Seat Ateca
Seven years after launch, what has become of this once class-leading compact SUV?
PHOTOGRAPHY JACK HARRISON
MODEL TESTED 1.5 ECO TSI DSG FR BLACK EDITION Price £37,000
Power 148bhp
Torque 184lb ft
0-60mph 8.9sec
30-70mph
in
fourth 10.8sec Fuel economy 40.9mpg CO2 emissions 153g/km 70-0mph 45.8m
We like
• Competitive pricing
•Good packaging makes plenty of cabin space in a fairly compact car
• Chassis offers unexpected grip and tenacity
We don’t like
• Engine range is thin and 1.5-litre Eco TSI a little rough and charmless
• Ride quality on 19in wheels and sport tyres leaves much to be desired
• If this is the most desirable Ateca they can make, would you really want one?
W
e are now reaching the end of the road for the
car brand once touted,
in fairly ambitious yet serious terms, as the Volkswagen Group’s answer to Alfa Romeo. In a recent interview with Autocar, VW Group board member Thomas Schäfer revealed that if Spanish car maker Seat has a future, it’s probably not in making cars.
Over the short to medium term, he explained, Wolfsburg’s Spanish outpost is set to transform into something that may sound more interesting at first – an e-mobility provider, or some other kind of pioneer of alternatives to traditional car ownership.
One by one, the firm’s models will either morph into sportier, more desirable, pseudo-premium successors sold under the new Cupra brand, or be removed from sale altogether. And by the end of this decade, Seat will cease to exist, at least as we have come to know it.
Were we to look for where it went wrong for Seat, we certainly wouldn’t start with the Ateca compact SUV. This Nissan Qashqai rival has been one of its maker’s most widely acclaimed cars since its 2016 launch and was for a significant period Autocar’s class favourite.
This week, then – without sentimentality or agenda – we find out what kind of car the Ateca has become in later life; whether it can still be considered one of its class’s more attractive picks; and what kind of impression of the Seat brand it might leave an owner with, as its manufacturer moves towards its new and uncertain future.
DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
★★★★★
At its launch, the Seat Ateca tapped right into Europe’s burgeoning appetite for compact SUVs – and its neat looks, keen prices and equally keenly tuned driving experience met with approval from the critics and public alike.
To recall the breadth of its engine and trim range in those early years is like looking back several model generations, but in fact this car has yet to complete even one full model cycle on sale. Since there is already a Cupra Ateca, though, we’re perhaps safe to assume that life will go on for the car, even without a Seat badge on its nose.
Having been sold for a number of years with a multitude of petrol and diesel engines and a choice of front-or four-wheel-drive layouts, a cull of derivatives executed earlier this year left the Ateca with just two petrol engines in its range, each of which drives the front axle.