Skoda Yeti Review

Skoda one of the leaders in Car manufacturing, well known in India as a compact car maker comes up with a Latest version. Skoda yeti, the go anywhere machine is build to suit the Indian roads and is sure to overcome larger SUVs. It is about to come on road in January 2011. This is the fifth model from Skoda. It may resemble the roomster, one of the models of Skoda, however yeti is been enhanced with some phenomenal features. It has a much more compact look than the roomster (sizing 4223mm long, 1793mm wide and 1691mm tall). It has a wheel base of 2758 mm and a ground clearance of 180mm. Yeti will sure not be objected by many eco environmental thinking minders as the emission of carbon monoxide is much less. The machine is robust in structure and has a sporty look. The pronounced wheel arches is appreciable. It is fitted with a rectangular and a round headlamps on either side.

The interior design clearly shows that Skoda has well learnt from Roomster and is clever. The seating system in yeti has also look a alike in the Roomster’s flexi seating system. Skoda terms it as Vario Flex seating system. There are three seats are the rear which can be folded or completely removed in case of emergency space. The space can accommodate up to 1760 liters of luggage. The removal of the middle seats gives a chance for the outer seats to move length wise and makes it more comfortable. Yeti lacks 20 liters boot space than Roomster due to the fact that its roof is lowered.

Yeti is equipped with a powerful engine giving options between a 6-speed manual or a 7 speed DSG twin-clutch automatic gearbox while the automatic gear system employs an additional 5-speed manual drive. The front driving machine is fitted with the award winning 1.2-litre 105bhp TSI petrol engine. The four wheel drive machine is accompanied with a electro-hydraulically actuated Haldex multi-disc clutch mounted

with the final drive and rear axle. In normal operating conditions, up to 96% of the engines torque is shifted to the front drive. The rear wheels will be operated at 90% of the torque. The difference in speed between the front and the rear wheels is detected with a group of sensors. This enables a perfect drive on all surfaces. The body leans over a little bit as you take a bend but its not a ping and considering the height of the car it is not bad at all. There is lot of grip in tyres and it feels very secure to bend. The steering does not meet with any feedback with the turn and it has a nice meaty weight to it. The strongest point of Yeti would be that there is barely any noise at low speed and it is not much louder when you push into a 70 miles an hour. Wind noise is also less.

A complete pack of safety systems comes with the gear employed. The ABS and ESP plays a vital role with the sensors that have been mentioned earlier. Yeti best suits hill drive. Rolling down the hill is always difficult. Assistance with the first gear drive will not be considered helpful comparing it with the ABS-ESP combo throttle control system,  Which gives a smooth drive on rolling down the hill with up to 5-10 km/hr with the gear in the neutral mode. This can be achieved by punching a switch on the dashboard.

Handling in tight turns is much easier with the Yeti. Yeti is accompanied with a front suspension and has the modified sub-frame mounted multi-link rear set-up in Laura and Octavia which overall makes Yeti come up with the fine drive on all surfaces. What really it attracts is that it looks like a family far. The car is wide and tall which allows more space at the back There are storage compartments all over the cabin which helps to keep the car clean.

The Vario flexi seating system and its build quality is sure to make an impact on the Indian roads. However its price will decide whether or not it’ll out sell the most selling cars like Scorpio, Innova which are of the same category.

Skoda Yeti is to be launched in three versions such as Yeti 1.2, Yeti 2.0 and Yeti 4X4 with displacements 1,197 in Yeti 1.2 and 1,968 in the other two. The maximum torque produced is 175Nm, 255Nm and 350 Nm respectively. Yeti 1.2 and Yeti 4X4 comes with a 6-speed manual while Yeti 2.0 comes with a 5-speed manual.

Related posts:

1. Review: Maruti Eeco has been launched
2. Volkswagen Beetle Review
3. 2010 Buick LaCrosse Review
4. 2010 Acura TSX V-6 Sedan Review
5. 2010 Mazda Mazdaspeed3 Review