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Skoda's all new fifth-model in its portfolio is a go-anywhere
machine that is due to hit Indian roads early next year. Adil Jal
Darukhanawala took the wheel of the Yeti and came back suitably
hyper about its prospects here.
I was at a loss to distinguish what stood out for me, experience
the lovely picturesque Slovenian countryside with postcard perfect
vistas every time I rounded a bend or took delight in the machinery
I was wielding while traversing the narrow and varied roads around
Ljubljana? That and the small matter of the name behind Skoda's
very nifty and utterly delightful soft-roader with the ability to
murder larger SUVs when it gets going in India from January next
year.
Yes the only thing abominable with the new Skoda is the name employed
for this new soft-roader. First seen as a concept which Skoda displayed
at the 2005 Geneva motor show, the four-wheeled Yeti is here and
not running away, unlike its fictional snow-bound abomination.
Skoda
were already aware that they had to find proper niches to play in,
considering that its three model lines in 2005 - Fabia, Octavia
and Superb had enabled it to gain both critical mass and acclaim
in the marketplace. The Roomster was the fourth model line but SUVs
showed the most growth and Skoda clearly wanted a slice of this
pie. However, what it wanted to do was not do an all out, in your
face type of SUV but one which came across as socially pleasing
yet effectively packaged and proportioned so as not to offend many
in today's eco-enviro conscious world.
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