SPEC EXPERT BUILD THE PERFECT SEAT IBIZA
Seat’s sharp supermini hopes to steal some sales from the new Fiesta and Polo. Seat UK’s own product team guided us through the options list towards a happy compromise
Although not as sporty as it used to be, the FR model is the trim to go for. That gets you 17-inch alloys, twin exhausts, tinted rear windows, an 8in infotainment screen with voice recognition and navigation and Seat’s drive pro°ile selector. It’s equipped with the 94bhp 1.0-litre TSI with a °ive-speed manual gearbox, which is predicted to be a best-seller and does 0±62mph in 10.9 seconds. Starting price: £16,015
Inside, our Ibiza FR has the standard Nora cloth seats with a red pattern – leatherette and alcantara seats are available, but the Seat product bods saved us £365 by guiding us away from it. However, the infotainment system has been given an upgrade; it already has DAB functionality, Seat’s Full Link that comes with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and MirrorLink and navigation, but the connectivity hub (£160) adds a wireless charging point for your phone. Running total: £17,630
In keeping with the sporty theme, our FR is °inished in Desire Red metallic paint (£650) to help it stand out a bit more, and the wheels have been upgraded to the 18in Performance BiColour alloys (£325). Seat says those wheels help emphasise the FR’s sportiness; every little helps. Full LED lights (£480) have been added, too, which not only look great but are amazingly bright, according to the product team. Running total: £17,470
The Vision Pack Plus (£425) adds all-round parking sensors and a rear-view camera if you’re not the best at parking and adaptive cruise control (£170) will help make motorway drives that little bit easier. If you leave it at that, you’re still comfortably under £20k – not at all bad, given how much more this oers than the base S model at £13,130. Total price: £18,225