[SushilBajpai]

My work takes me to remote villages, and for pleasure I like to spend time in mountains where the roads either don't show on the maps (on my GPS unit) or when they do show, they don't exist where they should. An SUV should have been my natural of vehicle. However, I never considered a SUV as my personal vehicle, because stepping into one, somehow it appeared obscene. Travelling in a vehicle which is one of the causes for deteriorating environment of our habitats that forces us to seek refuge in the serenity of the villages and the mountains, sort of challanged on my heart and mind.

Last year we added Honda Jazz to our ten year old Santro. We have been in love with it since. With our style of driving it routinely returns 22 km/l on highways and nearly 17 km/l in the city. It's quite as a whisper and has enough leg room in the rear for my 6' tennager.

However, things began to change when I first read about Yeti nearly six months ago. The small foot-print, not too loud an appearance, and adequate abibility to cover poor roads and then some unpaved surfaces on that, with some reasonably good figures on fuel economy got me and my son Mehul to begin a serious literature review on Yeti.

The more we read the more we got convinced that Yeti is car to go for. My wife loves to drive and she loves Ford Endeavour, which she often rides with a friend. However, we are both of the opinion that the large SUVs are just plain offensive.

Honestly we found Skoda a very strange company to deal with. I really thought that a company that has earned itself a dubious reputation for poor service quality would be more forthcoming about their new car. However, they just chose to be secretive and uncommunicative till they launched the vehicle. Surprisingly they would not even disclose the launch date. I read about that on internet a day before the launch.

All this secrecy meant that the only source of information was auto-magazine and the reviews and videos on the net - which we read, and booked the car in September.

However, in our imagination we dreamt about the Yeti 2.0, 160 BHP, with DSG gear box, parking assist, adaptive xenon headlights. Honestly we were disappointed when the Yeti in elegance trim got in without these and then some more.

Asset Auto in Pune invited us to have a look at (but no test drive) the Yeti which was parked in their showroom. They were nice and polite but, like most dealers did not have full information about the car. They told me that they could not deliver before February.

Europa on the other hand had an elegance version that we could test drive. My son Mehul, my friend Rajesh and I piled on to take first test drive. (My wife was away to Bombay where she works). The drive took my breath away. The Yeti is so easy to handle and always ready to deliver what is asked. Cautioned by the review in these forums, I was a bit apprehensive about the Yeti stalling on me. It didn't. (Though it stalled once when Rajesh was driving it.) I have never got so comfortable this quickly, in any other car that I have driven.

Mehul, Kshamta (my wife) and I went for a second test drive a couple of days later. Kshamta is a bit of natural driver and can get used to new cars with greatest ease. She too loved the Yeti's response.

Europa called on 30th November to inform that the vehicle could now be allocated to us and which colour would we like. White colour for small car like Yeti, makes it appear a little big bigger, and therefore a bit safer. So that was it. We were anyway not too enthusiastic about the brown colour of the demonstration car.

We scrounged around all our accounts and the money has been deposited with the dealer, who has promised the delivery by 7th December. I very much hope that they keep their word. I am still worried about Skoda after sales service.

I intend to record my impressions and the ownership experience of the Yeti in this thread.

[SushilBajpai]

The Yeti was finally delivered on 7th December 2010 – with the odometer reading 35 km. In the Elegance trim, the white yeti looked pretty elegant indeed.

We went over the details with a seven page checklist to ensure that we would come home with the Yeti at its best. We could not find any fault during the walk-around, the accessories and the test drive. During the initial fiddling with various knobs and switches we discovered that the front fog lamps light up when the light knob is pulled once and the rear fog lamp lights up when the knob is pulled back further. It surprised us that the there is only one rear fog lamp (on the driver’s side). A closer re-read of the manual confirmed that this was indeed the case.

