SEAT Ibiza SportCoupé review
by David Finlay (1 October 2008)
The simplest thing SEAT could have done here would have been to remove two of the doors from the new Ibiza and filled in the gaps. Instead it did something a lot more complex, giving the rear half of the car a distinctive design and calling the result SportCoupé.
The SC isn't as far removed from the five-door as the marketing people will suggest, but there are clear differences, one of which is that it's a few hundred pounds cheaper. It's also slightly less practical; access to the rear is difficult for those of us with long legs, though it's unlikely that SC buyers will intend to transport four full-sized adults on a regular basis, while there's slightly less luggage space than in the five-door at 284 litres rather than 292 when the rear seat is in place.
A more positive feature is that the SC's window design is more sensible than that of the five-door, which means you're significantly less likely to hit something when the time comes to make a reversing manoeuvre.
Apart from that, the two cars are very similar in most respects. The line-up, for example, is identical (at least for the moment) with a choice of 69bhp 1.2, 84bhp 1.4 and 104bhp 1.6 petrol engines. As with the five-door, diesel alternatives will be introduced later, but only the SC will be fitted with the super/turbocharged 178bhp 1.4-litre TSI engine - that one will be badged Cupra, and it will be by far the fastest Ibiza of the current generation when it arrives next year.
Among the current bunch - again following five-door practice - there are three trim levels, called S, SE and Sport. Broadly speaking, the larger the engine, the higher the trim level, except that the 1.4 comes in both SE and Sport forms. For the lowest purchase price and running costs you should go for the 1.2 S, which costs £8595, or £9095 with air-conditioning.
Air-con is standard in the £9995 1.4 SE, as are body-coloured door mirrors and handles, heated and electrically-adjustable door mirrors, electric rear windows, cruise control, a trip computer, a height-adjustable front passenger seat and 15" alloy wheels.
The Sport models (£10,295 for the 1.4, £10,895 for the 1.6) are the fanciest of all, with 16" alloys, sports seats, firmer suspension and leather-covered steering wheel and gearknob. All versions can be specified with ESP, Brake Assist, tyre pressure monitoring and Hill-Hold control for a total extra cost of £280, and there's a Convenience Pack (rear parking sensors, automatic wipers, an auto-dimming interior mirror and "coming home" headlight function) which adds £250 to the price of the SE and Sport cars.
As I've mentioned several times in the past, my favourite Ibiza is the 1.2 S. I like the little three-cylinder engine very much, and I don't mind that it's short of equipment. I haven't driven the SC in this form but I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I do. What I have driven is the 1.4 SE, which rides very well, tackles corners enthusiastically if you're in that sort of mood and has as much straightline performance as anyone is likely to need; fans of fast motoring are far more likely to wait for the Cupra to arrive than to settle for the 1.6, which somehow seems like the least sensible model in the range.
And while we're on the subject of being sensible, it's worth remembering that the five-door did well in the Euro NCAP test programme, scoring five stars out of five four adult occupant protection, four out of five for child occupant protection and three out of four for pedestrian protection. This is as good as it gets among current superminis, and there's no reason to believe that the SC would do less well if it were tested separately.
Perhaps just as important as all this is the fact that the SC looks pretty good - more so, in my opinion, than the five-door, which still strikes me as being rather fussy in design terms. It should certainly appeal more to younger buyers, as well as to those who don't need much room in the rear and wouldn't notice the 8-litre shortfall in luggage room. The fact that it's £400 cheaper, like for like, than the five-door isn't going to hurt either. Bearing all that in mind, I can't help thinking that the SC is going to prove to be rather popular.
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