Seat at the London motor show 2008

By Ben Pulman

Motor Shows

24 July 2008 11:23

Seat has a true world debut at Excel, with the three-door version of its new Ibiza. Then there's also an old Ibiza in the shape of the eco-friendly Ecomotive, which we're actually quite keen on.

The new Sportcoupe. It's a fancy name for what’s actually the three-door Ibiza, but it does makes it show debut at Excel. The regular five-door hatch is at London too, and both look smart on the outside and a little sombre on the inside.

There’s also Ecomotive versions – Seat’s eco-brand – of the Ibiza (the old car), the Leon and the Alhambra,  plus a new blue colour for the Leon Cupra...

Seeing that the new Ibiza actually looks different from the rest of the Seat range. But if you want to tax your kids try getting them to differentiate Leon from Altea, Altea XL and Toledo. We struggled.

The Ibiza is the first car in the VW Group to use the new small car platform, which will also underpin the next Polo and the Audi A1. Yet the Seat stand also featured the Alhambra, which is now 12 years old. Apart from designs from Caterham, Morgan and the like, we’re not sure if there’s an older car at the show.

A sharp new hatch and lots of bright colours, plus credit to Seat for appearing at Excel when VW, Audi and Skoda were all absent.

Click here to go to CAR's London motor show A-Z homepage  

By Ben Pulman