The Yeti kept reminding that we head for a fuel pump. So we drove the “COCO” HP fuel pump near RTO Pune. Yeti gulped nearly 50 litres of standard diesel…

Yeti is an eager car. One can hear the distracting notes in the engine for first five minutes and then the discordant notes disappear, and the engine sounds smooth as silk – well nowhere close to the i-VTEC in Honda Jazz – but an inattentive passenger could mistake it for petrol power-plant.
There is little to disappoint in the car and each day I discover something new about the Yeti, in spite of reading the manual rather carefully.
We figured that that the Elegance does not sport rain-sensing wipers. However, the options in the MFD setup has an option of rain sensing windows closing. I have no way of knowing what activating this function does. Similarly while we activated the blue tooth function, on the Radio Bolero, we could get around to detecting any blue tooth activity from the music system.

We changed the units from l/100 km to km/l for Multi Function Display (MFD).

Eager and ready Yeti came home on 7th evening. Early morning the next day Mehul and I went for a longish detour on his way to college. The handling wowed us, but even more surprising was the FE that it returned – 20.6 km/l.

We have driven more than 750 km, in the one week that the Yeti has been with us. Here are the highlights of our travels together.

The First Week of Yeti with the Family:

7th December 2010:

The Yeti was delivered with about 30 km on the odometer. We just drove it to the fuel station and then straight home. Eventhough I had test driven the demo mule, this was something different.

8th December 2010:

We got up pretty early in the morning, with intent to check out the car on empty roads and to get to know the beast. Before dropping Mehul to his college, we took a detour. We drove the car about 50 km on the Pune-Bangalore by-pass and she wanted to fly. The speed warning, which I had set at 90 km/hour, sounded at speed which appeared more like 70 kmph, and the car wanted to move ever faster. It had ample reserve of power. MehuI in the meantime was pretty much impressed with the music system that converted the noise that he typically plays into music. Even the kind of “music” he plays, sounded pretty fine to my ears. I dropped off my son to his college, with the MFD showing the average fuel consumption at 21 km.

My wife drove the car. She had hated us spending over Rs 19 lakh on the car. Yeti must have enamoured her, for after driving it for about 10 km she did not have any word of criticism.

9th December 2010:

We decided to take the Yeti for a little extended visit to a village near Saswad. It was supposed to be a gentle exploration of off-road credentials for Yeti. Yeti consumed Bopdev Ghat with eagerness, and headed towards Saswad. We were to go to Supa village located on way to Panwadi. However, due to some miscommunication, we thought we were to go to Panwadi. A kilometre from Saswad we turned left on the road to Panwadi. Within a few kilometres the road deteriorated and went up a hill. Local enquiry revealed that the village is located on the other side of the hill. A couple of kilometers the paved road disappeared. Large earth moving equipment should have cautioned us, but we pressed on – partly out of excitement of checking out Yeti and partly because of the enthusiasm that Yeti conveys with aplomb. Soon we realized that the road had deteriorated to an extent that we hesitated to move forward, but there was no way we could turn around, for there wasn’t any place for the manoeuvre. So forward we went further and further into the terrain we would have never taken a brand new car into.

With increasing trepidation, we punched the off-road button. But the Yeti was in its elements. She took the ups and down in its stride, never once complaining, or allowing anything but her tyres touch the surface. At different times various functions blinked – the hill descent, hill ascent assist, and ESP – controlling the vehicle like a pro. My wife, who happened to be on wheel, was both shocked and mesmerised that a car as sophisticated as Yeti could take such terrain. I was pleased that my decision was vindicated. Four kilometres later we were on the other side of the hill. It was a test by the fire and the Yeti cleared it with not a whimper. However, the first test could have been a fluke. The Yeti did it again on the way back. Only more purposefully this time, and with less tentativeness, as we had more confidence in her abilities on the way back.

At the end of her test she was fine but covered with dust on her sides and rear. Two buckets of water all she needed to be sparkling white once again.

11th December 2010:

We packed the family in the Yeti – three adults and two kids – and took off for Purandar. The 80 kilometres drive was most enjoyable. Yeti loved the Ghats and the road alike. Her small size and spirited response of her motor means that she can get into spaces where bigger SUVs will need to get cautious. She flies where others will need to tread with caution.

