FOR a variety of reasons Examiner Motoring, along with our colleagues in various national newspaper titles, doesn’t vote in any Car of the Year contests, but we do have our own zealously studied and dictatorially awarded annual COTY prize.

SINCE my first introduction to the Skoda Yeti last year, I was enthralled by this most unusual contender from the Czech manufacturer. It was my car of the year for 2011 on the basis that it not only re-wrote the design manual for small, practical, family-orientated cars, but it also redefined the driving characteristics for such a machine.

INSPIRED — it’s a loaded word. An exasperated parent may ask “What-in-the-name-a-god inspired you to do that?” as they snatch the creosote-dipped brush from your hand and look at the wallpaper.

SINCE my first introduction to the Skoda Yeti last year, I was enthralled by this most unusual contender from the Czech manufacturer.

A group of Japanese mountaineers claim to have photographed footprints of the legendary Yeti that they believe could prove the long-rumoured existence of a giant ape living in the Himalayan peaks.