SEAT Exeo review
by David Finlay (27 March 2009)
One of the decisions that Erich Schmitt made when he became President of SEAT was that the company should double its annual sales from the current 400,000 by 2018. This is no small task, and the ways in which Schmitt intends to achieve it include persuading more people to buy the current models and creating new ones in sectors SEAT has not previously attempted to compete. The first result of this latter ploy is the Exeo, the latest player in what is known within the industry as the D segment and can less accurately but more helpfully be described as the "Mondeo class".
The interval between SEAT announcing its entry to the segment and the car going on sale in the UK is 18 months. That would be a shatteringly rapid turnaround if the Exeo had been designed from scratch, but in fact what SEAT has done is save vast amounts of time and money by converting the previous-generation Audi A4.
Officially the Exeo is "30% SEAT" in the same sense that the Ibiza is a Volkswagen Polo with 40% Spanish input; it would be more accurate, however, to say that the Exeo is "30% not an old A4", partly because the sum takes into account the fact that the most widely-available (and probably most popular) engine in the range is a 141bhp two-litre turbo diesel which wasn't fitted to the previous A4 but is sold with the new one.
Similarly, the Exeo's dashboard was not used in any closed-roof version of the old A4, but was in fact designed for the Cabriolet. (This was Schmitt's idea. The scuttlebut is that the engineers said it couldn't be used in the Exeo for various technical reasons. Schmitt gave them some equivalent of an old-fashioned look, whereupon they realised that the thing could be done after all.) Since the dash is the part of the car that the driver spends most time looking at, it acts as a more or less constant reminder that the Exeo is far more a discontinued Audi than it is a brand-new SEAT.
There's no need to go on about this, since I'm sure you've got the point by now. And in any case, from the customer's point of view it doesn't really matter. Even a one-generation-back A4 is, after all, an entirely acceptable car, and the redesign of all the panels other than the doors and the roof to create a family resemblance to the award-winning Ibiza helps to make it look very un-Audilike in the circumstances.
(I prefer the less fussy Audi treatment myself, but a colleage - a female one, I should point out in case you feel this makes any difference - likes what SEAT designer Luc Donckerwolke has done here.)
As well as the change in appearance, SEAT has had a free hand in retuning the suspension, which provides a good combination of a smooth ride and confidence-inspiring handling. The ride has then been spoiled on higher-specification models thanks to the use of increasingly large wheels and low tyre profiles which, on the other hand, do make the Exeo look better. SEAT did not have any of the entry-level S models ready for the press launch, but I imagine that with their 16" wheels and 55-section tyres they will be the nicest to drive but the least appealing to look at.
From launch the S will be sold only with the 141bhp diesel engine mentioned above (more on this later). Like all other Exeos, it also has front foglights, tinted windows, halogen headlights, dual-zone climate control air-conditioning with dust and pollen filter, active headrests, height-adjustable front seats, a six-speed manual gearbox, remote central locking, ESP and Brake Assist fitted as standard, and at £17,740 it's more than £5000 cheaper than the most basic current A4 with the same engine - or, if you like this statistic better, about £1700 less than the cheapest diesel Mondeo.
The most popular Exeo is expected to be the SE, which again has only the 141bhp diesel engine and, for £18,345, comes with 17" wheels, automatic headlights and wipers, a dimming interior mirror, rear parking sensors, more audio speakers, an acoustic windscreen (to reduce noise levels) and leather steering wheel and gearknob, among other features.
The Sport has yet more equipment, plus the extra choices of a 168bhp 2.0 turbo diesel and the 198bhp 2.0 turbo petrol engine, while the range-topping SE Lux (avilable with both diesel engines but not the petrol) gets the Sport's 18" wheels plus black - or, optionally, cream - leather upholstery, adaptive front lighting, daytime running lights and headlight washers. With the 168bhp diesel under the bonnet, the SE Lux is the most expensive of the introductory Exeos at £21,340.
On the press launch event I drove the SE and the Sport and, apart from the ride quality, liked pretty much everything about them both (the lack of rear legroom, another obvious carryover from the A4, is worth criticising, but its relevance depends on how many passengers you intend to carry). Nothing of Audi's ability to design high-quality cars has been lost, and rather than get all tetchy about how close to a piece of badge engineering the Exeo really is you'd be better off remembering that it's a premium product with a distinctly sub-premium price tag.
If you find the closeness of the Audi relationship offensive, wait a few years for the second-generation Exeo - it's already in the preliminary design stages and it's going to be much more of a SEAT than this one is. More short-term developments include the introduction of an estate version, called the ST, the availability of a 120bhp diesel with the S trim level and, for those of you who don't like clutch pedals, Multitronic transmission (but not, according to current policy, DSG). The low-powered diesel works exceptionally well in an A4 we tested recently and may turn out to be the basis of the most appealing Exeo of all - especially if, as may be the case, it brings the entry price down to below £17,000.
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