motoring
Island Life - June/July 2010
Yeti flattens
the myths
THE drive is so far from your
obstacles with the visual display on the
expectations. The Skoda Yeti is
dash. Then glide out onto the road. It
squareish and chunky: you think
is a glide, the handling is effortless and
memory stick in to play your favourite
‘heavy’. The interior is practical but a
the engine almost whispers. It’s only
tunes, or your MP3 player or CD. Add
little plasticky: you think ‘budget’. And
when you get into 4th that you hear a
SatNav and you’ve got everything a
it’s a Skoda. Nuff said.
tiny bit of 4x4 noise.
family needs. A child can grow as tall
No, not enough said. It may have
from you.
Talking of gizmos, you can plug a
If the smooth dance round corners
as his 6ft-plus father and still can sit
gone unnoticed among the many claims
and merry acceleration suggests it’s a
comfortably behind him. Or Dad can
to be the most practical, the most
bit lightweight, take it off-road. Push
boot out the kids, flatten the seats and
knock-about, the most rugged and the
the off-road button and you’ve got
make the Yeti into a van.
most capacious of the current crop of
help pulling up wet or muddy surfaces
off-roaders used on the road (you know
and anchorage when you go down.
up to Scotland in the recent snow and
what I mean) that the car voted 2009’s
Easy-peasy. Even novices needn’t baulk
found it handled everything he asked
Family Car of the Year by Top Gear
at a slippery slope. If you’ve never
of it. But he’s not shouting about it.
Magazine was the Skoda Yeti. Yes, a
driven little Sophie up to the top field
He reckons for around £20,000, these
Skoda.
with a car-full of feed for her precious
Yetis will drive out of the showroom by
pony, now might be the time.
themselves.
We all know that Skodas are not
the wheezing embarrassments of
Skoda man Ray Winter took a Yeti
If you’re unlikely to need the off-road
Eastern Europe that they were before
button – you wanted a family car not a
Test drive the Skoda Yeti at:
Volkswagen got involved. But prejudices
tractor – try, for around £450 extra, the
FH Winter & Sons Ltd,
are hard to suppress.
parking button. We’re not just talking
Havenstreet Garage, Havenstreet.
So let me suppress them. Take the
park-assist alarms here, this car will
Tel: 01983 882455
handbrake off, move the chunky gear
reverse into a space, and barring the
lever to reverse and check for rear
foot controls, it needs no interference
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