Ateca promises gain in Spain
WHILE Seat has come a long way from its humble origins, the Spanish firm has never quite fulfilled its promise of becoming a successful volume player. In 2015, for instance, it sold just 47,600 cars in the UK – 11 per cent down on the year before and a figure beaten by Audi A3 sales in Britain alone.
Depressing though that statistic might be, thankfully the plucky Spanish car maker isn’t throwing in the towel just yet, especially since it is about to get not one but two all-new 4x4s.
It seems laughable that Seat, until now, hasn’t had a single 4x4 or crossover in its line-up. That’s utter madness in a country where Nissan’s Qashqai is the fifth bestselling car. But whatever the reason, the Spanish firm has finally woken up to their volume potential with the Ateca its first offering.
Seat claims it has pulled out all the stops to ensure the Ateca can compete with its more established rivals – and it certainly helps that it didn’t have to start from scratch when developing the car. The big benefit of being owned by the Volkswagen Group is that Seat’s first-ever crossover was developed alongside the latest secondgeneration VW Tiguan, sharing the same underpinnings, engines, gearboxes and 4x4 hardware.
Cleverly, this has been no rebadging exercise. They differ in the looks department inside and out and engineers are at pains to say each car has been tuned to have differing characters.
In the metal, it means beside the classy but conservative looks of the Tiguan the Seat boasts sharply creased bodywork that picks up where the stylish Leon left off – the Ateca is a handsome beast. Five engines are available initially, two turbo-petrols – a 115bhp 1.0-litre and 150bhp 1.4 – alongside three turbo-diesels, a 115bhp 1.6 and a pair of 2.0-litre units with 150bhp or 190bhp.
The last of those is the fastest in the range, taking just 7.5 seconds for the 0 to 60mph sprint before reaching a 132mph maximum.
The most frugal, though, is the 1.6-litre with a 65.7mpg average fuel economy and 112g/km emissions. Seat estimates that while the smallest diesel will be a hit for business drivers, it’s the 150bhp 2.0-litre that’s expected to be the