Skoda Yeti rolls out

Skoda revealed the Skoda Yeti at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and has announced this week that the first car has rolled off the production line in Kvasiny in the Czech Republic.

The Skoda Yeti is a promising, rufty-tufty ‘SmallRoader’, based on parent company VW’s Tiguan. But the Skoda holds the promise of more for less, a trick Skoda has managed to pull off with a number of VW products.

Skoda has also been out playing with the Yeti in Norway, exposing it to a wide variety of off and on-road surfaces to shake it down properly before the first customer cars are ready for delivery. Although the base models come in 2 wheel drive, the better specced Yetis get four wheel drive, so a degree of soft-roading is going to be perfectly feasible. Not that most Yeti’s will ever see anything more muddy than a boot sale field in their life, but nice to know they have at least a modicum of off-road ability.

The styling of the Skoda Yeti is initially a little odd, but grows on you pretty quickly. The quirky lighting arrangement at the front actually works really well, and the boxy shape with biggish wheel arches makes the Yeti look tough. This is going to be a cracking little city 4×4, and with low fuel consumption and emissions the eco-mentalists will have trouble disparaging this 4×4 as a ‘Planet-Killer’.

Power comes from a range of engines, from a pretty feeble 1.2 litre petrol with a little over 100bhp and 2WD, to a much better 1.8 litre offering 4WD and 160bhp. Diesel power is offered by a 2.0 litre in three power levels – 110bhp, 140bhp and 170bhp. The 110bhp model comes with 2WD.

The Skoda Yeti is pretty well equipped, even getting downhill descent control, and with prices starting from around £13,000 when the Yeti hits UK showrooms in September, it looks likely to be another hit for the former skip maker from Eastern Europe.

I’d take it over the Tiguan.