SEAT ARONA
Seat is on a roll but can its new junior SUV cut it in such an ultra-competitive class?
MODEL TESTED 1.0 TSI SE TECHNOLOGY
Price £17,545 Power 94bhp Torque 129lb ft 0-60mph 10.5sec 30-70mph in fourth 14.9sec Fuel economy 36.9mpg CO2 emissions 111g/km 70-0mph 53.8m
You may or may not be the sort of driver who is suggestible to the idea of trading in a hatchback for a compact crossover – but even if you’re not, you can hardly blame a car maker for selling one at the moment.
By Seat’s estimation, the global market for supermini-based pseudosuvs is four times as large today as it was even as recently as 2015 – and it’s expected to continue to grow just as quickly for years to come. For those reasons alone, any car manufacturer whose business depends even vaguely on volume and market share would need a very good reason not to introduce a car such as the subject of this week’s road test: the Seat Arona. And that’s why so many have. In a segment where the likes of Renault, Nissan, Peugeot, Mazda, Ford and others are already represented, we’ve seen the likes of the Citroën C3 Aircross, MG ZS, Vauxhall Crossland X, Kia Stonic and Hyundai Kona all join the party in the past few months alone. Blink and you’ll have missed at least one of them.
At times like these, one full Autocar road test per issue doesn’t seem like nearly enough to stand the pace. But although we could easily devote eight pages to another new jacked-up supermini every week for the rest of 2017 and still have a few left over for the new year, you can rest assured that we’re not going to. The Arona impressed us more than most of its new and established rivals when we first drove it and, between the Ibiza, Ateca and Leon, its maker is also on a bit of a roll at present. And so, while one or two of its newbie competitors may still get a roadtest workout before they’re a very common sight on UK roads, we’re paying the Martorell-based marque the compliment its run of form merits and turning to the Seat first.
So has this blossoming Spanish industry player got another classleading crossover on its hands? This road test will answer that question and more besides. DESIGN AND ENGINEERING Just as the Ateca did, the Arona borrows sparingly from SUV design archetype. This is a smart, svelte and sporty-looking car that does without the bluff grille and squared-off wheel arches that you’ll find on certain rivals, and it succeeds very well in a visual sense – both as a crossover hatchback and as a contemporary Seat.
Unlike some of its opponents, the Volkswagen Group’s Spanish outpost is developing a line-up of appealing cars that hangs together as one, rather than as mutually discrete lines of SUVS and conventional cars – and that’s to be applauded. The Arona may not have the visual charisma of the likes of the new C3 Aircross or the enduringly quirky Nissan Juke, but it’s undoubtedly a neat, pretty-looking effort. It’s also one whose appearance can be tailored to personal preference, with its roof available in a choice of three bodycontrasting colours if you want them, and in a total of 68 possible body colours among them in shades such
as Eclipse Orange and Mystery Blue, which should distinguish the car very well on the road.
The Arona is the VW Group’s first crossover to be built on its new supermini model platform – the not so catchily named MQB-A0 architecture. It’s typical of the breed for its transverse front-engined, front-wheel-drive mechanical orientation and its torsion beam-style rear suspension.
We clearly needn’t criticise it for any lack of capability in a class where buyers very rarely choose four-wheel drive anyway and would much rather buy a car with at least some of the presence, convenience and space of an SUV combined with the performance, economy and road manners of a normal car. And so the Arona is 79mm longer than an Ibiza but also 99mm taller. It offers a driving position that’s 52mm higher than the regular supermini’s, as well as 37mm more front-row head room and a boot that, at 400 litres, is about 15% larger. For those with at least a passing interest in capability, the Arona has 15mm more ground clearance than an Ibiza – or up to 190mm of it, depending on wheel specification.
Buyers can choose from three petrol and two diesel engines, which open for business at 94bhp and range upwards to include the Volkswagen Group’s new 148bhp 1.5-litre TSI Evo motor. Trim levels start at SE and culminate in Xcellence First Edition, but if you want the most sophisticated mechanical specification on your Arona, you should note that only FR Sport cars come with Seat’s Dynamic Chassis Control adaptive dampers. For now, at least, there is no extra-rugged off-road-style version.
For this examination, we elected to keep things simple and test the Arona in affordable form, with Seat’s 94bhp 1.0 TSI three-cylinder petrol engine and in SE Technology trim.
INTERIOR
The Arona – dainty of footprint, despite its SUV pretensions – surprises in the same way that Volkswagen’s Up does, which is to say that it’s much more capacious than you’re expecting. Even with a 6ft 1in road tester in the driver’s seat, there is comfortably enough space for a similarly tall person to sit behind, and head room extends seemingly endlessly, although you’d need the body of a contortionist to squeeze into the middle berth in the rear with adults sat either side of it. Boot space, meanwhile, is certainly impressive and there’s a
height-adjustable floor to ease the ingress of awkward loads.
Once you’re behind the wheel, you’ll be genuinely surprised by very little. The driving position is comfortable, if a little upright and lacking a touch in steering-wheel adjustability, and you enjoy excellent visibility through the Arona’s unusually upright windscreen. The chiselled dashboard and smart Germanic switchgear are lifted from the Ibiza and make for an attractive if somewhat uninspiring environment that’s at odds with those of French rivals such as the C3 Aircross’s.
