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You probably remember the original Ibiza most for its ‘Engineered by Porsche’ sticker in the back window. That was introduced back in 1985, the powertrain was indeed engineered with Porsche input, the car was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and it was loosely derived from the Fiat Strada. The second-generation Ibiza of 1993, and all since, have been developed under VW stewardship and have shared platforms with the Polo.

The new Seat Ibiza’s arrival comes at a not inconvenient time for S...Read the full article

The main picture on this article looks really awful- if that's what the car actually looks like then this is not a great new era for SEAT. Far too many lines all over the place randomly situated for maximum impact. It looks like it's been bottled in a nightclub fight. Euuuugh.

I sold SEATS for a brief period in my life, just after the first VW based ibiza/cordoba came out. At the time they were fantastic. I loved the Cordoba. I can not for the life of me figure out what the last design direction was- the 'let's make the same car 4 times over with a slightly different hatch arrangement and pretend they're all different' approach, but I'm seriously concerned that this new 'slashed to pieces by a nutcase' approach is a step backwards from that. Oh dear. 

kerrecoe:

The main picture on this article looks really awful- if that's what the car actually looks like then this is not a great new era for SEAT. Far too many lines all over the place randomly situated for maximum impact. It looks like it's been bottled in a nightclub fight. Euuuugh.

Agreed - this car is NOT a good looking car.  To state that it is good looking in the "For" arguments bewilders me.  The design just looks a mess - something like a Mazda 2 is far more appealing, and cleaner looking.  As well as being ugly, the Seat is still too bland to drive and heavy to be a serious contender - it should also have lost more weight than it has done.

I actually quite like it. I much prefer the Sport Coupe (3-door!) model, though, because the rear end on this doesn't sit right at all. I like the interior though - it's very glossy and LOOKS good quality - the black glossy radio and heating controls look really nice. The front looks ever so slightly fussy, but colour plays a big part in making the car look right. Overall I prefer it to previous SEATs, because it's slightly refreshing to see a new nose for once!

Will seat do a 4x4 version like that of the Fiat Panda???

Wholly agree on the ugly front - disappointed that SEAT seem to have used "Etch-a-sketch" for the design of the new car. Especially when you take the beautiful Leon into account! What happened?!

I have to say, I saw this at the Motorshow this year and was left feeling a bit cheated. The cabin seemed far too cheap and flimsy for a company wholly owned by VW.

SEAT is so far down the list of priorities for VW these days Queenie, the new Exeo is proof of that- they'll be basing them on 15 year old Skodas before long. They seem to be devolving the brand. Why?