Have you ever wondered what it takes to produce those breathtaking pictures featured in magazines, telling a thousand tales? Here’s a quick check-list. First you need a decent photographer and in this case we have Sanjay, who isn’t just decent, but pretty good. Perfect light? Hmmm… still a couple of hours before the sun sets, so we’re okay here as well. A kick-ass camera? Yup, a top of the line D-SLR to be more precise. Finally, we need a fancy location that compliments the subject. And that’s where we got stuck. No, finding a location wasn’t the issue, but it’s the subject that we failed to categorise. The Indian car buyer has never been offered anything like this before and it is not that easy to slot it in any particular segment. It’s not a full-fledged SUV and quite different from the existing soft-roaders. Is it a car? …It’s a YETI!
We decided to give the oven-fresh Skoda the complete treatment and so drove on highways, click click, through sleepy villages with bullock-carts on the battered pathways, click click, over grasslands, river streams, some hillocks and rocks. Yes, the Skoda Yeti tackled all that and more, and gracefully.
I parked over a picturesque grasslands in the middle of nowhere to have a closer look at the vehicle. This SUV, if I may call it, is essentially based on the Laura, but is distinctively designed, with a good mix of Yin and Yang. Take, for instance, the bulging round headlamps that overlap several surfaces, including rectangular, Fabia-like, headlamps. The traditional grille with the Skoda logo further strengthen the Fabia connect. It never intends to be a bulky SUV; on the contrary, it’s compact like hatchback imitating a tallboy design. The sump guard and squared-off wheel arches give it an aggressive stance. Even the roof-rails bring in an element of sportiness. The plain-Jane upright rear end sees the re-emergence of the tall-boy design. The combinations are interesting, but it is a clear case of either like it or hate it.