The broad and well-integrated 8.0in infotainment touchscreen (on SE Technology models up) gives the ambience a much needed lift, but it’s a business-like and functional, if unerringly neat, interior. Fixings don’t exactly mimic the solidity of oak, as they do in more senior Volkswagen Group cars, but build quality is certainly a notch above the likes of Kia’s new Stonic and the Renault Captur and gives no cause for complaint.
In addition to an enlarged touchscreen, our test car’s SE Technology trim adds a wireless phone-charging pad – indispensable once you’re accustomed to using it – while Alcantara upholstery, a rear-view camera, park sensors and Seat’s Climatronic climate control system are available on higher-spec models. Indeed, it’s possible to have an extremely well-equipped Arona although, given that it would be north of £20,000, you’d have to be committed to this size of car rather than opting for a larger model.
PERFORMANCE
Volkswagen’s direct-injection 1.0-litre TSI petrol engine doesn’t lend the Arona what you might typically describe as ‘performance’, but it spins smoothly and its three cylinders provide enough muscle for it to be considered fit for purpose. In fact, it’s a pleasant-sounding and nicely buoyant powerplant – a hallmark of tri-cylinder engines – so long as you never ask too much of it. Thankfully, peak torque of 129lb ft arrives satisfactorily low, at 2000rpm, allowing you to shortshift up through the gears without needing to stray too far towards the 6000rpm redline, where the engine’s timbre becomes noticeably coarse. The action of the five-speed manual transmission, meanwhile, is neat enough, its lightweight throw feeling neither overly long nor short but never really encouraging the driver to engage with it beyond keeping the engine on the boil.
The big question, of course, is whether you’d be better off with a more powerful variant than the base 1.0-litre Arona. Our 94bhp test car recorded a 0-60mph time of 10.5sec, which aligns with an official 0-62mph of 11.2sec, and demonstrated respectable flexibility with a 30-70mph time of 10.7sec. The car is no slouch, then, but some owners may justifiably want for more urgent acceleration. The more potent, 113bhp 1.0-litre TSI Arona claims 10.0sec to 62mph and also gets a sixth ratio for its manual transmission, or even a seventh if you go for the dual-clutch DSG alternative. Either would be useful if you plan on undertaking longer journeys, although you’ll have to opt for the more expensive FR trim to even get the choice. If you can wait, a 1.5-litre petrol engine with 148bhp is also due early next year and should have a transformative effect on a car that weighed just 1145kg when put on our scales.
Aided by that low kerb weight, the Arona stops well, although its over-servoed brakes do grab unexpectedly hard midway through the pedal travel. Wind noise can also become problematic at motorway speeds, particularly around the base of the A-pillar.
RIDE AND HANDLING
It’s unlikely most owners will peddle the Arona with real enthusiasm on a frequent basis, but the car nevertheless does a lot of things right in the handling department. Its spring and damper rates are remarkably well judged for UK tarmac, and at typical A-road and B-road speeds, the ride is effortlessly composed and refined for such a
The ride is effortlessly composed for such a small car
small car. Moreover, even on the standard suspension, body roll is contained in a way that most similarly elevated rivals can’t match, and the steering – pleasingly precise, but over-assisted – weights up well for a car in this class during more committed cornering, even if it remains low on feel most of the time.
However, those hoping for a more practical alternative to the Ford Fiesta and the lithe, fun-loving chassis dynamics such a thing would possess are going to be a touch disappointed. The Arona may float along a road with impressive nonchalance, corner with admirable accuracy and composure, and change direction well enough, but it does so a little joylessly, which is at odds with other cars in the Seat line-up. It means that progress is about taking an almost mathematical approach to conserving momentum, with more of an emphasis on competence than enjoyment.
Of course, that won’t matter to most buyers, who will be satisfied – and very rightly so – with the Arona’s ability to isolate its occupants from the road in the manner of a larger car while remaining as easy to place and manoeuvre as the supermini that it is. And, truth be told, the Arona does give the driver a lot more feedback than rivals such as the Captur and C3 Aircross, which feature numbingly light steering optimised for Parisian rat-runs. At the moment, it’s the standout chassis in this class. BUYING AND OWNING All Aronas are well equipped – even the base SE car gets 17in alloy wheels and automatic headlights – so although the £16,555 entry point to the range is higher than for some rivals, it’s not money wasted. On merit, the Arona is worth the premium in any case and it is also forecast to depreciate more gradually than its peers, so bear that in mind when weighing up which option to go for.
It’s also worth considering carefully which engine you want. Despite its modest output of 94bhp, the three-cylinder 1.0-litre TSI tested here is potent enough for the Arona in most scenarios and suits its character particularly well for urban driving. However, during testing, it managed a touring economy of just 40.9mpg, which would duly fall with the additional passengers and luggage the car so impressively caters for. The 1.6-litre TDI diesel model, which will be available only in FR trim and above, will almost certainly be the better choice if your driving habits include an abundance of motorway miles. Given the 1.0 TSI’S coarse timbre at higher engine speeds, you’d likely not sacrifice too much in the way of refinement, either, and then there’s the oil-burner’s effortless slug of torque to consider.