The first Skoda Yeti production car rolled off Skoda’s Czech Republic plant earlier this week, and according to them it marks Skoda’s entry into the “crossover” segment.

In case you were wondering what a “Yeti” is, it’s not a made-up name. It’s what people call the legendary abominable snowman in the Himalayan region where the creature is said to live. But back to this Yeti. The Yeti is another one of Skoda engineers unique creations from the Volkswagen Group parts bin. Another example is the Roomster.

It may have tough looks but it’s not very big though, with a wheelbase of only 2,578mm, which indicates its likely to be using the PQ35 Golf platform. It’s 4,233mm long, 1,793mm wide and 1,691mm tall. On the interior it features a rear seat system called Varioflex which essentially allows you to extend boot space up to 1,760 liters.

Under the hood are a few engines such as a 1.8 liter TSI engine and a 2.0 TDI engine. The Yeti is also equipped with a 4X4 system with a 4th generation Haldex clutch system for those that intend to take it on rough roads, and it also has a 180mm ground clearance to help with that.

Look after the jump for pix and a video of the Yeti.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Volkswagen’s Skoda marque had planned to enter the ASEAN market sometime soon but has postponed its plans and instead plans to play a waiting game to see through the current crisis. Skoda chairman Reinhard Jung says the downturn will force a consolidation process in the region and the market will need at least a year to correct itself before it can be seen which players will remain in the game.

Skoda could likely enter the ASEAN region via the FTA between ASEAN and India, which some companies like Hyundai Sime Darby have already taken advantage of. The Hyundai i10 that we get here is locally assembled via CKD packs from India. Skoda and Volkswagen just opened a plant in Pune with a capacity of 110,000 vehicles a year.

Malaysia already has a Skoda distributor, Quasar Carriage’s AutoPraha Sdn Bhd under the Berjaya Group. Read our old Skoda Fabia 1.4 Test Drive Review from 2006. That particular unit has been replaced by a new Fabia (shown above) now of course, which will also be built at VW’s Pune plant.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has released a set of 3 images of their new Skoda Fabia Scout, an alterative to the 5-door wagon variant if its B-segment Skoda Fabia hatchback. The two tone paintwork and roofrails lend the Fabia Scout a slight softroader look, and standard wheels are 16 inch alloy with the option for larger 17 inch ones, rather large for a B-segment hatch, which shows the Fabia Scout’s positioning is not too far from Volkswagen’s CrossPolo.

A few economical engines are available – a 1.4 liter 85 horsepower unit, a 1.6 liter 105hp unit, and two diesels – 1.4 liter unit with 80hp and a 1.9 liter unit with 105hp. The fuel consumption for the oil burners are both less than 5 liters per 100km, while the petrol units only manage 6.5 liters and 6.9 liters for the two engine sizes respectively, clearly showing the abilities of diesel engines to be extremely fuel efficient.

So when is our beloved Malaysian government going to bring our diesel standards below the current MS123 and proposed Euro 2 upgrade to something even better so that we can be assured of running these economical cars reliably?

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has given the C-segment Skoda Octavia liftback (aeroback) and estate a facelift for the 2009 model year. The front end receives a more dynamic look (e.g. new Fabia-ish more shapely headlamps) instead of the straight-cut look that the pre-facelift Octavia had.

The 1.6 FSI model will be replaced by a new 1.4 TSI turbocharged engine producing 122 horsepower, which is more than the outgoing FSI’s 115 horses. The star of the line-up will be the Octavia vRS which will feature a 200hp turbo FSI engine mated to a twin clutch DSG transmission.

Three more shots of the new Octavia available after the jump.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

The hot hatch vRS version of the latest generation Skoda Fabia will switch to petrol power in the form of Volkswagen’s 1.4 liter TSI engine instead of the current Fabia vRS’s 1.9 liter TDI engine. A switch to turbocharged petrol power was spurred by rising diesel prices in the UK and the higher cost of producing a diesel-powered vehicle, according to Skoda chairman Reinhard Jung.

