Car: Skoda Yeti range
Prices: £13,775-£22,170 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 3-9
Emissions: 140-159g/km
Performance: [TDI 140] 0-60mph 9.9s / Top Speed 118mph
Fuel Consumption: [TDI 140] (Combined) 47.1mpg
Safety: Driver, passenger front, side and curtain airbags, ABS
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4233/1793/1691
ARE WE THERE YET?
Our Rating: 7.0 / 10
Skoda’s Yeti isn’t a fully-fledged 4x4 but it should make a lot of sense for families on the lookout for something a little different. Jonathan Crouch reports
Skoda hasn’t tried to produce a fully-fledged small SUV with this Yeti but they have set out to provide a very credible alternative to a conventional family hatchback that has the option of limited four-wheel drive ability should you need it.
Crossovers: every home should have one. According to the motor industry of course, for whom this category of car is the latest, fashionable thing. Since you’d be forgiven for not knowing what on earth I’m talking about about, let me show you one, this being Skoda’s Yeti. It’s neither a compact SUV 4x4 or a family hatchback but its tall shape and optional all-wheel drive system ought, so we’re told, to bring you the best real world aspects of both.
According to the thinking behind this car, the slump in sales over recent years of conventional small SUVs didn’t mean we’d all fallen out of love with them. Only that we were fed up with their high running costs and clunky handling. Nissan’s Qashqai, launched in 2007, was quick to prove the theory and designers originally set to bring us chunky compact SUVs have been scurrying back to their CADCAM drawing boards ever since, with results like Peugeot’s 3008 and this Yeti, Skoda’s first real niche market model.
Unless you’re gunning this car off the line on a wet day or driving it off road, you’re unlikely to realise that it has four wheel drive at all. Actually, it may not have, since the entry-level 104bhp 1.2-litre petrol and 108bhp 2.0-litre TDI diesel models that many customers will choose are two wheel drive-only. If you want the Haldex 4x4 arrangement borrowed from Skoda’s Octavia, you can choose any of the 2.0-litre diesels, the 108bhp offering supplanted by 138 and 168bhp offerings, or a 158bhp 1.8-litre petrol unit.
If you have opted for all-wheel drive, you shouldn’t be expecting to conquer the Serengeti - the system will only send drive to the rear when it detects wheel slip. Still, at least some off-road ability is assured by the presence of hill decent control (which applies automatic braking to maintain a constant downhill speed) and an off-road driving mode that adjusts the ABS, traction control and EDL (Electronic Differential Lock) systems to cope with loose surfaces. Ground clearance is measured at 18
At the wheel, you’ve that elevated SUV-style driving position with excellent all-round visibility but at the same time, a car that will handle like any conventional Golf-sized family hatch, quick to change direction, with surprisingly little body roll for something this tall. There’s loads of grip, the ride is comfortable and the electric power steering is direct and accurate, if a little artificial-feeling. Driver’s who’d normally struggle to adjust to a conventional small SUV will quickly find themselves driving this car smoothly and swiftly.
Though this isn’t trying to be a fully-fledged SUV, it looks pretty purposeful, which is half the battle in this style-conscious sector. There are modern Skoda design touches too, such as the unapologetic chrome-topped grille and the blacked out roof pillars. Inside, everything falls neatly to hand around that commanding driving position, with a smart colour touch-screen dominating the central dash. The broad windows and tall windscreen aid visibility and quality dashboard materials and neat design top off a very accomplished cabin.
They say the tale of the tape doesn’t lie but in this case, we’re inclined to believe that it does. At 4223mm long, this car is shorter even that Skoda’s supermini-based Fabia estate, a car that’s little more than a hatchback with a backpack. Yet climb inside, particularly into the back seat, and you’d never know it. All right, so three adults would have to be pretty friendly but two will enjoy perfectly adequate leg and elbow room with plentiful headroom offering the feeling of travelling in a much larger car. Partly, this is down to the clever VarioFlex individually-sliding seats, enabling the prioritisation of either legroom of bootspace. But mainly it’s a legacy of nearly 1.8 metres of width. The only wider car in the Czech company’s is the large and class-leadingly spacious Superb. Out back, there’s a 410-litre boot which can be extended to as much as 1,760-litres if, as is possible, you li
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