SEAT IBIZA 1.4 SE 3dr (2008)

Impressed!

I had a nasty old Vauxhall before this so I was going to be pretty easy to please here, but anyway this Seat Ibiza has been good so far. The only trouble is the way certain people pronounce it EEBEEFAAAHH. My mum is Spanish and she always gets annoyed the way British people ruined parts of Spain, so I suppose that kind of rubbed off on me. Anyway that's not the car's fault, and all the normal things you worry about with a car seem fine so far.

First up, it's reliable, so far at least. It is only about 18 months old mind, and there was a bit of an odd noise during gear changes early on which I got sorted out under warranty, but aside from that it's been plain sailing.

With our daughter arriving I knew I had to get something that wouldn't break the bank on petrol. I wanted a better car than we had, and I was looking at more exciting ones than the Seat Ibiza, but we compromised and this is a decent result really. It's really fast for a 1.4, and it gets better when you realise it's getting mid 40s MPG, maybe a bit lower the way I drive it sometimes hehe..

It's cheap too, not like tacky or like it's going to fall to pieces. I mean thousands less than you'd be paying for something similar by VW or anyone else. And it just looks better, to me at least.

It's fun to drive, not massively thrilling but fun. It's comfortable for me, but not perfect, as my mum has said it's a bit firm for her. She's used to her armchair on wheels BMW though, so that's not really a fair comparison. It can struggle power wise sometimes, like overtaking on a hill and things, but it's really nippy most of the time.

It's small so it's easy to move about and fit into spaces. The bonnet slopes in a slightly odd way so it can be tricky to see where it ends, but I think I've got a sense for it now. Anyway that's a minor thing, the Seat Ibiza is a great car all in all. Plenty of space inside too, in the cabin and the boot.