Yeti vs Golf SV (vs C-Max?...)
Discussion
I'd all but decided until last night that I'm getting a Skoda Yeti, as the daily / family workhorse mile-muncher. There's a dealer nearby(ish) who has a tidy-looking 2015 SE L 2.0TDi, and also has a Golf SV 1.4TSi in stock for the same price - slightly better year nd mileage.
The Yeti clearly has very broad appeal, so I find it hard to think I could go wrong with one. The main niggling dilemmas with it though are;
1. It's very versatile but doesn't have a big boot, until you start shifting seats out. The fact you can adjust / remove the rear seats I thought would negate that, but it would annoy the hell out of me if I took the plunge and realised after living with it that it was just that bit too small. For context, we have 2 small kids and 1 small dog. The car would need to bring that plus all of our things for a week's staycation a few times a year. We don't need a cavernous SUV (nor can we afford), and from a driving perspective I want the smallest thing I can comfortably get away with as a daily. Bike racks and roof boxes can be bought down the line to help, but if another car can do all the things without adding on bits, less of a ball-ache.
2. Comparably-priced Golf SVs seem to have newer-gen hardware and seem more hatchback-like in general. That helps being as we'll be trading down from a MK4 Focus as the family whip, so if I went for an earlier Yeti I'd probably lose DAB, and generally it would be a noticably older car.
3. Yetis with a Euro 6 engine, right spec (heated seats, preferably DAB, xenons...so not the S or SE models) in a low tax bracket for my max budget of £7k seem thinner on the ground than the Golfs or C-Maxes. Not just that, the money goes slightly further in terms of year and mileage with the VW / Ford. Even at £7k, which to some degree feels like a lot for a Yeti when they can be had for less than half that if you're not fussy, I'm still looking at just under 100k miles for one which ticks all the boxes.
4. For all the praise the Yeti received, does it drive noticeably better than a Golf or C-Max? Or other thing I'm not considering? I can already hear the queue of voices asking why the hell I'm not just getting an Octavia/Superb estate. Reason for that is, even having driven an Oct VRS estate, I just have always thought that the Yeti's boxy dimensions would make it slightly less dull to drive. I know I'm not getting anything spicy or fast with a Yeti, but I have long had an itch to get one, in no small part thanks to Evo mag's heaped praise for the way it drives (back in the day). It will do 15k+ miles a year but won't need to munch a tonne of motorway miles. It just needs to be something that won't feel like an insipid, lardy boat if ever the need to hussle along a country road comes along. If I wasn't bothered about driving dynamics I'd have probably just bought a CR-V by now and be done with it.
5. C-Maxes seem to tick a lot of said boxes, but I'm about to get rid of a Ford, in part due to lack of confidence in their engine reliability (a la EcoBoost, wet belt etc), but can anyone vouch for them as a good bet? Sounds like they're a better steer than the Golf if the reviews are to be believed, but worth taking the plunge on ownership for?
Someone please help to put me out of my eternal deliberation!
The Yeti clearly has very broad appeal, so I find it hard to think I could go wrong with one. The main niggling dilemmas with it though are;
1. It's very versatile but doesn't have a big boot, until you start shifting seats out. The fact you can adjust / remove the rear seats I thought would negate that, but it would annoy the hell out of me if I took the plunge and realised after living with it that it was just that bit too small. For context, we have 2 small kids and 1 small dog. The car would need to bring that plus all of our things for a week's staycation a few times a year. We don't need a cavernous SUV (nor can we afford), and from a driving perspective I want the smallest thing I can comfortably get away with as a daily. Bike racks and roof boxes can be bought down the line to help, but if another car can do all the things without adding on bits, less of a ball-ache.
2. Comparably-priced Golf SVs seem to have newer-gen hardware and seem more hatchback-like in general. That helps being as we'll be trading down from a MK4 Focus as the family whip, so if I went for an earlier Yeti I'd probably lose DAB, and generally it would be a noticably older car.
3. Yetis with a Euro 6 engine, right spec (heated seats, preferably DAB, xenons...so not the S or SE models) in a low tax bracket for my max budget of £7k seem thinner on the ground than the Golfs or C-Maxes. Not just that, the money goes slightly further in terms of year and mileage with the VW / Ford. Even at £7k, which to some degree feels like a lot for a Yeti when they can be had for less than half that if you're not fussy, I'm still looking at just under 100k miles for one which ticks all the boxes.
4. For all the praise the Yeti received, does it drive noticeably better than a Golf or C-Max? Or other thing I'm not considering? I can already hear the queue of voices asking why the hell I'm not just getting an Octavia/Superb estate. Reason for that is, even having driven an Oct VRS estate, I just have always thought that the Yeti's boxy dimensions would make it slightly less dull to drive. I know I'm not getting anything spicy or fast with a Yeti, but I have long had an itch to get one, in no small part thanks to Evo mag's heaped praise for the way it drives (back in the day). It will do 15k+ miles a year but won't need to munch a tonne of motorway miles. It just needs to be something that won't feel like an insipid, lardy boat if ever the need to hussle along a country road comes along. If I wasn't bothered about driving dynamics I'd have probably just bought a CR-V by now and be done with it.