The current Skoda Fabia vRS based on the previous Skoda Fabia design is powered makes 130hp and 310Nm of torque. 0-100km/h is achievable in 9.5 seconds. Shown above is the early 2007 1000 unit run of the Fabia vRS called the Skoda Fabia vRS Special Edition. – Source

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda officials say its small car will have a new platform, which seems to indicate the upcoming rear-engined rear-wheel drive platform which underpins the up!/Lupo. The new small Skoda will make its debut by 2010, and will fuel Skoda’s race to sell 100,000 cars annually from 2012 onwards.

It will be priced between Rs 3-5 lakh (US$7,100 to US$11,600). Skoda recently unveiled a 1.2 liter version of the Skoda Fabia hatchback in India, joining the existing 1.4 liter MPI petrol and 1.4 liter TDI diesel engine variants.

Source

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has confirmed that it will be putting the Skoda Yeti into production, after the Skoda Yeti Design Study displayed at the Geneva Motor Show was quite well received by the public. After the success of the Yeti concept, Skoda also produced a two-seater pick-up version that used a hard top that could be removed for an open top driving experience.

The name for the new car has not been decided yet, so the production version could use the Yeti name again, or an entirely different name could be used. The production Skoda Yeti will be a unique Skoda in the sense that will use some parts from the Volkswagen family parts bin much like how the Skoda Roomster was developed – it used the Polo chassis front and the Mk4 Golf chassis rear.

You may think why bother when the Volkswagen Tiguan is there for Skoda to use, but the concept Yeti was a little SUV-like thing smaller than the Tiguan. Think of it as something positioned somewhere between a CrossPolo and a Tiguan.

Three more images after the jump.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

The new Skoda Superb was unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. As far as I know, Skoda hasn’t released a full technical release on the car yet, but there are some preliminary info on its specifications.

The highlight is of course the Twindoor which you can see in the photo above. It combines the rear boot opening of both a sedan and liftback, though I am not sure why anyone would want it – does anyone see disadvantages of a liftback boot design that requires this additional sedan-like opening? The boot holds 565 liters and folding down the rear seats to extend boot space results in 1670 liters.

Initially the Skoda Superb will come with 3 petrol engines and 3 diesel engines. The petrol engines consist of a baseline 122 horsepower 1.4 liter TSI engine, and next up is a 1.8 liter TSI putting out 158 horsepower. The top of the range petrol engine is the 3.6 FSI V6 producing 256 horsepower.

The oil burner options include a 103 horsepower 1.9 liter TDI, a 138 horsepower 2.0 TDI and a 168 horsepower common rail 2.0 TDI (the other two TDI engines use PD, or Pump-Duse injection, which is conventional unit-injection). There is also a special Skoda Superb GreenLine model equipped with the 103 hp 1.9 liter TDI.

Equipment options for the Skoda Superb includes a bi-xenon headlamps with AFS, a touch-screen navigation system, an automated parking system, and up to 9 airbags. The 1.8 TSI, 3.6 FSI V6, and 2.0 commonrail TDI engines also have the option of an all-wheel drive system.

More photos and a video available after the jump.

VIDEO: New Skoda Superb featuring TwinDoor

Click to enlarge

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

The new Skoda Superb will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, but here are some details released before the event. The new Superb will have a new feature called the Twindoor, which is basically both a sedan and a hatchback’s boot-opening mechanism both rolled into one. Twindoor allows the boot lid to be opened like a sedan – only the bootlid swings open, or like a hatchback where the rear window also tilts open together for full access to the 565 liter luggage space.

Six engine options will be available, divided equally into petrol or diesel powered options. The baseline engines will be the 122 horsepower 1.4 liter TSI engine and the 158 horsepower 1.8 liter TSI engine, while the top of the range petrol engine will be the 3.6 liter FSI V6 putting out a healthy 256 horsepower.

Oil burner options include a 1.9 TDI PD DPF with 103 horsepower, a 2.0 TDI PD DPF engine with 138 horsepower, and finally a new 2.0 TDI CR DPF which features common rail injection, producing 168 horsepower.

More photos including an interior shot after the jump.

Click to enlarge

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

The latest 2009 Skoda Superb carries Skoda’s most recent design language and will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland on the 6th of March 2008. Earlier this year selected car journalists were presented the opportunity to drive a variant of the new Skoda Superb featuring a 1.8 liter TSI engine putting out 160 horsepower.

