The New Seat Ibiza Is Like A Mini Leon

Seat has revealed the all new Ibiza, which is lower, wider and longer than the old one and available with techy goodness

Matt Robinson

01 Feb 2017

Like the look of the Seat Leon, but just find it a tad too large? Here’s your car.

It’s the all-new Ibiza, and it has more than a passing resemblance to its big brother, especially at the front. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: the Leon’s a handsome thing after all.

It sits on the all-new MQB A0 Platform (the first VW Group car to have that honour), and is 87mm wider, 1mm lower and has a 60mm longer wheelbase compared to the old model. As a result, your passengers should hate you a lot less, and you have 355 litres of boot space to play with, up by 63 litres.

On the engine front, there’ll be a pair of three-pot turbo units with 94bhp and 112bhp respectively, with the 148bhp, 1.5-litre ‘Evo’ TSI lump - first seen in the facelifted Golf - joining the range later in the year.

Want an oil burner? In the UK you’ll have the choice of two 1.6-litre diesels with either 79bhp or 94bhp. Five or six-speed manuals come as standard on all engines (the number of cogs depending on the power), with a seven-speed dual-clutch ‘DSG’ available as an option. Will there be a Cupra? It’s not been mentioned just yet, but we sure hope so.

As is the case with the Ibiza’s Ford Fiesta arch rival, this is a supermini that’s been stuffed full of tech, because it seems even buyers of smaller cars want a festooning of gadgets these days.

We’re talking autonomous braking, wireless phone charging, a Beats sound system, Apple Car Play, front and rear cameras and much more besides. What you get will depend on which of the four trim levels - S, SE , FR or Xcellence - you go for, while some equipment will be available only as optional extras.

We’ll know more when the car gets its full debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

I’m American and I have no idea what language of car yoirnspeaking.

American but your name is “The Import Kid”

This feels like entrapment.

When i first saw it actually thought it just was the new Leon

As did I.

Same.The rear looks a bit like the Polo.

Ah, its the audi or mercedes syndrome
It looks like a bigger car with minor changes…. Soon all of the model range shall look like this… Which im not complaining about, its niiiice

Looks good! But I don’t really like the back… Hope they will make a sharper one on the 3-door like the previous version!

if they will even build it. I heard that the 3-door didn’t sell good and that they will ditch it

The only thing I don’t like about it are the exhaust tips. Like, all the marques do that now… just why? It looks so freaking hideous when a tiny 30 mm tube goes into some huge trapezoid exhaust tip.