she looks awesome post the wonderful detailing job (it's done very well).

[Akshay1234]

The car is almost at 19,000 kms now, been taken a lot to Lonavla and Pune. Have fixed up a service for the coming weekend, its been about 12.5k kms from the last service, I'd prefer not to wait till 15k kms. No issues with the car at all, besides the door seals squeeking. Lets see if the service centre has some solution this time.

The stock tyres really are terrible, but I'm terrible confused as to what to change to. In the stock size there aren't many options, in 215/65 R16 there are Michelin Latitude Tour HPs, any reviews on those guys? Thought of 225/60 R16 too but again few options. I need something which is a comfortable tyre but yet can take bad roads.

Oh yeah, also added a Philips 4200k HID kit to the headlights. It is well focused and does not stray and blind oncoming traffic, unless it is viewed from angles where even the stock bulbs would shine into your face. The illumination is brilliant, and this was the first thing I should have got done. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get rid of the bulb fused error which comes due to the HIDs. I'm still working on that, but I'd rather live with that and have much better lights.