Independent Reviews of SEAT New and Used Cars

SEAT's Tarraco aims to shake up the mid-sized 7-seat SUV market. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

This much improved third generation SEAT Leon is a Focus-sized model that these days offers smarter styling, impressive media connectivity, strong safety provision and some efficient engine options. If you'd been overlooking it, this Spanish contender might now be worth a second glance. As before, Leon buyers choose from either a five-door hatch or an 'ST' estate model. In both cases, SEAT says that visual style was one of the key reasons why people bought the original version of this car, so it wasn't necessary with this current version to change the aesthetics too much. Whether there really is 'latin spirit in every one' is another question of course. In the case of sportier versions like the FR models, we'd be tempted to say yes. Overall, on a pure value-versus-quality basis, this Leon has long been the pick of the Volkswagen Group offerings in this sector. And that also makes it one of the key segment benchmarks outside the Wolfsburg family of brands. Which in turn, makes it a very good car indeed.

Every volume brand seems to have its own idea of what a small supermini-based SUV should be. Jonathan Crouch takes a look at SEAT's offering, the Arona, in its popular 1.0 TSI petrol guise.

Ibiza's important to Spain - and this one certainly is to SEAT. Over 5.4 million examples of this car have been sold since the original first generation model's introduction back in 1984. If SEAT can promote this fifth generation car properly, then it stands a chance of gaining a place somewhere near the top of the rather over-stuffed shortlists that most browsing supermini buyers will be working though. An inherent product rightness certainly counts in this Ibiza's favour, borne from a real attention to detail that's come through development of this model line over a quarter of a century. In summary, we're looking here at a car that, like its brand, has matured nicely. One mindful of the fact that modernday Spaniards need to balance Latin spirit with sober sense. In this Ibiza, they've a small car that does exactly that.

SEAT's MK5 model Ibiza supermini gets a range of strong engines, including an efficient 1.0 TSI three-cylinder unit. The experts at Car & Driving check it out.