SEAT Ateca

MOST crossovers spend much of their time on the road. But it’s nice to know that if you need to venture off it, the raised ride height, rugged bumpers and all-season tyres provide a decent level of rugged ability, as senior photographer Pete Gibson found recently in his SEAT Ateca.

Four-wheel-drive Atecas are available, but while you get the benefit of multi-link rear suspension, the rear diff that sends power to the back wheels cuts boot space by 25 litres.

Pete’s 1.6 TDI Ecomotive is only front-wheel drive and doesn’t even offer a special off-road traction control mode via SEAT’S Drive Profile rotary selector (4Drive cars get off-road and snow functions). Yet our man found there’s still lots of traction in mud ruts and on gravel slopes.

While Sport mode sharpens up the throttle on the road and Eco boosts economy, Pete says the Ateca copes well when he ploughs across a muddy field to take his dog out for a walk.