The Night Mail

[SM42]

The recovery driver who  picked up the motor said they do a lot of JLR group  breakdown and revovery jobs. 

 

DSG seems to be a lottery. 

 

Early versions not good.

Later versions better. 

Wet better than dry apparently 

 

The secret is good maintenance it seems. 

Not something you can guarantee in the big bad world.  

 

Same reason that cars aren't generally sent out in their peak tuned condition. 

 

There needs to be an allowance  for general neglect across possible range of owners. 

 

Andy

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

16 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I do like Skodas, good build quality and less expensive than an equivalent VW, despite using identical mechanical components.  After the Fabia, I had an Octavia and then a Yeti, which is now over 12 years old and still ( fingers crossed ) going strong.  Don't remember the model designation of Yeti, but it's the 4x4 2 litre 170hp diesel version, and averages high 40/low 50 MPG, which isn't too shabby.

 

 

13 hours ago, bbishop said:

I'm another 12 year Yeti owner, mine is bottom of the range - 1.2 litre, petrol, manual gearbox.  Less to go wrong.  It does 38mpg in an urban area.

I too am a very happy Škoda owner/driver. Like @Hroth and @bbishop we have a Yeti (“Hetty The Yeti” [and with Oscar and Emma the two leather Hippos that we have, the only inanimate objects we own that have nicknames]).

 

The Yeti was actually a “not first choice” purchase - as the proposed SAAB model we hoped to buy disappeared into the ether when SAAB went under.

 

Hetty was purchased new - a <Swiss Line>  version* (a “tweaked” model for the Swiss market so that Swiss Škoda dealers can charge more for a Škoda than their French or German counterparts). The basic <Swiss Line> has all the usual “nice to haves” (A/C, electric windows, built in SatNav, automatic transmission etc.) to which we added a few extras - including a trailer hitch, which we’ve never used. 
 

We’ve had a few repair jobs on the car: two from Mrs iD and myself misjudging a distance to a very hard object and once (an extensive body repair) when a teenage apprentice auto-mechanic reversed at high speed into the right rear of Hetty. As the apprentice’s garage took care of the repairs, no insurance company was involved - which was good for everyone’s premiums.

 

The only Škoda related repair was when the satnav/radio started to play up, and that was solved quite quickly by a software update.

 

I think one of the great appeals of the Škoda Yeti is that in a world of almost identical vehicles, it was (and still is) an idiosyncratic vehicle which is an utter delight to drive.

 

Škoda missed a trick by not renewing and updating the Yeti line; the current Škoda lineup is, well, okay, but none are as appealing as the Yeti. Even though we could replace Hetty if we wanted to, both Mrs ID and I enjoy her so much and find her such a delightful car to drive that we see no reason to replace her as long as she lasts and with routine maintenance and care that should be for quite a while.

 

* one of the money making wheezes Swiss dealers of all kinds of marques indulge in, is to get the various car company to produce a “Swiss Edition” of their vehicles. These tend to be the basic vehicle with all kinds of bells and whistles bolted on; now the package price for a “Swiss, edition” will be less then if you took the basic vehicle model and added all the extras, but unfortunately you don’t have a choice as to the package - it’s all or nothing. So whilst the “Swiss Edition“ Hippomobile may have the built in cake protection safe (wanted) you also have to take the auto baked bean dispenser (unwanted) with it. And as for taking the very basic model of the vehicle and adding only those items that you want, well you can forget about it as a lot of the time you’ll get the dreaded notice “this combination is not possible” (or words to that effect.

[iL Dottore]

And whilst on the topic of the Škoda Yeti, here’s the Top Gear review that clinched the deal

 

And we’re not the only ones to think that the Yeti is near perfect:

 

[skipepsi]

10 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

And whilst on the topic of the Škoda Yeti, here’s the Top Gear review that clinched the deal

 

And we’re not the only ones to think that the Yeti is near perfect:

 

I am getting quite tempted, the only worry is the DSG box...

[jjb1970]

The best car I had was a Subaru Legacy estate. Lovely to drive, very practical and rock solid build and reliability.

 

We went away from Subaru because they were thirsty, but I came to regret it. A weird thing about Subaru was that although the brochure figures were mediocre I found real world fuel use pretty close to what they claimed. The other cars I have had were much better on paper but hopelessly optimistic and a mile away from real life fuel use.

 

 

[bbishop]

I find the huge advantage of the Yeti is that it isn't a car.  It's a van.  But a van with three seats that can be inserted in various configuratuins.  So it takes a 20 foot (ish) layout, stock and three operators without breaking sweat.  

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

Took ages to get to sleep then it was in two pieces, only about 5 hours total.

 

The little red driving machine © Gwiwer is the only Peugeot / Citroen we've ever had, however since it's a common platform with Toyota I suspect the build quality is more to do with them.

It's a good car, but  its under powered for our use, city dwelling it would be ok. As for its 5 speed gearbox, I think 3, 4, 5, are too close to each other, and often jump gears. A bigger spread would have been better.

 

Had I the choice the Berlingo / Kangoo was high on the next car list, again it's a van with windows.

 

Plans for today include, 

Banking,

muddling, 

Maybe put the mower belt back on.

 

Time for a muggacoffee.

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

I too am a very happy Škoda owner/driver. Like @Hroth and @bbishop  Oscar and Emma the two leather Hippos that we have, the only inanimate objects we own that have nicknames]).

 

 

Inanimate, are you absolutely sure?  I'd  suggest they are a wormhole into a hippoverse where  your reserve cake stock is quietly being taken to.

