Skoda's having the last laugh now

IT'S been a while since I've made a car joke, but I'll have a go anyway. What do you call a Skoda with an open sunroof? Expensive.

If I'd tried 15 years ago I could have nonchalently just said “a skip” and brought the house down, but there's the rub; Skoda just don't make joke cars anymore.

This is just one of the things I've worked out after spending a week with a Yeti, which sounds like an elusive snowman but is in fact what happens if you were to stick an SUV in the wash on too hot a setting. It looks, sounds and acts like a much smaller Land Rover Discovery but absolutely everyone who came across it loved it.

I got it instantly; it's a car for taking dogs to the countryside. Much like a Discovery then, but much, much cheaper.

It's the same story with Skoda's other cars; step out of Carlisle railway station and hail a cab and it's almost always a white Octavia that'll pick you up, because the drivers and taxi firms swear by them. When I was lucky enough to sit alongside a North Wales Police traffic cop on a high speed chase along the A55 last year, it was an Octavia vRS they entrusted with the task. And it's amazing how driving instructors favour Fabias over Fiestas for a spot of low speed kerb-clipping.

In fact the only problem with Skoda is some of the silly options pricing, which meant with all the bells and whistles the particular Yeti I drove was a £22,000 car, with most of the money going towards a spectacular-but-silly sunroof and a £1,400 satnav system which you don't need. In fact, I'd rather throw the money at the four-wheel-drive system and make it a proper off-roader.

If I were sensible I'd buy a Skoda tomorrow, but I'm not, which I've wasted my hard-earned on another clapped-out classic.

Tune in next week and find out what it is...

Check out the blog for an online-only treat on Wednesday, July 28.