Sexy Spanish Stunner (Seat Ibiza 1.4 3-door)

Member Name: psr21

Product:	Seat Ibiza 1.4 3-door
Date:	27/02/01 (451 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good price, Good parts, Fun drive

Disadvantages: Occasionally gaudy interior

Having owned this car for 6 months or so I am starting to believe that I will stick with Seat for quite a while. The marque is distintly undervalued by the public, and the longer it stays that way the longer we can keep enjoying it's low prices.

A fairly young car manufacturer, the first range of cars brought out by Seat, were to be frank, very poor. The components were badly designed and poorly fitted resulting in a dull looking car that rattled and generally didn't compete, except in Spain as the Skoda/Lada equivalent.

But in 1992 the Volkswagen Group recognised that Seat had some great factory premises, cheap labour and tax costs and they bought the company. Things were soon turned around.

As with all of the current crop of VW group cars they are using as many common parts as possible. This means that design costs are brought down by keeping a common group of components and manufacturing costs are also reduced. So these days if you look under the skin and bonnet of any Seat Ibiza you'll find a polo chassis, golf or polo engine (depending on variant) and thousands of other parts with the VW and Audi stamp on them.

Because of this cross-breeding the second generation Seat's are excellent.

The handling is lively even in the lower engine sizes due to an injection Polo engine across the range. The injection means that the engine has a little bit more grunt than previous engines of the same size. The 1.4 that I've got is a good balance between being a bit nippy and decent fuel economy.

The suspension, again from a Polo, keeps the car feeling slightly on the firm side which means that it doesn't smooth out all of the bumps and dips of the road. But I far prefer this to wallowing around corners as it feels that bit quicker to respond if you need it to.

The standard brakes and the majority of the rest of components are again Polo which means that the parts aren't the cheapest in the
market but they last well and shouldn't need constant checking or be subject to too much wear and tear.

The interoir trim levels and the decor are up for a little bit of debate. Coming from Spanish interior designers can be a bit dodgy so make sure you choose the more subdued cloth, and trim. Otherwise you'll end up something that looks like a night out in Mallorca. Some of the ones I saw in the pre-1997 age do look somewhat horrid on the inside. A highly patterned seat cloth followed by dodging looking carpet don't make for the best of combinations. But post-1997, and if you can find a special edition pre-1997, they seem to be fine, so just be aware and have a look at the interior. If you feel queesy after 5minutes then chances are you won't like it for 5 years.

having said all that I've got a limited edition "Storm". Which has the advantage of being entirely black. Black metallic paint, black trim, plain seats, the works so none of the gaudy interiors for me. The dash is, again, from the Polo, so if you look into a Polo of the same age you'll see exactly the same interior layout. Very clear and well laid out.

In terms of price these cars are well placed. Essentially you are buying a Polo, or it's very close, but better looking twin. You have another benefit as well because the Seat's enjoy a far lower insurance bracket than their equivalent VW's. If I had owned the Polo equivalent I would be paying just about double my current insurance price.

It's worth investing in some Alloy wheels to smarten up the exterior as many of the models don't have them as factory supplied. And getting a good stereo is a must. The factory supplied one is fine if you don't use it much, but when I'm in the car it's always on, so I've got a Blaupunkt put in.

Also worth putting a non-standard alarm and/or an imobiliser. It gives peace of mind and if you spend upwards of £150
on one chances are you won't be replacing broken windows in the future.

I have to say that I would absolutely recomend that you take one of these cars on a test drive. At the end of the day everyone wants something personal to them. So try this out.

I think it's excellent and I'll be fighting Seats corner until further notice.

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