 

Do you have any stuffed bears in the house as well?

 

And cuckoo clocks are notorious for pilfering chocolate.

[Dave Hunt]

The only auto gearbox cars I’ve owned were an Olds Cutlass in America and a BMW 525i in UK. I didn’t have the Cutlass long enough to rate its reliability but the Beamer gearbox packed up after about 100K miles. Apart from them I’ve stuck with manual boxes and judging by the stories I’ve heard about DSG ones I think I’ll continue to do so. Having said that, a neighbour has a Skoda with a DSG box that he uses to tow a large caravan and he hasn’t had any trouble with it in about five years. But one swallow doth not a summer make and all that.

 

Dave

[jjb1970]

I think it depends on what sort of cars people buy and how long they keep them.

 

If you buy cars new and replace them before the warranty expires (noting that can now be 7 years) then sequential twin clutch gear boxes are brilliant.  If you buy s/home out of warranty I'd be a lot more cautious.

[Dave Hunt]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Inanimate, are you absolutely sure?  I'd  suggest they are a wormhole into a hippoverse where  your reserve cake stock is quietly being taken to.

Ah, yet another spinoff from L-space. All muddy hollows are linked in the tenth dimension with side turnings into the back rooms of cake shops.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

The best car I ever had was a Nissan Prairie. Ultra reliable and very capacious. I once took it to our twin town in France (Meaux), just west of Paris with three persons and our luggage, a layout and a static display with plenty of space left over for the duty frees. Unfortunately like many 1980's Japanese cars rust proofing was none existent and although it passed its last MOT the advisories were that a lot of welding would be required. That was settled only a few weeks after the MoT when I was rear ended by a truck and the car was rolled over about three times and written off. Despite that the sliding doors and the tailgate still worked perfectly. I walked away with a cut finger (from the broke glass).

[PhilJ W]

@polybear beware.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I'd experiment to see how quietly* you can instruct their Alexa then tell it to turn the lights off for at least an hour, then watch the fun as they try to find the fault with the lighting.  You could also leave an instruction to play 'Ride of the Valkyries' at full volume at three in the morning.😈

*Hopefully quiet enough for them not to notice

Long long ago before Alexa I had a problem with one set of neighbours playing their telly far too loud.  I did ask them to turn it down to no avail.  One night at midnight it was annoying me and the neighbours on the other side.  This was in a terrace.  My speakers were taken down and placed against the party wall and Led Zeppelin 1 was played at max volume for 10 minutes. You could almost see the wall bouncing.  I never had any more trouble after that. 

 

Jamie

Edited July 23 by jamie92208

[Dave Hunt]

37 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

@polybear beware.

 

Mostly? Just the huge black ones with the big fangs left then?

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

1 minute ago, jamie92208 said:

Long long ago before Alex I had a problem with one setbof neighbours playing their telly far to loud.  I did ask them to turn it down to no avail.  One night at midnight it was annoying me and the neighbours on the other side.  This was in a terrace.  My speakers were taken down and placed against the party wall and Led Zeppelin 1 was played at max volume for 10 minutes. You could almost see the wall bouncing.  I never had any more trouble after that. 

 

Jamie

Have you done a Polybear and posted in the wrong forum Jamie?

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

Just now, Dave Hunt said:

Have you done a Polybear and posted in the wrong forum Jamie?

 

Dave

Certainly have.  Doh and double doh. 

 

Jamie

[bbishop]

9 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Have you done a Polybear and posted in the wrong forum Jamie?

 

Dave

It couldn't have been a Jamie post - no typos.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Do you have any stuffed bears in the house as well?

Indeed I do. But they are relegated to a corner of the workshop, covered by motion sensor tripped heavy calibre sentry guns*

 

One can’t be too careful when it comes to Bears!
 

*automatic AI directed heavy machine guns. See the film Aliens for examples of sentry guns in operation.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Having said that, a neighbour has a Skoda with a DSG box that he uses to tow a large caravan and he hasn’t had any trouble with it in about five years. But one swallow doth not a summer make and all that.

 

Having just looked up what warranty Skoda give it's pretty obvious they don't have much confidence in their own product.  If you want longer then you have to spend the Deltics.

 

23 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Certainly have.  Doh and double doh. 

 

Jamie

 

Welcome to the "It's all Hippo's fault Club"

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Having said that, a neighbour has a Skoda with a DSG box that he uses to tow a large caravan and he hasn’t had any trouble with it in about five years. But one swallow doth not a summer make and all that.

 

Dave

Make that two Swallows. My Škoda Yeti (bought new in 2016) has been working faultlessly, with absolutely no transmission or gearbox problems.

 

Apart from the above mentioned minor software problem, all needed repairs were due to “driver error” (such as when Mrs iD misjudged the turn in a parking deck and managed to scrape the front bumper down to bare plastic [the Yeti has “safety” bumpers

3 hours ago, bbishop said:

I find the huge advantage of the Yeti is that it isn't a car.  It's a van.  But a van with three seats that can be inserted in various configuratuins.  So it takes a 20 foot (ish) layout, stock and three operators without breaking sweat.  

Not in Switzerland. Here it’s considered as a SUV. But the flexibility is very useful and ours is set up as a dog transporter (complete with fold away shallow ramp so that Schotty and Lucy [now rather old and arthritic] don’t have to jump into the Yeti).

[iL Dottore]

Bears Beware:

[Hroth]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Bears Beware:

 

Does it give you the chance to say "Sorry, I opened the wrong door..."?

 

[Oldddudders]

Given the regular discussions here on this thorny subject....

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwd6e9ee0go