Spanish styling replaces french engineering (Seat Ibiza 1.4 5-door)

Member Name: pipefish

Product:	Seat Ibiza 1.4 5-door
Date:	22/04/04 (2835 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks, Equipping, Handling

Disadvantages: Economy, View when reversing

Its a sad day when you get rid of a car after seven years, but when the said car is becoming the butt of jokes and is not up to lots of motorway driving it doesn't stand much of a chance, especially at bank holiday weekend with lots of chances to sell it to interested buyers. This meant that my old 205 had to go to be replaced by a more modern car. I have now own a Seat Ibiza 1.4S (Y reg, 3 years old at time of writing) which has put in several thousand miles already.

Seat cars have now built up a solid reputation, with the poor first generation models being vastly improved on as owners VW stamped their build quality on the cars whilst still keeping the stylish looks - I think the Ibiza and Leon both stand out from many of the small family and superminis today, of which many are starting to look the same, Golf Mark 5 for example. The range of colours of the Seats is similar to Volkswagens, there are also many parts from VW cars brought across so hpefully this ought to translate into reliability and cheaper repairs.
Having a distinctive car also makes finding it amoungst all the Meganes and Focuses in a large car park less of a problem.
The Ibiza turbo-diesels are especially will thought of, with their economy and brisk drive, the diesel engines as usual helping midrange acceleration. I looked for the TDi version as a second hand or nearly new car but had real trouble finding any for sale so I guess that the owners are happy to keep them.

The main good points are within the drive and handling. Having a car with all the modern equipment (more later) and larger size I assumed it was going to wallow but was impressed with just how nippy the Ibiza is. The 0-60 for the 1.4 is rated as 15.0 seconds but I have found it much quicker from a standing start than many other cars and can easily build up speed
from a stationary start to 30 or 40, having no problem keeping pace with other cars pulling away from lights. However the relatively small petrol engine shows its limitations on the midrange when speeding up from 50+ so you do have to be careful about what lane you are in going up hills or sliproads as the acceleration suffers. There is a bit of road noise at higher speed but not much, you can certainly have a conversation on the motorway without shouting at your passengers. I found the general cabin comfort leagues ahead of my old car (93K Peugeot 205). There is plenty of legroom in the front and back, even with front seats back.

The handling is precise and responsive - I have thrown this car about a bit on the Welsh roads and it is very sure going round bends. As with most small cars it tends to understeer slightly but it holds the road well. Also you notice just how little cabin roll there is compared to older cars - circling a roundabout the car does not lean over at all and you do not get any feeling of the car tilting. It is also smooth going over bumps or speedhumps even though it seems the car rocks backwards and forwards.
The gearbox is good and feels precise when moving from gear to gear. Having test driven a few cars before this one, I found there much less 'play' in the gearstick, especially compared to older model cars. Reverse gear requires pushing down to select which takes, well, at least 2 minutes to get the hang of.

Driving position you get a good seating position and height although there is not a great deal of room to rest your left foot when not using the clutch. The higher back and side pillars restrict the view to the back and sides slightly but it does have convex edges to both mirrors. Also the rear window is so high that it is very difficult to tell how much room there is behind when reversing - parking takes some getting used to bu
ilding up the courage to continue backing up when the car behind has long since vanished below the rear window.
In general the boot is deep and easy to fold up or down the rear split seats if needed - although you have to remove the rear headrests if you want the rear seats to fold all the way down.

Equipment-wise the 1.4S is very well covered. It has power steering, remote central locking, electric front windows, climate control, air-con and stylish grey-blue racing trim and seats in the car. It has the standard Seat integrated radio and control panel with a large digital display showing the radio cassette and climate control settings. The stereo also automatically increases in volume as you change speed to motorway driving. Although this is probably a 'nice to have' I quickly found it very valuable for driving to and from work, going on and off the motorway and waiting at lights.
I have not had any use for the aircon as yet, and being around Bristol and Gwent it will probably only get used for one or two weeks a year at most. However it is very easy to set - a red and blue button increase or decrease the temperature in celsius on the main panel - if aircon is on it the cabin stays at this temperature. The airblowers can vary over several settings from low to almost gale force. I found this useful in wet conditions where the demister quickly cleared the windscreen.

I found the equipping one of the main reasons I chose this model over the SDi, which although had a much better economy (about 60 miles) and handled and drove similarly, is very basically equipped (it does not even have central locking and the trim is just downright offensive). However I would have been happier with a CD player and stalk controls on the car, but you can't have everything.

Going onto running costs, the fuel consumption is listed as about 42mpg
. I have found it a bit less than this so far - doing mostly motorway and ring-road driving I fill up the 50 litre tank and get about 350 miles out of it. You should not run out of petrol though as there is a loud beep when you are down to about 1/8 of the tank left or whenever you start the car with a nearly empty tank, from the dashboard not from me. Insurance is around group 6.

I haven't got onto servicing the car as yet so I cannot comment. However the car has put in several thousand miles already and I can say that I don't have any complaints.
So overall I'm happy although I keep thinking what one of the turbo diesels would have been like and whether the extra cost would make it preferable to a petrol version.

Summary: