Driving the Skoda Yeti: Why don’t cars like this exist anymore? Opinion

This is the Skoda Yeti. It’s the predecessor to the Karoq SUV we know today, and I remember watching Jeremy Clarkson’s review of it on Top Gear way back in 2009 and falling in love with this quirky-looking family car.

During that film Clarkson subjected the Yeti to a lot of gruelling tests. He drove it through a burning building, had an entire crew of firefighters run through the interior and, most famously, had someone land a helicopter on the roof.

It was one of my favourite road tests on the show, so when I saw that very Skoda Yeti at an event recently, I had to take the chance to take it out for a drive.

But first, what exactly is the Skoda Yeti? Well if you were to explain it over the phone to someone, they may think it was quite boring. It’s a boxy, practical and comfy MPV with flexible seating inside and loads of storage.

But when you’re standing in front of it, the Yeti looks plain cool. It has a rugged vibe with the black cladding, and those round headlights add character – something which was disappointingly removed for a mid-life facelift in 2014.

You could also get a four-wheel drive version which had decent off-road ability, as well as a decent range of petrol and diesel engines. This one is the 1.8-litre petrol 4X4 with a six-speed manual gearbox, meaning it has 160hp on tap and will do 0-60mph in 8.4 seconds.

It feels punchy enough, and the four-wheel drive system gives you plenty of grip through the corners. As you’d expect, it doesn’t feel like a sports car on a country road, however it doesn’t lean too much and it does give you the confidence to get a shift on.

The Yeti is comfortable as well, with subtle suspension soaking up bumps in the road. I also loved the way this doesn’t feel like a big car to drive, despite its cavernous interior. You get great visibility thanks to the vast windows, and the light steering makes it easy to manoeuvre in town.

Inside you get a 416-litre boot. That doesn’t sound massively impressive on paper – a new Skoda Karoq gets 521 litres of space – but the Yeti’s shape makes it easy to make use of every inch of space. It’s almost perfectly square with no load lip, and the floor is nice and low which makes it easy to haul heavy items in.

The rear seats can also fold down, roll forward or be removed completely to turn your Yeti into a van. With the seats in place you have loads of rear legroom and headroom, and you passengers can also recline for added comfort.

To me, the Yeti was the embodiment of Skoda’s “Simply Clever” mantra. It was designed with practicality and ease of use at the forefront, but Skoda also managed to make it look cool and pack it full of charm and character. Even the name puts a smile on your face. Imagine saying you drive a Yeti with a frown.

The Skoda Yeti ran from 2009 to 2017 before it went extinct and was indirectly replaced by the much more conventional-looking Skoda Karoq. It may be a hugely practical SUV, but the Karoq never really captured the Yeti’s spirit for me.

There’s a simple reason for this, and that’s customer demand. The Yeti may have been a hugely popular car, with Skoda shifting nearly 700,000 of them worldwide, but by 2018 buyers had got a taste for SUVs and Skoda wanted a model which was better aligned with cars like the Kodiaq.

If you fancy a Yeti in 2025, there are loads for sale on the second hand market. Prices through Carwow start from just over £5,000 for a 2013 model rising to around £12,000 for a late 2017 car with low miles.

A used Skoda Yeti would make a fantastic family car for taking on adventures, and it has a charm which is almost impossible not to love. I’ve almost talked myself into buying one after seeing what great value they are these days.

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