UKC

We have been driving a Skoda Yeti (1.2 petrol) for a few years now. We like it because it is easy to enter and exit, has good ground clearance, has a small turning circle, easy to see where the corners are, has a brilliant 7 speed automatic transmission, is reasonably comfortable, useful carrying space. Not quite so keen on fuel economy.

Shame the Yeti hasn’t been made for a few years now, though our next car (if we get that far) should be an EV. Is there anything comparable with the Yeti?

how's the wet belt deteriorating?

No idea what this.

you don't want to know about wet belts- terrible design..

Does a 1.2 tsi VAG engine have a wet belt ?

Mrs F's went in her Peugeot 308. Only 70k miles/6yrs. Not cheap!

Pretty sure it's a chain.

Age dependent. I believe they started off with cam chains, but later models switched to belt.

As far as I'm aware Yetis never had wet belts.

We started looking to replace our 10 year old/170k superb last year, prepared to consider just about anything. Nobody managed to sell EVs to me (range, longevity, maintainability, environmental) and I couldn't get excited about any ICE replacements either. So we'll carry on with the Superb for the time being....

Kia Niro. I went from a Yeti to an Outlander PHEV (not very Yeti like as it's so big, but a very comfy drive) and then to my current e-Niro.

It's slightly lower than the Yeti, but still a reasonably high up driving position.  Better boot space, decent range, similar level of interior quality. 

Kia Soul and Hyundai Kona are the same car, so they're very similar.

Might also be worth looking at EV3 - I've not been in one yet.  EV6 feels much more like a GT, despite the overall height, and is less comfortable to get in and out of.

The new Skoda Elroq probably fits the bill,

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/skoda/elroq

but you can buy a 2 year old, low mileage Kia Niro for half the price.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertising-location=at_cars&ba...

Was coming on to say Kia e-niro but you’ve beat me to it.

Mr S often drives a Yeti when he’s on coastguard duties and rates it highly.  His own car is a Kia e-niro which he leased for 3 years and has now bought outright.  There’s not really much of a downside to it.  It’s got great range, is comfy, good visibility, nice to drive, absolutely shifts when it needs to.  

timing chain- false alarm..

Thanks for the links. Very interesting.

Can you keep the Yeti for another couple of years?

The carbon footprint of making new cars is huge (+ pollution of lithium battery manufacturer) and could outweigh, depending on your mileage of course, buying a new car. 

I could, and probably will. I’m not needing to change soon, but just looking ahead (irrational as that may be at my age). Buying a car is something that takes me a long time!

I am aware of this, and have only once bought a new car. I have several friends who are enthusiastic EV drivers, one of whom is now on his third! I’ve made comments along the lines of yours above, but they tend to change the subject. 
 

My understanding from reading debates on this is that unless you have very low mileage or an incredibly well maintained and efficient ICE, then switching to EV is better than keeping an old ICE on the road. 

Yes, lots of energy and emissions goes into making a new car, but running an old one is even worse seems to be the consensus. 

Unless they scrapped their two previous BEVs, why would it be any concern? Their old BEVs are still going on strong in somebody else's hands. It's not like the batteries only last a year or so at 100% cap and then go to 0% cap instantly.

Sorry, you probably haven't meant it what way, but yours is the usual false argument used by the fossil fuel lobby.

If there were enough EV's available for everyone to switch then that would likely be the case, but since supply is limited to less than that, in environmental terms there must surely be some kind of precedence order for people to switch.

I don't think I'm being very clear here, but whatever "type" of car driver is going to most benefit the environment from switching, i.e. their switching will have the biggest impact - they should be the first to switch, etc...

Of course implementing anything like this kind of precedence order would be basically impossible in our capitalist based economy.

You can buy a second-hand EV and keep it for years.  I bought mine as a four year old ex-lease car (newest car I’ve ever had) with 24k miles on clock.  Am now into seventh year of ownership (car is now 11) and 90k miles on clock.  Will keep it until it dies, which is likely to be corrosion related given it spends a large portion of its life parked on a pier being covered in salt.

There must be many people in the same position. Looking at Autotrader for say a diesel manual estate up to 3 years old/30 k, just 28 cars on sale of any make. 105 MG5s and 241 Porsche Taycans though..

Has anyone actually made a manual box diesel estate in the last few years? Manual boxes have been dead for about the last ten years in anything worth buying,

Really?! The quintessential UKC estate, the Skoda Octavia, still seems to be available with a diesel manual on their website.

Only the miserable 115hp version, VAG probably trying to get rid of old stock. Manual boxes on modern diesels make no sense.

Volvo V60.

Dropped the manual for 2025 which probably tells us how well it sold.

