Unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, the facelifted Skoda Yeti has been on sale in a few global markets for a while now. Though the Czech manufacturer launched the new versions of most of its line-up in India, it has refrained from updating the Yeti so far. Now though, reports indicate that the car will be launched here this festive season, around September or October.
Skoda has given the Yeti some major cosmetic revisions to set it apart from the previous car. The facelift has been styled much more conventionally, along the lines of the recently updated Skoda cars making it look less radical than its predecessor. The front houses a new grille, elongated rectangular-shaped headlamps with optional bi-xenons and LED DRLs. The rear features new C-shaped tail lamps with LEDs and a redesigned tailgate. The car also gets new alloys wheels and will be available in new paint schemes.
The interiors of the Yeti have also been refreshed with a new steering wheel, new dashboard trim as well as new fabric seat trims and patterns. Globally the Yeti is offered with an optional automatic parallel parking system and a rear-view camera, though the former might not make it to India.
Skoda will retain the powertrain options for the Yeti facelift and the car will be powered by a 2.0-litre diesel engine which produces 108bhp and 250Nm of torque in the front-wheel-drive version and 138bhp and 320Nm of torque in the all-wheel-drive version.
The Skoda Yeti is a niche vehicle and does not directly compete with any other car in the Indian market. Despite being a solid all-rounder, the Yeti was never taken seriously due to the offbeat looks of the car, which might not suit everyone’s taste. The new car however, adopts a more conservative design and might catch the eye of a bigger customer base. We expect it to be priced in the Rs 16 lakh to 19 lakh price bracket, which makes it rival the D-Segment sedans like the Toyota Corolla Altis, Hyundai Elantra, Volkswagen Jetta and Renault Fluence among others.
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