The Asian-brand dominance of the compact soft-roader market is about to face a fresh challenge.
Czech car maker Skoda is following the aggressive pricing lead of its parent company Volkswagen, slashing the price of its Yeti softroader less than a month before the all-new model goes on sale in Australia – putting it among the most affordable models in the class.
The Yeti is expected to become Skoda’s biggest selling car locally, given that compact SUVs are the second biggest segment in Australia after small cars.
Indeed, Skoda has already sold the first allocation of Yetis and has already upped the number of orders for subsequent shipments.
Skoda has slashed the starting price of the Yeti 2WD petrol manual to $26,290 plus on-road costs. Automatic (7-speed DSG) transmission adds $2300 bringing the price to $28,590 plus on-roads, which will likely lead to a promotional price of $29,990 drive-away, the car maker said.
The pricing of the high grade, diesel 4WD versions of the Yeti will remain unchanged at $35,690 as that model represents 60 per cent of the orders so far.
“We think we have a strong opportunity in the 2WD segment,” the head of Skoda Australia, Matthew Wiesner, said at the launch of the Fabia small car in Sydney yesterday.
“We’re serious about having a crack amongst those Asian brands that pretty much dominate that 2WD compact SUV market, and we’re going to have a real go.
“We’ve been watching the activity on the 2WD. There’s been activity but not as strong as what we’d like.”
Although the Yeti will be among the sharpest priced compact softroaders, it also has the smallest engine: powered by a 1.2-litre turbo four-cylinder petrol motor (77kW and 175Nm) also found in the Volkswagen Polo and Golf small cars.
However, for those craving more power and more rock crawling ability, the Yeti 4WD is exclusively powered by a 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine (103kW and 320Nm) paired to either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic (DSG).
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