Absolute nonsense. I have driven manuals and automatics in roughly equal proportion over the last 57 years. For north America, I've almost always bought automatics because there is almost no market for manuals. But in Europe I prefer manuals for the type of roads we have to drive. For 30 years I have been somewhat obsessive about my mpg, so I track that all the time (and actually use that to continually monitor and fine-tune my driving style). Currently, I have a manual VW Golf diesel in which I frequently achieve 70 mpg on long journeys. 65 is my benchmark for moderately good performance. The car exaggerates mpg, but not by much (i.e., about 4 percent). l have never been able to match that in any automatic I have either owned or rented.

To me an automatic box is just added complexity. Something else to go wrong, along with all the electronics and emission control systems. 

Kia eNiro owner here. Paid 15k for a 3.5 year old one last year....it's simply incredible (I'm not in anyway shape or form a car lover mind).

In summer range is easily 280 miles. Full leather, heated seats, heated steering wheel etc.

The arguments around embodied emissions of old cars versus new etc a very complex and there's no one correct answer....there are of course many issues still around batteries both in manufacture and disposal. However, broadly speaking, unless you do really low mileage, then switching does make sense from an emissions perspective. Also, don't forget that year on year, as the grid further decarbonises, then your EV becomes 'greener'. 

Completely disagree, I dove almost exclusively manuals for many years but last time I changed I went auto.

Wild horses wouldn't make me go back, the auto is better in absolutely every respect for daily use. It would probably be a bit slower around a track but that is all.

Both versions of the same car, I can happily live with the penalty of just under 1mpg, averaged over about 100,000 miles for the sake of the convenience in heavy traffic.

All that flapping about with a gearstick seems a complete nonsense if I ever drive a manual now.

It's virtually impossible to get the balance of economy, emissions and performance from modern diesels without going to an auto box, having seven or eight gears and a system that picks the optimum for the conditions all the time is the way to go. And the driver has usually the option of manual shifting. Experience with old-style auto-boxes is irrelevant.

I am talking about comparisons with modern automatics. Most of the cars I rent or own in foreign countries, especially N America, are latest automatics with mpg monitoring. I am continually surprised that they can't match the mpg I get with manuals. Even my automatic petrol Toyota Prius in the US didn't come close to the mpg I have achieved with my Golf Diesels in the UK. I'm puzzled by why this is. I think it maybe because I hardly use the brake when driving with a manual and mainly brake on the gearbox. I may be using more brake when driving automatics. I would love to know the reason: this is ongoing research.

May I suggest you alternate regularly between driving the latest manuals and automatics in order to maintain a balanced view.

I think 1.35 million miles in manuals and 125000 miles in various autos is enough to give me a balanced view.

Still, each to their own. Happy New Year!

I was responding to your comment about no decent manual diesels being produced in the last 10 years. I think Volvo phased out the manual option around 2020. It had slightly better emissions & economy than the auto and their performance was almost identical. That's for their most popular engine, the D3.

My guess is the manuals got dropped due to the increase in popularity of automatics across the board, rather because they're diesels. 

I think automatics are more popular because they are easier to drive, simply because there is less to do. And once almost everyone in a country is driving automatics it makes absolutely no sense to buy a manual. This is why I bought about a dozen automatics in 30 years in north America for myself and offspring. In the UK, I slightly prefer manuals, partly because there is more to do, and also because they are more economical to drive in the way that I drive. Elsewhere I rent cars, which are a mixture of manuals and automatics, and always different makes and models, so a fantastic opportunity to compare the latest cars 

Well they've dropped the V60 diesels as well now.

The conditions coming up this weekend are surely a reason to buy a manual. I would prefer to be able to control my clutch/gear engagement when driving on slippery, snowy roads. Does an automatic start in 2nd gear when on snow? Does an automatic driver have only the hope of variance of the throttle getting them through a difficult patch of road surface?

All the snowy and icy driving I have done in an EV has been very plain sailing. I do run on good quality all season tyres, which has to help, but I have never thought I needed a clutch. It just seems to manage fine. 

It's not complex at all, unless one is the proverbial parish priest only ever driving 5 miles each Sunday in his old clunker...

Lithium for a BEV is only extracted once, then it can be downcycled into grid storage and after that yet again recycled. Can't recycle petrol, can we?

Meanwhile, every litre of diesel or petrol burned is not just the direct CO2 emissions from burning it (terribly inefficiently!) in an ICE, but also all the associated GHG emissions and externalities from its extraction and transport (both environmental, like the huge methane leaks from oil fields – and societal, like in Nigeria or Libya).

Pretty sure this is a legacy myth.

Modern autos often have a snow option. Tyres make the biggest difference followed by the driver ( probably the other way around). Auto/manual  decision is way down the list.

You can also hold an auto in a lower gear by downshifting for downhill sections. Obviously depends on the car but you can play around with the gears quite a bit if you feel like it.

All your questions are answered with the phrase 'Snow mode'.

And I see a lot more snow than you.

As mentioned by others all this is done by the car, all the auto's we've had in the past thirty odd years have disabled first gear when you press that magic snow button and everything sold in the past ten years has traction control built as part of the ESP system which generally can be disabled if you need to actually spin the wheels. And yes, that computer is really good!