SEAT IBIZA 1.4 S 5dr (1999)

Quite a few little problems thinking about it

I haven't had any really massive problems, the biggest one was the clutch cable failing, that was at about 60 thousand miles a year ago. The rest have been just sort of little electrical problems here and there, like sensors and warning lights and starter problems, that sort of thing. It's been over the space of nearly ten years so fair enough really, and it is a great little car, love it to bits, but it has had the odd thing go wrong now and then and it must have added up in terms of costs etc.

It's good value though. In comparison to the Punto I used to have, the Seat Ibiza had more kit fitted, and seemed a fair bit bigger inside, seats and in the boot, for the money. It's pretty good quality as well, I mean apart from the things that have gone wrong, it just feels well put together mostly.

I wish it had air conditioning though. I seem to recall someone saying at some point that was an option in the Seat Ibiza. Might have been the salesman when I got it. I bought it second hand about five years ago and he wanted to sell me all sorts of things to go with it, but it all got too much and in the end I just said I didn't want any of it. That's a shame as it's a bit too much in summer now, and I can't really afford to get air con added to it.

The Seat Ibiza is very economical, for its size I mean. I suppose I could do better nowadays, so perhaps I'll be shopping around a bit soon. Some of these electrical faults have repeated actually, so it makes me think that it's getting worse not better, so I might need to sell up soon.

The only other problem is the paintwork. It's a little bit thin and gets quite a few dinks and scratches and dents here and there. It doesn't bother me what it looks like, but it's probably affecting the resale price, so maybe I'll get it resprayed, I'll see how the cost of that would balance out.

Generally our little Seat Ibiza is a gem, just got these little things going wrong so maybe if you were looking at a second hand one then have a look over the service record and the paperwork, see what sort of life it's had. Maybe ours was just a slightly shakier one than usual.