SEAT Exeo Multitronic review
by David Finlay (22 April 2011)
SEAT has broadened the appeal of the Exeo by creating a diesel automatic mini-range with a modest £23,230 starting price. If you include the saloon and ST estate body styles and the two trim levels which we'll be looking at shortly, there are four cars to choose from, all of them using the 2.0 TDI turbo diesel engine in 141bhp form along with the Multitronic transmission which, as with almost everything to do with the Exeo, can be traced back to Audi.
Multitronic is a CVT (continuously variable transmission) rather than a conventional automatic, so strictly speaking it has no fixed gear ratios at all. Thanks to some electronic wizardry, though, it can be shifted among seven apparent ratios - using either the lever or paddles mounted on the steering wheel - and those shifts are performed wonderfully smoothly. It's a fine system which we've enjoyed when it was fitted to Audis and still enjoy now it's in a SEAT.
There are a few penalties, however. It adds £1505 to the price, it slows the car down a little (though not nearly so much as a conventional auto would) and it has quite an effect on the running costs. Fuel economy suffers by over 5mpg on the combined cycle, and while otherwise identical manual versions of both the saloon and ST are in VED Band E, the Multitronics are in Band G, so you'll pay a small but perhaps irritating amount of extra tax each year.
And there's another thing about Multitronic which gives the Exeo the hiccups in a way I can't recall it affecting any Audi. According to SEAT, this transmission is 40kg heavier than the alternative six-speed manual.
That's a substantial amount. An increase of 35kg from the petrol to the diesel Touring Car versions of the León required SEAT's racing team to come up two quite different suspension set-ups. And just 8kg is enough to make one Skoda Superb ride and handle noticeably less well than another.
The 40kg weight penalty in turn affects the Exeo significantly. Other versions I've tried have generally scored well for ride and handling (except when suffering from the effects of inappropriately low-profile tyres) but the Multitronic feels fidgety, and is only entirely settled on road surfaces of a quality much higher than the UK average.
Still, I imagine that most potential buyers will be less concerned by this than by the fact that the Multitronic models, like all Exeos, have a premium feel to them, and are very well-equipped. There is no "basic" model - the choice of trim levels is between SE Tech and Sport Tech.
Neither of these existed when the Exeo was launched two years ago. The Tech specs were introduced so that buyers could choose a car with plenty of features without delving into the options list (which, if they were business customers, they might not have been allowed to). As with other Exeo Tech models, the Multitronics therefore come as standard with black leather upholstery, an iPod connection, satellite navigation with a 6.5" colour screen and SD HC card slots for MP3 playback, and a Bose audio system with ten speakers and AudioPilot noise compensation.
I'd go with the SE Tech myself, but if you want uprated suspension, more supportive seats, tinted rear windows, sexed-up lower door mouldings, 225/40 tyres on 18" wheels (no!) and slightly different interior trim, the Sport Tech provides them all for an extra £985.
Add new comment