AIMS: More Yoda than Yeti?

If only it were green. Green as a colour opens up so many options. The Skoda Kermit, the Skoda Dipsy, the Skoda Yoda?

Unfortunately, those names are all someone else's intellectual property. Still, an opportunity missed, if you ask us.

For some reason, Skoda's light blue compact SUV concept has been named after the Tibetan 'abominable snowman'.

Even Skoda, new to the country -- and allowed some slack accordingly -- seems at a loss to explain the logic in naming the design concept after a mythical creature that lives in mountainous regions and is reputed to feed on yaks.

Nonetheless, so the car has been named and we must all move on.

Yeti is about offering a vehicle with multi-purpose utility for users who may want to commune with nature and don't need a dedicated off-roader to get there.

Prospective buyers for a production model would be orienteers, kayakers, abseilers -- anybody with a need to go bush without wanting to absorb the cost of a hulking great 4WD.

As well as testing the water for a small front-wheel drive SUV with electronic traction control and other driving aids, the Yeti is a taste of a future Skoda corporate style -- if adopted.

The rear of the vehicle is adapted to hauling all the sports and lifestyle equipment that recreational users may want to take with them. That includes mountain bikes, scuba gear and all the other paraphernalia for huntin', fishin' and shootin'.

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