Seat Altea

A fantastic car, slightly overdone...

2009 (09)

I love the Seat Altea, but others in the family are not so complimentary. First I think it looks great. It is quite long, and has a very "continental" look to it, but has the trademark Seat line along the side. My son reckons it looks like a fish! Inside the appearance is equally good: love the trim etc, and particularly love the dashboard lighting when you turn on the head lights.

It drives perfectly. I have the diesel version, and have had no problems with performance. We drove it to Italy, around Italy and back, and it was fantastic. Did everything we asked of it, and it never failed to start, or go, or do what we asked of it. Performance is top notch for a 2.0 Diesel, and it seems to drive for ever on a tank of fuel.


For some it may be a bit long, and just occasionally it makes parking tricky. The upside of that is that the boot is a really good size. My wife, who is born to drive a Ford fiesta, enjoys driving it.


So slightly overdone? Well, there's just too many buttons and switches and gizmos on the sticks on the steering column - I still haven't worked out what they are all about - it could have simplified that. And the drivers Manual - it seems longer that the Encyclopaedia Britannica! There is so much explanation of how every little thing works, that it is impossible to take it all in, and I gave up in despair. I still haven't worked out how the cruise control works!


I can live with the "gadget confusion" because fundamentally this is a fantastic car, with a stylish appearance (if you like that sort of thing) and performance at the top of what you would expect for the spec.



Mr L Ireland