SEAT Ibiza 1.6 TDi Sport Road Test Report

Performance

Attaching the word Sport to the Seat Ibiza in 1.6-litre turbodiesel form is bound to raise expectations of performance and pace. With a car that covers 0-62mph in 10.4 seconds (10.7 if you opt for the five-door version), those expectations take a bit of a tumble. A top speed of 116mph isn’t going to worry many hot hatches either. However, the 104bhp 1.6 turbodiesel fitted to the Ibiza Sport makes up for its deficit of outright acceleration with plenty of in-gear shove. Courtesy of 184lb ft of wallop from just 1500rpm, this Ibiza can surprise a few faster cars if their driver let them linger in a higher gear. The Seat builds speed in the upper three of its five-speed manual gearbox with ease and without the need to drop a gear to get going. However, it can scrabble out of slower corners if the driver gets greedy with the throttle pedal too early as all that mid-rev shove overwhelms the front tyres. Better to leave the Ibiza Sport a gear higher than you might at first think necessary and use the broad seam of power.

Ride & Handling

The Seat Ibiza Sport acquits itself well and impresses with the way it handles bumps while sitting on firmer suspension and fatter tyres than lesser models. Poor road surfaces don’t upset the Ibiza Sport in the way they do some other warm hatch models and there’s sufficient suppleness and give in the suspension for this to be an easy car to live with day in, day out. The handling ain’t bad either, though it’s nowhere near as honed or agile as a Ford Fiesta’s. Nor is the Ibiza’s steering as precise as the Ford’s, though it supplies just enough feedback to make the Sport nimble. For more humdrum duties, the Ibiza Sport is comfortable and decently quiet on the motorway, easy to park and doesn’t attract some of the negative connotations other hot hatches might.

Build Quality & Reliability

There’s no doubting the long term solidity of the Ibiza’s cabin materials, but it’s a shame Seat has not tried harder to make them look more appealing. There are too many shiny, hard finishes where a touch more thought and consideration could have lifted the Ibiza’s cabin to the premier league of small cars. Still, Seat has scored well in the JD Power Satisfaction Survey and we’re sure it will continue to do so with the Ibiza. On the mechanical side, the Ibiza Sport uses an engine already proven in other VW Group cars, so it raises no concerns, and the rest of the Ibiza is put together with care.

Safety & Security

This could so easily have been a five-star score but Seat leaves ESP traction control to languish on the options list along with some other equipment. For a car with sporty credentials, it’s a shame this system isn’t there to guard against any over-exuberant owners. It’s also handy to have when the weather turns sour. Twin front and side airbags are present, but curtain airbags are not as the side airbags extend upwards to do the job of the curtains. A five-star score in Euro NCAP crash tests is welcome, though. Anti-lock brakes are fitted, while security is taken care of by an immobiliser and deadlocks on the doors. It seems cheap of Seat to ask customers to pay extra for an alarm, especially on a sport model with a higher insurance group than most of the other models in the range.

Space & Practicality

If you want greater practicality, it’s best to spend the extra £400 on the five-door version of the Ibiza Sport. Its extra pair of rear doors makes it easier for adults to get in and out of the rear seats, and they make much less work of harnessing in younger kids to child seats. Three-door models are also saddled with a double whammy as they are trickier to access and have noticeably less head room than the five-door models due to the slope of the roof. At least those in the front of both cars are treated to plenty of space and the driver can adjust seat height and steering wheel angle and depth. At the back, the boot is one of the better supermini load bays and copes with plenty of shopping or suitcases. A 60/40 split and fold rear seat adds to the Ibiza’s practicality, though the seats don’t fold to leave a flat load floor.

Ownership & Value

The Seat Ibiza range is generally very good value for money and the Sport 1.6 TDi is not different, though we still have reservations about paying extra for ESP traction control and alarm. However, you do get natty alloy wheels, air conditioning, electric windows and a CD stereo. Group 4 insurance is easy on the wallet for a sporting car, while 65.7mpg combined economy is excellent. The 112g/km carbon dioxide emissions are also commendable as they mean low-rate road tax and cheap company car tax payments. Ibizas also hold their value reasonably well in the used market, so residual values for the Ibiza Sport should mean you don’t lose your short when it comes time to sell.