Skoda Yeti Greenline 2: month four

Model: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2

On fleet since: April 2011
Total mileage: 7,445
Official combined mpg/CO2: 61.4mpg - 119 g/km
Actual mpg: 50mpg
Costs: £0 so far
Engine: 1.6 TDi CR 105hp turbodiesel, 5-speed manual
Trim: Elegance Greenline 2
Performance: 0-62 in 12.1 seconds/109mph top speed
Power/torque: 105hp/184lb ft @ 1500 rpm
Insurance group: 17
List price: £20,185
Options fitted: 6CD autochanger in boot (£290), floor mats (£65), sat-nav (£1,510)
Price as tested: £22,050

Pros: Amazing packaging, build quality, funky looks
Cons: weird system to unlock, does it have enough welly?

Gallery: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2
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Where we've been this month?

We have been back to Yorkshire, this time for a wedding. We've been to the airport a few times, and we've even been to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

But mostly in our glamorous life we have been to the local dump on countless occasions. Yes we are clearing out our house in preparation for some building work. Which means that the Yeti family wagon has had to give way to the car its shape surely suggests: Yeti as load lugging van.

What do I like?
For a car so short, the fact it turns into a van so big is nothing short of astonishing. It does this by allowing you to remove all the rear seats. It doesn't just do this in a hard way either: no spanners, or anything - not even a glance at the instruction manual. The act of removal was easy and obvious, and takes around three minutes for all three seats. True they are a bit heavy, and true also you will need somewhere to stash them.

But when you do so you get yourself a scarcely believable 1,760 litres of rear space. To put that into context with other cars in a seats-down situation, that is 60% more than the (longer) Ford Focus, and is even 10% more than the giant Volvo V70. Which is why the Yeti is such an intriguing alternative to the family estate car, even though it is a full 60cm shorter.

And the Nissan Qashqai, for all its brilliance doesn't play the seat-removal game, so it offers less than half the space of a Yeti. Even the Qashqai's seven-seater +2 spin-off offers 14% less space.

The Tardis cliché is generally to be avoided, but there can be few cars where it is a more apt metaphor than the Yeti.

So the car happily swallowed up fridge freezers, sofas, chairs, assorted junk, mirrors and all the rest. You could operate a rag-and-bone operation with a Yeti if you wanted to. You will not need to van-ify the Yeti often, but when you do, you will come to love the car even more.

In other news, I still remain amazed at this green machine's gutsy performance even when fully laden, whether on twisty b-roads or motorway. And when you just want to cover distances, we switched on the cruise and listened to the engine tick over at 70mph and around 55mpg.

What don't I like?
My instinct still tells me that Skoda misses a trick by supplying only five gears on this car. I feel that a sixth gear would lower revs still further and aid long-range economy.

The locks remain deeply annoying; you have to press the key fob unlock button seemingly dozens of times before all the doors do what you want them to.

I'm still not entirely convinced by the ride; probably this is the price you pay for that surprisingly peppy performance.

I still haven't managed to match the incredible 70+mpg we managed on a run last month in Norfolk, but hopefully we'll get the opportunity to do more soon.

What next for the Yeti Greenline 2?
Summer holidays and more house movings mean more perfect testing for the Yeti.

Report 1: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2 arrival
Report 2: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2 month two
Report 3: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2 month three
Report 4: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2 month four (this report)
Report 5: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2 month five
Gallery: Skoda Yeti Greenline 2

First drive: Skoda Yeti
Video road test: Skoda Yeti
Buy a used Skoda Yeti on Auto Trader
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