12th December 2010:

Mehul, my friend’s family and I packed into the Yeti and set course for Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. We reached Panchgani in two hours. On the Bangalore highway I discovered that Yeti is a wonderful cruiser, and Yeti reconfirmed how easy and agile she is on the winding hill roads. I followed the gear recommendations through most of the journey, and Yeti rewarded us with average fuel consumption of 20.4 km/l for the 240 kilometre. Having said that I must admit that I am fairly light-footed on the accelerator and for most part I kept the RPM below 1800.

Having driven around Yeti for 7 days and about 750 kilometres here are our impressions:

What we like:

1. Great comfort, a ride quality better than most cars that we have driven – and that includes Honda Jazz.
2. Behaviour of a very racy car (plenty of power), with fuel efficiency that surpasses the thriftiest of the cars. In fact it rivals Toyota Prius. And I know, that is a tall claim, which I am willing to prove – as per the MFD display. I still have plenty of fuel in the tank and have therefore not calculated tank to tank figures. So this figure is purely what the vehicle instrumentation is telling me.
3. The gear shift is very precise and easy.
4. A very quite diesel engine. In comparison, one year old office Toyota Innova is decidedly loud and Scorpio can only be called pretty noisy.
5. It is very easy car to drive. The view from the seat is high; the bonnet that is always visible from any sitting position helps judgment while manoeuvring in tight traffic.
6. Radio Bolero is simply awesome. The sound is very, very good.
7. My son told me, he will never again ask for another car.
8. The passenger seats too are pretty comfortable. There is plenty of leg room behind, although when we saw Yeti the first time we had serous apprehensions about rear seat comfort. Over the past week Yeti has reassured us that our misgivings on this count were misplaced.
9. The parking sensors are very accurate. I have found another use of these sensors. In slow moving bumper to bumper traffic, I turn on the park sensors and they continuously provide aural and visual information of traffic all around the car. It greatly improves situational awareness and also reduces stress.
10. The climatronic is fantastic in adaptive recirculation mode. Once in a while it allows smells to come into the cabin, particularly if the car suddenly gets behind a smoke belching vehicle, but corrects the situation pretty quickly. I leave the climatronic system with adaptive recirculation permanently on.
11. The MFD recommends the gears that a most suitable for any given configuration of speed, gradient, throttle and weight of the car.
12. The wipers and window washer are the best that I have seen.
13. The service manual is most amazing. The car hardly needs any maintenance. It calls for oil change once every 15,000 kilometres. The service schedules mentioned in the manual are unbelievably far apart. I will write more about it later.
14. The user manual is imported. It is very detailed and describes so many features without telling clearly which of those are offered in the car sold with Elegance trim. It would be therefore rather confusing.
15. Immense attention to detail in design and ergonomics.

What we miss:

1. An automatic DSG gear box. This is a big disappointment.
2. Parking assistant
3. Adaptive Bi-Xenon headlights
4. Tyre low pressure warning system.
5. Lack of electronic seat (with at least three memories) for at least the driver.

What we find irritating:

1. One needs to be quite careful with the gear and the clutch. The Yeti stalls with very little warning if the RPM drops. It takes us by surprise every now and then. But we are getting used to it. I think a DSG box would be such a pleasure for this reason.
2. The clutch travel is pretty large and I for one have to lift my foot a bit much to apply brakes. The brakes themselves are very sensitive and need getting used to. The Honda Jazz is much easier on the feet.

[camchennai]

Congratulations on your new possession.
Excellent review Sushil, you have covered all the aspects of car and need to say it was well written. Please justify this thread with some Pictures of your Yeti and did you happened to take any click while you went over the hill on Yeti behavior??

Also please let us know what is the OTR price, waiting period and dealership experience.
I thought Parking sensor are meant for assisting us in parking. Is it not?? or parking assist is something different??

[SushilBajpai]

Thanks canchennai. I will post some photos later in the day. Honestly I was too petrified to take any photos when the Yeti traversing the hill with no road.

The OTR price 19.4 lakh. It includes the Skoda Shield and Skoda Assure.

Parking Assist is a full blown parking system for parallel parking the Yeti in very tight space. It searches appropriate parking space while driving at speeds below about 15 kmph. On finding one, the driver only needs to follow the instructions to put it forward or reverse gear and keep the speed below 8 kmph while the system takes over the steering control and parks the car more neatly than most people in a space that would need some pretty expert handling.

