Skoda Yeti

£13,775 for 1.2 TSI 105bhp to £22,170 for 2.0 TDI CR 170bhp 4×4

Ted: ‘Look Mummy, Tractor!’
Lillie: ‘Why do we have to give this nice car back? I don’t want to go in our car.’

Big Granwa: ‘Have you used this automatic parking thing Mike?’
Daddy: ‘Aha! I wonder if that’s how Laura got it in that small space?’

Before I begin I would like to state, for the record, that actually I parked the Skoda Yeti in a very small space between the tree and the neighbour’s car WITHOUT HELP. Well, ok, I did use the beepy sensors. But I didn’t even know there was an option for the car to park itself.

It certainly goes in the new Yeti’s favour that even before I found out about it’s mystical self-parking powers I had decided I wanted one for myself. Now, I’m not someone who knows a great deal about cars, usually I base car buying decisions on colour (do I have a nail polish that matches? If not, can I get one?) and boot space (how many Selfridges bags can I get in here?) and, for the most part, I have a tendency to sneer at 4×4s and people carriers - or, as they are known round here, Baked Bean Machines. But Skoda’s latest addition somehow won over this dubious mummy.

There’s no point in me trying to give you a Top Gear style review of the Yeti - I don’t know anything about fuel consumption and top speeds and rear suspension and roll bars. However Big Granwa, Dorset’s answer to Clarkson, says “I like the driving position but it looks like a brick”, while Daddy says “I don’t know if it’s all that without the bells and whistles but I’d have one if someone GAVE it to me.” I suspect though that Skoda are aiming this ’soft roader’ at the Mummy Market. It has variflex seating and plenty of boot space, room for kids plus Ikea purchases, it’s easy to drive (I stalled twice on my first try to shouts of ‘OH NO! GO! GO!’ from Ted but from then on, as someone who struggles to move from one car to another, found it incredibly easy to drive) and feels bulky and safe - small enough that you don’t feel as if you’re in a tank but sturdy enough to provide comfort for nervous drivers, it also has airbags aplenty, including some to give your knees a soft landing in the event of an accident. It went from Market Harborough to Sherborne on about half a tank of petrol (that’s 164 miles give or take, compared to an entire tank for our usual Ford Focus)…the bumpf says 46.3mpg if that means anything to you.

Daddy’s statement that the Yeti is ‘a bit ugly’ probably isn’t far wrong, it’s certainly not the finest looking car on the road, but it’s in no way the worst. But this isn’t a car you buy for posing about town. The things that sold it to me (or would have if I could afford it) and will no doubt sell it to other young families aren’t the off road button and the six speeds but the comfort and ease factors. The kids are incredibly easy to get in and out of their seats compared to other cars, it’s something Clarkson and co would never consider but Richard Hammond probably never had to strap a screaming stiff-as-a-board toddler into a carseat full of raisins and toy trains while an articulated lorry tries to squeeze between him and the badly parked Golf across the road. The parking sensors make getting in to tiny spaces in Sainsburys car park a breeze, the child locks are easy to locate and switch on (as we found when Ted swung open a door at 70mph on the M40) and a button locks all the doors in the car with one touch for those driving-through-Tooting-with-your-handbag-in-full-view moments. The Yeti also has excellent green credentials, especially in the 2.0l 108bhp version which will keep the Guardian reading masses happy.

Things Mummy liked also included the fact that she could plug in her iPhone and listen to Spandau Ballet at full volume while the kids slept in the back (very good work on the fader thingummy) and the hill start assistance which almost erased all horrors of being made to repeatedly practice hill starts on Knaphill’s Anchor Hill when learning to drive. She didn’t like not being able to see the clock from the passenger seat but that was about the only complaint she had.

Find out more about the Yeti here…