Review
This car manages to embody all those attributes, while still achieving a creditable 48mpg on the combined fuel cycle.
I must admit that when I was handed the keys I was a bit puzzled. Was it supposed to be a mini-MPV? It had the height to be one but was far too sporty looking.
Was it supposed to be a sportster? It certainly had the accelaration, but inside there were all the bits and pieces you’d expect to find in a family runabout.
A quick reference back to our original road test of the car in June 2004 revealed the truth – SEAT calls this car a ‘multi-sports vehicle’.
Whatever that means is anyone’s guess but suffice to say after two weeks behind its wheel, I’m loving it to bits.
Our car features a 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine pumping out 138bhp. And it acts in a very undiesel-like fashion. Despite the fact that it arrived with just 100 miles on the clock, the engine already feels wonderfully loose.
The variant is ‘Sport’ and to go with its bustling persona it gets as standard front bucket seats which hug the figure nicely, ironing out any body roll on fast bends.
Inside, everything is as funky as the young upwardly mobile audience the car is aimed at will desire.
But to call this car a five-seater is a bit of an overstatement. The rear features a curious arrangement of two bucket seats and a rather hard narrow lump in between that can either be pulled down and used as a table, or folded away and used as a seat.
But whoever sits in it will have to be very thin and well padded in the trouser area – it isn’t very big and it isn’t very comfortable. It rather reminds me of my old junior school days when we had the naughty chair in the corner for anyone who misbehaved.
As our test model only has 360 miles on the clock at the time of writing, we haven’t been able undertake a full fuel economy test yet but so far things are looking good.
We are still on the first tank of fuel and there’s plenty of diesel left in it.
As for performance, this Altea is proving a little belter. However hard it is pushed in the corners, it never shows the slightest sign of skittishness and it has shown a clean pair of heels to many a sporty car so far, much to the surprise and annoyance of those being overtaken.
One thing I’m not too impressed with is the six-speed manual gearbox. It is slick enough on up-changes but on the way down, unless you hold the stick firmly towards you, it always pings from sixth to third instead of fifth.
Equipment and options
Standard
Options
Total options: £505
Standard price (OTR): £17,000
Price as tested: £17,505
What we expect
THERE are many cars around at the moment which profess to be all things to all men (or women), but the SEAT seems to fit this criterion better than many of its rivals. Once the testers get to hear about this car’s sprightly performance we are expecting no shortage of volunteers to drive it. However, many of them – and particularly those with families – may be put off by that peculiar little middle seat in the back.
The manufacturer's view
'SO far this year we have sold 1,447 Alteas, and 71% of those were diesel-engined versions. The most popular engine so far has been the 2.0-litre TDI version with 138bhp, which is also Euro IV-compliant.
'We expect to sell a total of around 5,000 Alteas in the UK this year, and around half of them will be bussiness sales.' (Seat UK)
Model: SEAT Altea 2.0 TDI Sport
Price (OTR): £17,000 (£17,505 as tested)
Mileage: 365
CO2 emissions (g/km): 159
Company car tax bill (2005/6): 22% tax-payer £56 a month
Insurance group: 8
Combined mpg: 47.9
Test mpg: N/A
CAP Monitor residual value: £6,075/36%
Expenditure to date: Nil
Typical contract hire rate: £349
Figures based on three-years/60,000-miles