On the other hand the existing configuration just provides a very accurate pictorial (graphic) and aural representation of obstructions around the Yeti.

I will write more posts covering various aspects of our experience with Yeti, including the dealership experience, who I think the Yeti is for, and who should possibly stay away; Skoda's annoying attempts at reducing cost, and other opinions.

[ampere]

I think what you wrote sums up what the Yeti is made for!
Congrats and have a safe drive.

[v&v]

@SushilBajpai congrats on your buy.

Do comments on rear view while reversing ie how difficult it is ?.
Does it have cruise control , didnt see you mentioning ?
Were you comfortable with the ground clearance while off roading ?
Also what about the body roll ?

Congrats again and drive safe.

[camchennai]

Originally Posted by SushilBajpai

Parking Assist is a full blown parking system for parallel parking the Yeti in very tight space. It searches appropriate parking space while driving at speeds below about 15 kmph. On finding one, the driver only needs to follow the instructions to put it forward or reverse gear and keep the speed below 8 kmph while the system takes over the steering control and parks the car more neatly than most people in a space that would need some pretty expert handling.

Then it turns out to be a excellent and interesting feature. This feature would make life simpler for those who are travelling in big vehicles, i am sure you would miss this is a lot. Is this feature common only to Skoda or other manufacturers also providing??

[SushilBajpai]

Originally Posted by v&v

@SushilBajpai congrats on your buy.

Do comments on rear view while reversing ie how difficult it is ?.
Does it have cruise control , didnt see you mentioning ?
Were you comfortable with the ground clearance while off roading ?
Also what about the body roll ?

Reversing:

My wife has had more experience reversing Yeti than I. She was the one on control while off-roading on a rather narrow stretch, when a major earth moving equipment turned up around a bend, and she had to reverse the Yeti several hundred feet. She found that using the rear-view mirrors together with the parking sensors, occasional look behind (and worried and concerned looks from me), were more than adequate to reverse the car safely, over nightmarish terrain.

I find myself using the mirrors, sensors and quick glances backwards through the rear screen when reversing. The sensors are accurate and I have configured two seperate tones for the front and rear sensors, and upped the volume. The parktronic activates automatically the moment one selects the reverse gear. However, I find myself turning it manually in dense traffic, or when parking behind our Jazz. I am able to comfortably park it within inches of the car in front (or behind) without playing any guessing game.

Cruise Control:

Yeti comes without the cruise control. It would have been a useful addition, for improving the FE while crusing on express way between Pune and Mumbai, where this car would often ply.

Ground Clearance:

The stated ground clearance of 180 mm doesn't sound much. It is same as Scorpio. However it appeared to handle off-road much better than Scorpio.

Body Roll:

The body roll is minimal, even when fully loaded with five people - in fact I hardly noticed it at all even when driving at a clip on the winding hill roads - we call "ghats" in Maharashtra.

It has least body roll of any SUV/MUV that I have driven.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by SushilBajpai

We decided to take the Yeti for a little extended visit to a village near Saswad. It was supposed to be a gentle exploration of off-road credentials for Yeti. Yeti consumed Bopdev Ghat with eagerness, and headed towards Saswad. We were to go to Supa village located on way to Panwadi. However, due to some miscommunication, we thought we were to go to Panwadi. A kilometre from Saswad we turned left on the road to Panwadi. Within a few kilometres the road deteriorated and went up a hill. Local enquiry revealed that the village is located on the other side of the hill. A couple of kilometers the paved road disappeared. Large earth moving equipment should have cautioned us, but we pressed on – partly out of excitement of checking out Yeti and partly because of the enthusiasm that Yeti conveys with aplomb. Soon we realized that the road had deteriorated to an extent that we hesitated to move forward, but there was no way we could turn around, for there wasn’t any place for the manoeuvre. So forward we went further and further into the terrain we would have never taken a brand new car into.