5. C-Maxes seem to tick a lot of said boxes, but I'm about to get rid of a Ford, in part due to lack of confidence in their engine reliability (a la EcoBoost, wet belt etc), but can anyone vouch for them as a good bet? Sounds like they're a better steer than the Golf if the reviews are to be believed, but worth taking the plunge on ownership for?
Someone please help to put me out of my eternal deliberation!
The Yeti is really quite excellent, and they seem to hold their money well, but yes the boot is relatively small.
Might be worth a look at a Roomster. Lower spec but mega practical.
The Golf SV offers a good all round package and they seem quite good value so I can see it being a decent car.
Might want to check out the Civic. Big boot and spacious inside. Older cars have the 1.6 i-DTEC and there's even the estate version that they killed off around 2017.
The Octavia is a great all rounder but I've been running a vRS 230 for four years so I'm a bit biased.
Might be worth looking at the Astra or Leon estates too.
Might be worth a look at a Roomster. Lower spec but mega practical.
The Golf SV offers a good all round package and they seem quite good value so I can see it being a decent car.
Might want to check out the Civic. Big boot and spacious inside. Older cars have the 1.6 i-DTEC and there's even the estate version that they killed off around 2017.
The Octavia is a great all rounder but I've been running a vRS 230 for four years so I'm a bit biased.
Might be worth looking at the Astra or Leon estates too.
The Yeti is definitely good to drive, a chunk more chuckable than a Golf, so I'd guess definitely more do than a Golf SV.
The boot isn't deep, but it's pretty tall, so you can get a fair bit in there, particularly with the rear seats slid forwards (or tumbled). I never took my seats out, but I gather they're pretty heavy.
I loved my Yetis - both were CR170 4x4s.
The boot isn't deep, but it's pretty tall, so you can get a fair bit in there, particularly with the rear seats slid forwards (or tumbled). I never took my seats out, but I gather they're pretty heavy.
I loved my Yetis - both were CR170 4x4s.
My wife went from a Golf to a Yeti. Except for me buying her the wrong engine (1.2Tsi) it is a brilliant little car that neither I nor my wife will change anytime soon.
We have 1 child and use this can to ferry his bike to and from bike club, a few staycations in recent years. Great car!
We have 1 child and use this can to ferry his bike to and from bike club, a few staycations in recent years. Great car!
We had all but settled on a Yeti after looking at loads of similar cars, at the last minute we went for a Dacia Login Stepway because of the small boot in the Yeti. The boot in the Logan is huge, as long with the seats down as cars 2 sizes up. In top spec it actually has decent levels of kit and it rides surprisingly well for a utilitarian car. Great value too and reliable.
We have a petrol yeti, two small kids but no dog. For loaded trips away you'll need a roof box or something bigger. The boot is quite small unless the seats are down/out.
Particularly with kids prams, scooters etc being awkward shapes there's a certain amount of boot tetris required. The lip on the boot is high so you'll be forever hoiking things over/scratching the rear bumper. Also worth bearing in mind with two modern car/booster seats the middle seat will only host a small dog or a very thin person a very short distance very uncomfortably.
It's been a great car but there's a reason the karoq that skoda replaced it with is bigger.
Particularly with kids prams, scooters etc being awkward shapes there's a certain amount of boot tetris required. The lip on the boot is high so you'll be forever hoiking things over/scratching the rear bumper. Also worth bearing in mind with two modern car/booster seats the middle seat will only host a small dog or a very thin person a very short distance very uncomfortably.
It's been a great car but there's a reason the karoq that skoda replaced it with is bigger.
A Yeti is the ultimate 'do it all car' (along with a Discovery 4), especially if you get the right engine and spec ones.
I always remember talking to a non-franchised dealer about them and he said that when they had one that was being traded in it was nearly always sold before they advertised it.
I've had a couple of Octavia VRS (2.0TDi) and I'd rather go for a Yeti next time due to their practicality.
Get one and if you don't like it you can sell it on again for pretty much what you paid for it.
I always remember talking to a non-franchised dealer about them and he said that when they had one that was being traded in it was nearly always sold before they advertised it.
I've had a couple of Octavia VRS (2.0TDi) and I'd rather go for a Yeti next time due to their practicality.
Get one and if you don't like it you can sell it on again for pretty much what you paid for it.
I ran a top spec Golf SV GT for a year in 2015-16.
It’s a distinctly more up-to-date car than the more popular Yeti, which I’d looked around at the time.
Neither are sexy, but the Yeti has more of a following partly because it’s an off-roader in style and - in some specs - substance. Let’s face it, MPVs are less cool… especially ones that aren’t very big. But I felt the gulf in tech grew the higher up the spec ladder you go, so settled on the SV for a bit.
In hindsight buying the SV was an error; and so I’d say choose between the Yeti or regular Golf (including estate).
It’s a distinctly more up-to-date car than the more popular Yeti, which I’d looked around at the time.
Neither are sexy, but the Yeti has more of a following partly because it’s an off-roader in style and - in some specs - substance. Let’s face it, MPVs are less cool… especially ones that aren’t very big. But I felt the gulf in tech grew the higher up the spec ladder you go, so settled on the SV for a bit.
In hindsight buying the SV was an error; and so I’d say choose between the Yeti or regular Golf (including estate).
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