I have to say that I am officially baffled by the Seat range.

We are constantly told that Seat is the sporting arm of the VW mass market empire (UK), yet they seem to churn out endless MPV's, which last time I checked, were not sporty (Zafia VXR excepted).

Altea, Toledo & now the Altea XL which seems to look like & do everything that the Toledo does.

OK, they have hot Ibizas & Leons, but where is the 3 dr Leon, the sporty convertible, the coupe & the high performance 4 dr saloon in their range.

Seat need to stop producing endless Altea lookalikes & give us some proper sporty cars, which after all is their brief.

it's all something to do with avoiding duplication of very similar cars within the Audi division of VW, 3 door leon equivalent is the audi a3 ..... audi badged cars don't include mpv's (now the a2 is gone) - they do suv's

.... also there IS a 4 door saloon seat on the way remember, might carry a different name though & will be passat sized.

this issue has been raised so often i'm surprised the message has failed to get through

quote:

Originally posted by barky:
it's all something to do with avoiding duplication of very similar cars within the Audi division of VW, 3 door leon equivalent is the audi a3 ..... audi badged cars don't include mpv's (now the a2 is gone) - they do suv's

.... also there IS a 4 door saloon seat on the way remember, might carry a different name though & will be passat sized.

this issue has been raised so often i'm surprised the message has failed to get through

That's another thing with this forum, I don't think the search facility is the best.

I tried using it, as endless trawling is so time consuming, but it came up with nothing.

Shame because the Ibiza is a very good looking car!

The Ibiza is probably the best looking car in the range, but it's definitely showing it's age now in terms of the underpinnings and the overall driving experience fails to match up with the image the looks create.

The Seat range is basically a bunch of cheap and nasty vans with windows.

quote:

Originally posted by Wobbletastic:
The Seat range is basically a bunch of cheap and nasty vans with windows.

no different to ford, citroen, vauxhall, FIAT, .... then

I quite like the look of the Leon and Altea, but why did they (and the late unlamented Toledo) need to look the same? Curiouser and Curiouser........

The thing is at least Ford, Citroen and Vauxhall are still capable of making proper shape cars such as the Mondeo or Vectra. Unfortunatly they both make awful rubbish like the CMax and Zafira too, but everything coming from Seat except the Ibiza is a blooby van shape... they look like jelly moulds.

quote:

Originally posted by Wobbletastic:
... they look like jelly moulds.

that's exactly how they described the ford sierra when it came out ... funny that

Well at least the Sierra had a decent length bonnet and a boot... so therefore looked nothing like a van.

I like the new Leon a lot, the FR and Cupra versions are very nice indeed, and well specced up.
The way the rear passenger doors have hidden handles is nice, so the car appears to be a 3 door hatchback, as seen on the Alfa 147... the new leons were designed by the same guy that designed the 147.
The rear of the car is pretty cool aswell, very different looking.

^^^ a rational, unbiased view on a current generation seat leon ..... have to say i'm stunned to it on this forum .. shocked in fact

Thankfully, I understand that a three-box SEAT saloon may be on the way.

Must admit that the boundaries between the Altea, Altea XL and Toledo are incredibly blurred. I think they pretty much have the same range of engines!

They pretty much have the same shape body pannels; they simply differ in size.

This is a great question Syntax Error.

What IS Seat's obsession with MPV's?

I hope they start producing some more tradtional style cars, that offer VW quality & drivetrains but for less money & more style.

quote:

Originally posted by Wobbletastic:
Well at least the Sierra had a decent length bonnet and a boot... so therefore looked nothing like a van.

Personally I'd rather have less space up front where the engine is, and more space in the cabin where I am - thats why i prefer the fact that modern design has shortened the bonnets - I take it you must swoon when you see an old film with one of those 60s American cars with the enourmous bonnets (sorry, hoods!), W!!

quote:

Originally posted by Homer Simpson's girth:
This is a great question Syntax Error.

What IS Seat's obsession with MPV's?

I hope they start producing some more tradtional style cars, that offer VW quality & drivetrains but for less money & more style.

The Leon Cupra and FR basically have Golf GTi underpinnings, the cupra has a whopping 240bhp engine and the FR has the Gti 200bhp while the FR TDi has the Golfs GT engine which puts out 170bhp, and they also use the VW DSG gearbox.