4 wheel driver, on 10 December 2009 - 11:56, said:
Hi Agerbundsen, You're the first owner of a 170BHP / 125KW cr tdi I've come across. Congratulations! Mine will be arriving any time now. Promised before Christmas. Still can't find any road test on the 170. Are you pleased with ours ? What's the performance like ? I appreciate it will take 20 to 30 K to loosen up but it would be interesting to hear if you test drove the 140 by way of comparison. I am desperate not to be disappointed with it's get up and go compared with my Seat Ibiza 2 L 8v petrol GTI (aka Golf GTI ). I know the comparison is unfair GTI versus SUV but on paper the Yeti beats the Ibiza on paper 0-100 km by 1.5 seconds so in that respect it is fair to compare.
I look forward to your reply, HOWARD
First impressions:
I picked up the car on Friday evening and went on a 550 km trip this weekend with mixed motorway driving and some main and side roads, but no real off-road included. Coming from an Octy Combi 140 PD it is a bit of a change in style, as the Octy is quite a firm ride and the 140 PD very snappy, if not brutal in acceleration once the turbo really kicks in.
The Yeti is equipped with Goodyear Eagle Ultragrip winter tyres. They were not the first choice, but the 7+ Ultragrips are not available in the 215/60/16" size. They are a fairly agressive thread design for roand use, but were surprisingly quiet and qiute grippy in the wet, which was my main interest - not snow, as they will only see very littke of the white stuff. I am sure from the thread design that they will also be fine in the snow.
Visually, I was surprices at the huge size of the front brake discs: The specs say 288 mm, but they are around 325 mm and pretty near fil in the space in the wheels.
There are no squeeks or rattles, but the speakers switch on and off at random. I suspect a faulty ground somewhere or some other wiring quirk in the dealer fitted Columbus.
The Noise level is significantly lower in the Yeti than the Octy, even with the winter tyres. Very quiet up to around 140 Km/hr, when there is some wind noise in general, but no whistles from leaks around windows etc. I noticed some wind noise around the leading edge of the roof rails on the test 140, but not no my car. The quietness is a little bit of a concern, as with the high driving position, you do not notice speed as much as in a lower car, so driving at the speed limits seems unnecessarily slow.
The handling is very well balaned, rock steady and comfortable on motorway, yet responsive and accurate. The Haldex works very smoothly on wet pavement and grass - we had some frosty roads in the mornigs, and the power transferred to the rear with no fuss or wheel spin. Rough cobbled streets just get absorbed with a pleasant flubbing sound. Roundabouts are negotiated in third with no fuss.
Initially, but the engine and gearbox felt very tight, but both loosened up after some time. the gears shift as slick as the Octy with 120,000 on the odometer, so no problems there. I am not likely to test hard accelerations for some time to let thing wear-in a bit first. We were not over 3500 rpm at any point. On the motorway, there is plenty of power in 6th gear in the usual Saturday/Sunday traffice, where the speed changes constantly from 120 to 150 km/hr.
I miss some of the small handy cubbyholes from the Octy - particuarly the little open pocket on the side of the front seats - my pipe just fitted perfectly there, and in the Yeti, there is no place to put it.
The Yeti confuses the heck out of the other drivers. It looks cute and slow like Roomster or Berlingo - or clumsy like some of the Japanes 4X4's that keep to hte nearside on the highways - so the number of surprised "What the F****? looks you get when passing are quite amusing. That goes especially for the black Mondeo Estate crowd, flashing their lights - and then can't keep up when the traffic clears.
The Yeti is very handy in tight quarters, such as villages with narrow streets. Getting the near side wheels out in the grass for passing oncoming traffic on narrow country lanes is just no problem at all, although I did not test brakeing under those conditions.
The discussion about the visibility of the instruments is valid. If you like to drive with the steering wheel fairly low, the top rim of the wheel does block the top of the instruments. You can still see all you need to, but visually, the rim curve and the curve of the top of the instrument shade look wrong. actually, I think that a little bigger wheel diameter would suit the car better and solve the problem and fit the car better. It would make it possible to rest your elbows on the door and center arm rest and still reach the bottom of the steering wheel, while being able to see through it to the instruments. This is not possible with the small diameter steering wheel. It seems to me that this is a design fault, which should be corrected.
All in all, I am very pleased with the first impression. I am quite sure that once I have gotten used to the different vehicle dynamics, it will feel just right.
P.S.: First tankful yielded a fuel consumption of just 7.2 l/100km - just over 38 mpg (UK) , which is not so good, but may improve. I had anticipated 6.5 l/100 km - 45 mpg. We might get there when I settel down and stop testing and the Yeti is a little more "experienced". The zenon lights are just the cat's miauw. The foglight corner lights do not work yet, maybe a programming question. The DRL's confuse people coming from behind, as the rear lights are not on and people think the DRL's are not on. Flashing your lights to tell people they have forgotten the Daytime lights is a common "courtesy" here, where it is required to have lights on allways.
Additions after 1500 km and a little over one week:
It seems like the engine is getting quite a bit smoother and is showing some of it's built-in power. Comfortable cruising in 6th at 705 km/h is OK and acceleration without changing gear is OK, but not tooo convoncing. 40 km/h in 4th is also OK, and 3rd is fine for roundabouts if you do not have to stop before entering.
The Yeti has a very noticeable smaller turning radius than the Octy and is very nimble in close quarters. The short rear overhang helps this a lot, but when parallel parkong, it is impossible to see the car behind. On the other hand, it is much shorter that you think, so no real problems. I never felt the need for the rear sensors I had in the Octy, but they would be nce in the Yeti.
The various electrnic aids in traction work well on snowy roads. When the surfaces really have vey little traction, the feed-back is quite good and warns you to back off. I am quite chuffed with the Goodyear Eagle Super Grip winter tires. Very quiet and good handling both on wet and snowy roads as well as firm handling on tarmac. I am now wondering what summer wheels and tyres to get. I am leaning towards 17" Annapurna BLACK wheels as presumably the will not show brake dust as much, and Goodyear OptiGrip 225/50- R17 V rated for their wet handling. (ADAC 2009 test).
There are no rattles or squeeks. The only complaints are poor balance of the rear tyres, a delayed light-off of the left Zenon light, a missing trim ring and some speaker cut-outs from the dealer installed Columbus.
The Columbus is significantkly better as a navigation system than the Pioneer installed in the Octy. It is very easy to read and control, has a nice sound when all the speakers work and the touch screen has large enough "buttons" so that they are easy to use while driving without having to divert too much attention from the road. The Parrot also functions well, and the little three button control panel is easy to use, even though is is fixed at the bottom of the heater controls with double sided tape. It is still disappointing that the phone functionality from the Columbus is both marginally effective and requires a Bluetooth addition more expensive than the Parrot.
Fuell consumption is down to around 6.2 l/100 km or 16 km/l or 45 mpg (UK) This is pretty much as I had hoped for and fairly matches the official numbers. That the 125 kW allows comfortable cruising at 1500 rpm probably helps a lot.
The full power has not yet been explored, as I have stayed below 3500 rpm, and just noticed that the redline is 5000 rpm, not 4500 as on the 140 PD engine.
All in all, I think this is a very well balanced design with no major flaws.
This post has been edited by Agerbundsen: 21 December 2009 - 09:10
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