With increasing trepidation, we punched the off-road button. But the Yeti was in its elements. She took the ups and down in its stride, never once complaining, or allowing anything but her tyres touch the surface. At different times various functions blinked – the hill descent, hill ascent assist, and ESP – controlling the vehicle like a pro. My wife, who happened to be on wheel, was both shocked and mesmerised that a car as sophisticated as Yeti could take such terrain. I was pleased that my decision was vindicated. Four kilometres later we were on the other side of the hill. It was a test by the fire and the Yeti cleared it with not a whimper. However, the first test could have been a fluke. The Yeti did it again on the way back. Only more purposefully this time, and with less tentativeness, as we had more confidence in her abilities on the way back.

At the end of her test she was fine but covered with dust on her sides and rear. Two buckets of water all she needed to be sparkling white once again.

Good to know the Yeti is living up to its potential. I'd not been impressed by the pictures until I saw the thing in flesh. The build, along with the interiors, stopped me dead in my tracks!

One word of advice for you. The Yeti comes with standard road tyres, and their sidewalls are not strong enough to take the nicks and cuts of off roading. If you do plan to take it off road consistently, invest in a set of good off road/AT tyres.

Talking of pictures, this thread would be lovely if you post some pictures of your beauty!

[crackingride]

Originally Posted by SushilBajpai

We figured that that the Elegance does not sport rain-sensing wipers. However, the options in the MFD setup has an option of rain sensing windows closing.

I'm a bit surprised that there are no rain-sensing wipers, especially since the rain sensor is there to operate the windows for auto closing.
I was told at the time of my dekkho that the Yeti DID have rain sensing wipers but no auto headlights.

Do check and let us know what the case actually is. Going through the manual is no use as it shows you everything that might make its way into the car, with no distinction between what you have and what might have been!

[kaushikr]

Congratulations. Excellent review. Looks like you're in love with the Yeti.

Originally Posted by SushilBajpai

We figured that that the Elegance does not sport rain-sensing wipers. However, the options in the MFD setup has an option of rain sensing windows closing. I have no way of knowing what activating this function does.

Does this options mean that the windows roll up if it starts raining? Did you get a chance to try it out yet?

[.anshuman]

Congratulations for your car Sushil. Yeti is a brilliant car to drive, i get to drive one regularly and i have even compared to it to the Laura in my ownership thread.

Originally Posted by SushilBajpai

However, in our imagination we dreamt about the Yeti 2.0, 160 BHP, with DSG gear box, parking assist, adaptive xenon headlights. Honestly we were disappointed when the Yeti in elegance trim got in without these and then some more.

I also feel DSG should also have been offered in the Yeti. The Yeti comes with Parking sensors with Visual and Audio warning, even lower Ambiente variant has it.

[*]Great comfort, a ride quality better than most cars that we have driven – and that includes Honda Jazz.

Agreed, A bit stiffer compared to the Laura but no other SUV comes close to the Yeti's ride composure. It also has excellent high speed stability with car like handling.

[*] The service manual is most amazing. The car hardly needs any maintenance. It calls for oil change once every 15,000 kilometres. The service schedules mentioned in the manual are unbelievably far apart. I will write more about it later.

The Toyota Fortuner in comparison needs to be taken to ASC every 5000kms.

[*]One needs to be quite careful with the gear and the clutch. The Yeti stalls with very little warning if the RPM drops. It takes us by surprise every now and then. But we are getting used to it. I think a DSG box would be such a pleasure for this reason.

This is very annoying indeed. Other cars which have the same tendency are Laura MT, Jetta MT, Superb MT and Passat MT. DSG would have been perfect for the Yeti.

[Kartik Krishnan]

@ Sushil Bajpai, Even i was confused between the proximity warning system and the park-assist. Then i read your explanation and all was clear. Kudos to Skoda for offering this system. A brilliant write-up my friend. Do turn this into your one-stop destination for stories of your white beauty as the two of you chug along.

Here's wishing you lots of pleasurable driving miles ahead. Cheers

P.s. may we please have some snaps of your beauty, for its a crime to hide it from our admiring eyes!

[vb-saan]

Congratulations Sushil!
Excellent write-up and I am quite amazed that you tried the off-road ability so early.
And kudos to Yeti for passing the surprise test

Please post some pictures of the cute beast!

[SushilBajpai]

Here are some pictures of the Yeti.