SEAT Ibiza Ecomotive Full Review
Posted: 08 May 2008 by Paul Clarke
There are currently only two conventionally engined cars on sale that emit less than 100g/km of CO2, and the SEAT Ibiza Ecomotive is one of them. The other is the Ibiza's close family member, the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion, which shares the same engine.
One of the benefits of a sub-100g/km car (amazingly, the engineers have managed to get the emissions to work out at 99g/km) is that you pay no road tax. And of course, low emissions translate to high fuel economy. The Ibiza Ecomotive delivers 74.3mpg on the combined cycle.
Does this mean that the Ecomotive is a slow, dull car? Actually, no. The 1.4-litre turbodiesel engine, complete with a Diesel Particulate Filter, has great torque, so when the turbo comes on boost at around 2,000 revs the little car really picks its feet up.
Even better, SEAT has done its own thing to the chassis and suspension to make it handle like a SEAT rather than a VW. It's not quite up to the handling of a Mini Cooper, but it's so much better around corners than the Polo BlueMotion. And it's over £1,000 cheaper than the Polo, and around £3,500 cheaper than a Cooper D.
The interior of the Ibiza shows where some of the money has been saved -- it's quite basic. For instance you have to physically reach over to adjust the near side door mirror unless you have a helpful passenger. The following may seem a trivial gripe, especially compared to the big picture of the number of barrels of oil this car saves, but there are virtually no oddment storage places in the cockpit, which is just no good for the essentials of modern in-car living such as mobile phones and cups of coffee.
But the Ibiza does come with a socket for an iPod, steering wheel controls for the stereo and even air conditioning -- something the 99g/km CO2 Polo doesn't have.
The Ibiza is a small car, with not-so-great headroom and rear seats that don't fold flat. But the doors seem huge, so much so that in a car park they can all too easily make inadvertent contact with the neighbouring car.
The doors are quite large for a small car
Parent company VW scores well on ethics, as it has no dodgy investments -- that we're aware of -- in polluting or unethical business. It also publishes a very good sustainability site which sets concrete future targets for improving green operations.
The only eco bummer is the way Volkswagen is lagging against other car makers for cutting its CO2 emissions across its range. A 2007 report by the European Federation for Transport and the Environment put the car maker at 12 out of 14 brands for emissions. SEAT itself also runs its operations to meet the environmental management standard ISO 14001 which is pretty standard for a company of its stature, but welcome nonetheless. Continue reading...
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