SEAT Ibiza. When the aggressiveness meets the Minimalism at its finest.
Well, I have a heartbeat for this car. How do you call that in french ? a "coup de coeur" or a "coup de foudre" (//:35 am). Yes, I have a coup de coeur for this wonderful sportcar named after an Island near Spain and made by the Spanish automaker Seat, whose trademark figures under the umbrella of Volkswagen Group. And on the eve of acquiring it, I decided to write a small blurb about it. Because "she" really deserves that.
Before going to Ibiza, I went to Les Champs Elyssee.
Before I'd opt for the Seat Ibiza, my initial choice was the french automaker Citroen which released a brand new "no-frill" car named after Les Champs Elysee and baptized as C-Elysee. It is a low-cost car but it does not appear to be a low cost one. Yep, it all feels and look like an American Sedan. I was indeed looking for a vehicle that was fully featured, being fuel efficient and most of all attractively affordable. Well, The C-Elysee fulfills all of these promises, but the catch is : the Elysee was targeted for Family Fathers.
Come one Sofiane, look for another one.
But it did not take so long to browse through an auto magazine and had my eyes glued on a Seat Ibiza. What does it have to be a special ?. Well, a lot.
Let's first start from the exterior.
The new Seat Ibiza was the first Seat designed under the direction of Luc Donckerwolke, formerly of Lamborghini. The car represents something of a change of direction for Seat, upping the ante to fulfill Seat’s emotive, dynamic ethos.
The Aggressiveness is so kind and so sweet.
There’s meant to be more aggression to the front end, with a low grille and headlights. Certainly, the sharper edges to the side strakes give it more tension than Seat’s other monobox-style designs. Arguably the look is better suited to the three-door model than the cooking five-door. The sharply-styled standard headlights are good, but optional adaptive bi-xenons come with daytime running lights and are worth the extra money.
Underneath, the Ibiza utilises the Volkswagen Group’s PQ25 platform. This was its first application; it also forms the basis for the Volkswagen Polo and and Audi A1.
The interior of the vehicle have a minimalist design. I was not looking for a car which got a touch-screen or a bizarre dashboard filled with switches here and there. The Ibiza presents a very straightforward and clutter-free design, with switches that are smartly arranged.
Seat Ibizas used to get lumbered with interiors derived from other VW Group products. Not any more. The latest Ibiza has its own trim, and very distinctive it is too.
Fit and finish is certainly good and there are enough soft-touch surfaces, though there’s a slightly bewildering mix of trim graining. The traditional, random leather-like texture is still on a few surfaces, but the Ibiza also features what manufacturers like to call a technical grain. Then there’s the steering wheel, which has four different textures, so it’s anything but a dull cabin.
What model do you choose ?
Well, in Algeria, there are four variants of the Seat Ibiza you can choose from.
The entry-level ibiza is called the Fully because it's fully featured in term of options that encompasses. And super affordable. For some extra money, you can opt for a Fully w/ a sunroof.
The Ibiza iTech is just like a Fully version, except that as its name suggest filled with some useful and high-tech gadgetry but there is no sunroof which is darn disappointing. You got also a GPS touch-screen too.
The Ibiza Sport, which is the one I want is a version of Ibiza that is cross between the entry-level Fully and the high-end FR. The car dealer SOVAC asked Seat to make a Sport Edition available to the public due to the price gap that existed between the Fully and FR way back in 2012. However, don't be fooled by the moniker Sport. The marketing guys at Seat decided to give it the moniker of Sport Edition due to its exterior aggressiveness design that closely resembles the FR.
In the nutshell, The Sport inherits the facial features of the FR, including the headlamps with the boomerang-styled LED as well as some gadgetry from her big sister but misses the USB-Box, which going to force me to use my iPod + aux line-in to listen to my playlist.
The Ibiza FR is the best has everything car. It is in a simple word, a high-end version of Seat's strong-selling car. It is powered by a diesel engine and features all the options that are available for the Sport plus a Bluetooth as well as the regrettable functions I wanted to see it in the Sport Edition called : Coming/Leaving Home as well as USB Box.
What would be mine ? Well, I opted this time for the Sport Edition.
Sofiane Merouani
Follow mie on Twitter @SofianeMerouani