This will be the second generation flagship Skoda – the first generation Superb was based on a long wheelbase Volkswagen Passat. Many were talking about Proton using the first gen “stretched Passat” Skoda Superb as a base for the Proton Perdana Replacement Model.

The first gen Superb is on sale here in Malaysia for RM181,068.40 OTR without insurance for the 1.8 liter turbo model, and RM259,022.50 OTR without insurance for the 2.8 liter V6 model.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has created this amazing Skoda Fabia cake for it’s latest TV advertisement campaign in the UK. They’ve swapped rivets for raisins, metal for marzipan and spark plugs for sugar. The video was filmed at West Londons Shepperton Studios, and Skoda even includes a recipe for the cake available online. You’ll find both the advertisement and the recipe after the jump. The recipe is really not that useful, more like a list of ingredients which gives you an idea just how big the Fabia cake is.

Skoda Fabia Cake Ingredients:

10kg white chocolate chunks
20kg raisins
3kg orange peel strips
25kg dried apricot
12.5kg raspberry jam
5kg cocoa powder
100kg wheat flour
180 fresh eggs
100kg caster sugar
90kg brown sugar paste
50kg icing sugar
40kg black sugar paste
20kg glacier cherries
50kg white sugar paste
30kg brown almonds
42kg chocolate fudge

Video: Skoda Fabia cake!

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda’s Study S2000 is a concept for a future Super 2000 Rally entry, fully complying with Super 2000 rally regulations – this means a 2.0 liter normally aspirated engine as well as a rollcage. Power goes to all four wheels via an all-wheel drive system. There is no mention of what engine is in this car or how much power it makes. Skoda says the Skoda Fabia S2000 will be powerful yet affordable, making it suitable for private teams and young talents but are on a budget.

One more photo after the jump.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has released a new special edition of the Skoda Fabia vRS, featuring individually numbered black leather seats, sporty red callipers and Race Blue metallic paint – the only colour available and the first time its been offered on Fabia.

Only 1,000 units of this special edition will be available. The number you want on the leather seats can be chosen, it is not a running series, but once someone has taken a number you can’t have it, it’s a first come first serve thing.

The special Fabia vRS gains a few extra specs over the normal Fabia vRS – cruise control, ‘sunset glass and a six-disc CD changer. All of this carries a premium of about 600 pounds over the standard Skoda Fabia vRS.

The special edition Skoda Fabia vRS is powered by the same engine as the standard vRS – a 1.9 liter TDI engine with 130hp and 310Nm of torque. 0-100km/h is achievable in 9.5 seconds, hardly qualifying it as a hot hatch, but as with the new amazing diesels, it only uses 3.6 liter of fuel per 100km on the extra urban cycle. This is somewhat like an end-of-life special edition before the new batch of Fabias are released this May, with a new vRS based on the new Fabia due in 2008.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Skoda has unveiled a major update to it’s smart supermini, the Skoda Fabia. The new Skoda Fabia carries Skoda’s new front facia look as shown on the new Skoda Roomster, and from what I can see, there’s also some Suzuki Swift-like design elements in the side profile design. Thanks to the new front bumper, it is a little longer than the previous Fabia (read review here). External measurements of 3992 mm x 1642 mm x 1498 mm make it one of the largest superminis in it’s class. The boot has a basic capacity of 300 litres, up to 1163 liters when the rear seats are folded down.

The new Skoda Fabia comes with 4 petrol engine options as well as 3 diesel engine options. Petrol engines include a 60 horsepower 1.2 liter, a 68 horsepower 1.2 liter, a 84 horsepower 1.4 liter 16 valve, and finally a 1.6 liter 16 valve making 103 horsepower. The oil burners include a 1.4 liter turbodiesel making 68 horsepower, a higher output 79 horsepower 1.4 liter turbodiesel with diesel particulate filter, and a 103 horsepower 1.9 liter turbodiesel also with diesel particulate filter. All engine options come with 5-speed manual transmissions, and the 1.6 liter petrol option can also be equipped with a 6-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission.

New safety features include head airbags for both front and rear seats. In the rear, a childs seat can be affixed with a top-tether belt which limits the forward movement of the upper part of the childs seat in the event of a head-on collision.

One more photo after the jump.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

Ah, Skoda. You know the jokes that usually go around: how do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill the tank!

When Volkswagen AG took control of Czech automaker Skoda in 1991, it was positioned as the new budget marque of the group, with Volkswagen itself being pushed up a segment higher. Despite being a budget marque, the cheapest Skoda we can get here in Malaysia is the Skoda Fabia 1.4, with a price of RM100,948.00, putting it into direct competition with other fully imported superminis like the Jazz and the Yaris.

Check out my report on the Skoda Fabia 1.4 after the jump.

Fully imported superminis have been gaining popularity ever since the introduction of the Jazz – they’re fuel efficient, easy to park, and with the premium price you pay, you usually get a stylo car, even though in reality most of the money is going to the government’s coffers – but you do feel pretty stylo driving it.

So how does the Skoda Fabia fare as a supermini? Forget the old jokes about Skodas, this is something entirely new. Based on the underpinings of the Volkswagen Polo, the Skoda Fabia is not a mini-MPV style of supermini that we’ve all come used to, it’s more of a proper 5-door hatchback ala the Proton Satria. But even though it’s not a tall mini-MPV, you won’t be finding yourself short of headroom in the interior, and rear legroom is good as well, with the rear bench put on a higher level than usual to allow for a better angle for you to rest your legs, that way your knees won’t be shoved against the front seats.

Skoda’s design cues have generally been likened to a slab of metal with wheels and body panels are usually just plain sheets of metal without much elements to make them more interesting, like the creases engraved into the side of the Mercedes Benz B170 to make it look less wedge-like. The Fabia is not a great looker like the Jazz, but you’ll be glad it at least comes with properly sized aesthetically pleasing alloy wheels that fill up the wheel arches, none of those 13 inches steel stuff. The rear lamps design have little inward pointing C designs to it, to help make the car look wider than it really is. On the overall, the Skoda Fabia gives you a really stable, grounded, and ready to go look.

And it goes like it looks. The car is very stable even at 170km/h, and NVH is excellent. Lane change composure is very steady, and there is no excessive bodyroll when you take corners. This car feels great around corners due to it’s squat stance, you won’t be able to experience this kind of drive if you’re in a taller mini-MPV style of supermini.

You also have to remember that this chassis also takes in a 150 horsepower 1.8 liter turbocharged engine in one of the higher end models, so the 75 horsepower 1.4 liter causes no drama at all, though acceleration can really be quite sluggy. Okay, REALLY sluggy. Once you discover there is really no point putting the pedal to the metal, it kind of encourages you to drive economically.

Get into the cabin and you’ll find the design very familiar and typical of a Volkswagen. There is a CD player with large buttons that are easy to reach and press. The meter panel is the typical Volkswagen design of two round dials flanking an LCD display in the middle, but on the Skoda, this LCD display is a very basic model, showing only important details like gear position, mileage and fuel level.

Something not found in other superminis in this price range are two cooled compartments for you to chill your drinks – one in the glove compartment for the passenger and one for the driver.

There is one issue though, the tacky chrome trim around the gear shift lever can reflect sunlight right into your eyes sometimes. The gear shift itself was also pretty quirky, the safety button to shift into certain positions can sometimes get stuck in a permanently activated position – this can be dangerous, you could accidentally shift into R or P while you’re on the go.

Skoda has successfully undergone a transformation from the brunt of jokes to a very formidable contender worth “Czeching” out! If you have a hundred thousand buckaroos and are looking for a small car that’s easy to park and easy on the fuel consumption, you might want to consider the Skoda Fabia. Everyone should taste solid European build once in their life. Why not start with a Skoda?

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.

This is the Å koda Joyster Concept, Å koda’s vision for a new B-segment compact car that might make it into production as the new Å koda Fabia hatchback in the year 2007. The current Å koda Fabia is based on the Volkswagen Polo platform – watch out for a test drive report soon on the Fabia 1.4 hatch.

Skoda is a company that has pretty much filled up the market segment where Volkswagen used to be – as Volkswagen has moved up a notch in the market, no longer concentrating on making cheap basic cars that everyone can afford.

The Skoda Joyster Concept design study will be presented alongside other innovations from Å koda Auto at the Paris Motor Show on Thursday 28th September, 2006.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 16:30:58 +0800.