Reheated Arona

Seat serves up facelifted crossover

Aslight contrast to last Sunday’s road test. From the firebreathing Ford Mustang Mach 1 with its gorgeous sounding 5.0-litre V8 engine, to the facelifted Seat Arona.

A somewhat less exciting car but a type, unlike big-engined coupes, that is sold in vast numbers.

We’re spoiled for choice with compact crossovers – almost every mainstream manufacturer offers one.

Seat was relatively late to the party when it launched its Ibiza-based Arona in 2017, beating by a head its cousins the Volkswagen T-cross and Skoda Kamiq. Time flies and it’s already up for a facelift.

The previous Arona looked a lot like the Ibiza but with more ground clearance, but for this facelift the designers have had a crack at making the crossover a bit more different.

Naturally theywere limited due to cost reasons as you can’t start changing sheet metal for a facelift. But with redesigned bumpers front and back and some new lights, the car does look more distinctive.

Bigger wheels have also been fitted, starting from 18in that give a little extra ground clearance.

Seat facelifted the Ibiza, too, which we’ve already driven and written about. That car got a much-needed redecoration inside with soft touch materials replacing the hard plastics. Fortunately the Arona, which also suffered from cheap-looking plastic trim, has received the same treatment.

Add some splashes of colour available in the higher level trims and the Arona’s interior can look a whole lot smarter. Bigger wheels, bigger infotainment screen.

The basic SE trim gets a 8.25in screen and the rest of the range get a 9.2in slab of glass. All come with smartphone mirroring and the screens themselves are set higher on the dashboard to make them easier to see when driving. We like that.

FR Sport and XPERIENCE LUX trims get digital instruments.

There’s plenty of space in the rear seats and the boot can hold 50 litres more clobber than the Ibiza.

I’m a big fan of the Ibiza and not much of a fan of compact crossovers. I’d see the argument for buying the Arona over its hatchback brother if there were obvious benefits.

The seat height in the Arona is low for a crossover, which will disappoint many who like the high seat position of a crossover or SUV. You don’t get any clever space saving or practical details either.

Citroen, for example, gives you lots of clever and spacious cubby holes and storage bins; Honda’s Jazz Crosstar has clever adjustable seating configurations.

The driving experience between the Ibiza and Arona is very similar with the latter having a little bit more

body roll and softer suspension.

Our top spec XPERIENCE LUX test car came with the 110PS version of the 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual gearbox. Neither can be faulted.

The new Arona is a palpable improvement over the original 2017 version but unfortunately it’s still not special or talented enough to be the natural choice.

Not when there are so many alternatives on the market.