Ever since I decided to move back to an Eriba I've been wary of the fact that my 1.2 DSG Petrol Yeti has a 1200kg Towing Limit. As such, whilst looking for a 540 I've also been chatting to the supplying Skoda dealer about swapping out to a diesel with a larger tow limit, which would widen the choice of Troll.

So today I fed 'Yeti 2 litre DSG' into Google and up came a pdf of the brochure for the run-out range of Yeti's, the 'Drive' models, of which ours is one. I've never had this brochure, I think Skoda ran out of them early on.

I scanned down it to look at the differences between the 1.2 litre petrol and the 2 litre diesel and when I came to 'Maximum Towing Weight' I was gobsmacked to see the 1.2 Petrol DSG listed as 1200kg at 12% and 1500kg at 8%. This means that my current car can manage 1200kg on a hill up to 1:8 and up to 1500kg on a hill up to 1:13. On that basis, if I was towing, say 1300kg then the Yeti should be able to manage hills up to about 1:9. The questions are, how often would I tow over hills at 1:9 or steeper and does the limit Skoda post mean the car actually won't handle more than 1:9 at all, or that it will struggle?

Depends on where you are really - Holland, East Anglia etc should be OK, but 1 in 9 Devon, Somerset, Cornwall, Yorkshire etc......

The thing to remember is that figures on paper are just that, they don't account for the real world.

Your worst case scenario is a hill start on a 1 in 8 gradient with a 1.2 litre petrol engine DSG and 1300 kilos behind you plus car full of stuff. That ain't the same as trundling it down the M5!

The power curves of diesel and petrol engines are totally different and that's why diesels are the favoured lugger - yes I know folks here pull Pucks with motorbikes and Moggies and so on, but .....................

I've previously used diesel Kia's and a Volvo for towing but thought that we'd stick with the Rimini on a store n stay site, so went for a petrol. Plans all changed now and I reckon a 1300kg Troll loaded to about 1250kg will be how it would be.

I have to admit I don't recall checking the handbook, I just 'knew' the 1.2 petrol had a 1200kg limit.

Funnily enoughin the pdf brochure I 'found' today it's only the 1.2 that gets two towing figures. The 110PS 2 litre diesel gets 1500kg, the same engine in 4X4 form gets 1800kg and the 2 litre 150PS 4X4 diesel in both manual and DSG get 2100kg.

Sadly my choice of layout is strictly limited to a 540. Mrs SDA is adamant, and you know what that means!!!.

Yesterday I went to our local Skoda dealer to try and see what they think about the 1.2 petrol turbo's towing capabilities. Sadly by the time I got there all their tech guys had gone, so no advice. They were holding a 'special event' with three pre-registered brand new Yeti's that were available following their statutory three months purdah for tax purposes. One was a 150PS 4X4 DSG offered at £3k below list with another £500 off if I took it on a PCP.
So then it came to figures.
Our current Yeti is a year old, on 0% finance and costs us roughly £160 a month. They valued it at £15k and there's £13,750 outstanding, leaving a balance of £1,250 as a deposit on the 2 litre job. With all the discounts the 4X4 Yeti cost about £21.5k and the RV after 3 years was about £8k and the current rate of interest is nearly 7%. So that's £13.5k multiplied by 7% a year and divided by 36 months. It came to about £390 per month.

So I could keep the 1.2 for the next 30 months at £160 or swap it for a 2 litre that's otherwise identical for 36 months at £390 A month.

Quote: eribaMotters wrote in post #7

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Andy,
those discounts are not big enough, look here:- http://www.westgatemotors.co.uk/skoda/ne...eti-suv-offers/

Colin

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I've just been on Autotrader and there are no new Yeti's listed but plenty of nearly new. When I dialled down to 2 litre DSG SE Drive's half a dozen appear, all with about 1,000 miles on, rather than the 25 miles on the local one. A lot of them are being offered by the Liverpool Skoda dealer and they want £20,000 for them, which is about £4,600 off list. There are more SEL Drive's about on the same basis but their the standard price they're all clustered round is £21,500, which is about £4,850 off list.

The one that you linked to seems exceptional and they can claim '£6,000 off' because of all the cost options on it.

For me it still comes back to paying £160 a month for the next 30 months or between £350 and £400 a month for the next 36 months. That's an extra £6,000 or so over the next couple of years just to get a bit more pulling power. Financially it doesn't make sense.

So agree with you Pepe. Yes, if you can't possibly afford something that would make a big positive difference in your life /lives, then you don't do it. However, if you can.....or if sacrificing something(s) less important means you can, then do it. Sometimes you have to forget whether something makes economic sense. If upgrading your car would give you more time away with your van, greater freedom in where you went and what you were able to do whilst away, for longer duration breaks and give you greater peace of mind, then it's a small price to pay. I guess it depends on how bigger part of your life travelling with a caravan is. We spent a ridiculous amount of money on our new car but we travel for sometimes 6 months a year with a caravan and a dog. Our sacrifice was that we went down to one single car from two, so all in all, it's probably cheaper anyway!

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Last month my dealer managed to source a 1.5 DSG petrol Karoq on the quayside in Germany waiting to be shipped to another dealer but with no customer name attached. I took delivery three weeks later. The bonus was it was the spec I wanted.

PS do the deal if you want to afford it.

Stewart