Team-BHP - Skoda Yeti : Review, Price & Pictures

I checked with TAFE ACCESS ON St Marks Road

The Ambiente costs 19L OTR BLR and the Elegance with all bells and whistles costs 20.56L OTR BLR. For a consumer who is in the market for this kind of vehicle at this kind of price, this small differential of 1.56L is VERY WELL WORTH PAYING considering the huge number of add ons and value adds that one gets in the Elegance, in comparison to the AMBIENTE.

Two vehicles are on display there - one is Silver and the other is Brown.

Checking on the Tyre/ Wheel size it looks like it is also pretty good - 215/60/R16 as informed to me by the Sales Exec who handled the call. GC at 180 mm is much the same as the Scorpio itself, so there should be no worries handling most of our Indian pot holed roads I guess.

For some reason, while Skoda Auto abroad sells this car in a particularly lovely Dark Green Shade, they have not seen fit to bring that shade here to our country.

Sad, because that shade AMAZONIAN Green is really lovely and suits this vehicle to a T in my opinion.

A TD vehicle is not yet available - but could become available by Monday or so. Not sure which variant will be made available for TD purposes.

Apparently There is a 2-3 month waiting period for delivery and they have taken about 100 bookings so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharanramesh (Post 2141956)

great car and very versatile. nice review too.

somehow at 18+ on road in Bangalore, i think its a little expensive. yes the market seems to guide this kind of pricing, but an on road of 16.5 would have been quite ideal me thinks considering this is not a full blown SUV and a sort of cross over from a sedan to a UV.

Any of you agree?

agree:

A chevrolet cruze has almost all the features found on this one if I am not mistaken. Agreed that there are definitely some more user friendly features and a 4WD that puts it at a premium but I still feel it could have been positioned a bit lower down in the price range.

I guess the premium is due to the following reasons;
1. Its a SKODA product
2. Its more a comparison to other soft roaders and hence would gain an advantage compared to them.
3. Its a CKD. I am sure if Skoda were to locally manufacture these here, they would probably put all other manufacturers to shame.

Anyways, I shall probably wait and see if they happen to go the Fabia way...trimming down later and pricing it lower.:D

Since it is not a true blue offroader, I would also wait to see if a 2WD option is introduced! Would make more sense as it would keep the price low and in any case the size and GC do not permit serious off roading.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 2141991)

but i would not want the lower end version - the upper end one is what I am beginning to wish for quite keenly now!:)

Same here Shankar. In fact, the Yeti appeals to me a lot more than the Aria and even the Fortuner due to its exceptional FE, F&F and on road performance coupled with off road ability.

Want to judge it in flesh together? Send me a PM.:)

Excellent review Rehaan! Loved reading through it.

As you said missing DSG option is the biggest disappointed for the segment buyers, if you ask me. On the look front i was quite surprised when i saw one woosh by sometime back, its not a very bad car at all. Actually some angle looks pretty neat.

Did you guys get a chance to try out the hill descent control? How does it hold?

Great Review. I would also black out the B pillar and add fatter butch tyres . The pictures do not give an idea of the actual dimensions.
A comparision of the Yeti, scorpio and fusion dimensions LxBxH, WB:
Scorpio - 4430 x 1817 x 1975, 2680
Yeti - 4223 x 1793 x 1691, 2575
Fusion - 4018 x 1720 x 1529, 2486
Means that the Yeti is the smallest SUV in town. It is substantially smaller than the Scorpio. Would our politicians buy it ? Me thinks they would !!

Comparison with a Scorpio, or bigger SUV's like Ford Endy may not be ideal, as the Yeti fall into an entirely different category, and as rightly pointed out by the review team, at this point there are no competition in the luxury cross-over category.
From a size, quality and luxury point of view maybe the soon-to-be-launched BMW X1, or future launches like Mini Country-man can fall in the Yeti category.

If the quirky design can find acceptance, I guess the compact size can very well be Yeti's USP (I personally love the looks of this cute beast!)

Cheched out the car in detail. Pricing is real competitive and got a thumbs up by many customers. Interior quality is fantastic and legroom up front is literally enormous. Firm and comfy seats, rear is a bit upright but the flexibility of the interiors is a real deal maker. Passenger seat is also height adjustable, a big boon like its there on other premium skodas. High GC and a radical design will carve its own niche.
Skoda has a winner in this product. Had a word about DSG and the guys told me that a prototype is currently under test as they are working hard to sort out the reliability issues this time around.

Avant garde review, as always, rated 5 stars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 2141592)

Other Points

• The doors auto-lock, but don’t unlock when the drivers door is opened from the inside. You have to manually press the unlock button on the center console to let people in. Irritating! The lock icon on the button lights up orange when engaged.

A big thanks to GTO, Dippy and Fireblader85 for helping with a large part of the points & images for this review.

Excellent review and rated 5*.

I thought the this was a nice feature, especially with lot of theft issues now-a-days. When the driver opens his door, if all the other doors remain closed, none will be able to enter the vehicle quickly (especially when the driver stepped out for a few minutes). I agree with your point though that the driver has to push an additional button to unlock all other doors. May be it was just me (personal liking). No offence meant.

Brilliant review Rehaan. Sheer pleasure to read.
One question, though. Nothing about the car, but about the review.

"Puddle lights are placed in a strange location. When you open the door, they are casting more of a shadow than light"

Who in the review team noticed the above? My God, this is observation of the highest order. Your attention to each and every aspect of the vehicle is unmatched.
Brilliant...
I dread to think what will happen to Aria now. Can it withstand the onslaught of Skoda?
I think no one would mind paying 1 lac extra for a Skoda. Good competition.
Eagerly looking forward to see the sales chart from Jan onwards.

Hope buyers have a pleasant experience during and after buying :D

Once again Rehaan and team, 5* for this review.

P.S:- The best photograph of the lot for me was that of a Nano and Yeti together.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bkbkr1212 (Post 2142581)

we cant compare aria with yeti both are completely different type of cars targeting different type of customers.
i think the pricing shld have been around 16l for the base nd 17.5-18 for the l&k. what i have seen is people usually shop in the 15-17 range or 21-24 cause a person investing 18l on a car would definitely think that 'hey some more money and i can get a larger car'

btw excellent review Rehaan clap:

Quote:

Originally Posted by moose56 (Post 2142591)

we cant compare aria with yeti both are completely different type of cars targeting different type of customers.
i pricing shld have been around 16l for the base nd 17.5-18 for the l&k. what i have seen is people usually shop in the 15-17 bracket or 21-24 cause a person investing 18l on a car would definitely think that 'hey some more money and i can get a larger car'

btw excellent review Rehaan clap:

My point came from the 1st page of review.

Yeti Aria
Mid 15.40 14.50
Premium 16.62 15.50.

Please check the difference above.
Skoda engineered machines,at least for now, would be far better than Tata's.
And needless to say the, snob value of owning a Skoda :D
Did I read you correctly or am I missing something?