SEAT Ibiza Review

The SEAT Ibiza is a stylish small family car that’s surprisingly big inside, but its cabin looks a little dull and feels cheap in places – it’s still worthy of a place on your shortlist though.

The SEAT Ibiza’s sharp, angular body looks great from almost every angle but its interior’s pretty boring in comparison. It comes with a few body-coloured strips but swathes of hard black plastics dominate the dashboard, centre console and doors and there’s no soft-touch dashboard like you get in the Fiesta. The front seats come with a decent range of adjustment as standard but no models are offered with the option of lumbar support to ease backache on long drives, and you only get a front centre armrest in top-spec models.

The basic five-inch black and white infotainment screen fitted to entry-level S cars feels pretty old-fashioned but the large 8.0-inch unit in SE models and above is a huge step forward. It looks sharp, is easy to use and is available with optional Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and MirrorLink systems so you can use your phone’s sat-nav and music apps on the Ibiza’s screen.

You won’t hear too many complaints from those in the back. The SEAT Ibiza is surprisingly spacious for a small car – there’s a fair amount of legroom and even six-footers will have headroom to spare.

The SEAT Ibiza is not perfect but it’s a really good small car with a neat, tidy interior and loads of space for passengers

Also the SEAT Ibiza’s boot is an impressive size for a small car. It has 355 litres compared to the Fiesta’s 292 litres and has a large square opening so it’s fairly easy to load large items. Fold the seats down and the boot floor is nearly completely flat. There’s room for some valuables under the false floor, too, and a few handy hooks will stop your shopping bags rolling around. It’s a shame split-folding seats are only available on SE cars and above though, so go for one of those models if you want to carry long loads and rear passengers.

You can get the SEAT Ibiza with three 1.0-litre petrol engines and a 1.5-litre engine and a selection of diesels. The pick of the range is the 95hp petrol that’ll return around 50mpg. It’s reasonably quiet at speed but makes a rumbling sound a bit like a diesel if you accelerate hard.

Ibizas come with a five or six-speed manual gearbox as standard and a slick twin-clutch automatic as an option. This auto will set you back around £1,200 extra but it’ll make lengthy traffic jams and long journeys a little more bearable.

You don’t have to worry about spending extra money making the SEAT Ibiza safe. Euro NCAP awarded the Ibiza an impressive five-star safety rating thanks to its all-new chassis design and standard automatic emergency city braking.

It’s another feather in the SEAT Ibiza’s cap. It’s a smart-looking, capable small family car that’s definitely worth considering if you’re looking for something that’s both practical and a little sporty.