Safety and performance go hand in hand in the SEAT Altea and that’s not all – it also boasts dazzling good looks. The light and spacious interior is packed with classy features and the ride is filled with fun and exhilaration.

The good

Spacious and deceptively quick

The bad

A bit too much plastic on show

Tech Specs

Price from

£19,345

Combined Fuel up to

62.8mpg

0-62 from

9.7 seconds

max speed up to

125mph

co2 from

119g/km

Test Drive

SEAT Altea Ecomotive 1.6 SE Tdi

SEAT’s reputation has gone from strength to strength over the years and after a week behind the wheel of the pacy Altea I can fully understand why.

It’s a fact that if you speak to any SEAT owner, they cannot praise highly enough their model, so what is it that makes the Spanish manufacturer so attractive to buyers?

The answer is simple, a whole collection of great qualities – the SEAT range is attractive, very good value for money and offer the owner a reliable, safe and generally exhilarating drive.

From the outside, the Altea is very streamlined and has all the characteristics of a typical mid-sized family car. Features include 16-inch alloys, headlights with electrical adjustment, body coloured bumpers, door handles and mirrors and tinted rear windows.

The interior is deceptively spacious with plenty of room for four adults to travel in comfort. Those relegated to the back seats are treated to ample leg and head room. And throughout the cabin there are numerous useful storage compartments, plus the very generously-sized boot with handy side pockets and an extra integrated storage area under the luggage compartment cover.

SEAT has kitted the Altea out with plenty of creature comforts, including dual zone climate control with dust and pollen filter, a trip computer, white instrument lighting with brightness control, a great MP3 compatible sound system and plenty more besides.

But the factor that really impressed me most about the Altea was its performance. The 1.6-litre diesel-powered engine delivered plenty of pace and it was fully capable of accelerating at higher speeds – uphill and fully laden. Now, I’ve driven £30k-plus vehicles that struggle with that and the Altea rolls in at £18k

The all-round visibility is very good which makes city centre driving a complete doddle and the parking sensors assist when parking in tight spaces – although I did find they were a tad over-sensitive at times.

The Altea has a comprehensive list of safety features with anti-lock brakes, electronic stability programme, numerous airbags, active front headrests and a whole lot more.

Like many other manufacturers, SEAT is constantly striving to make its vehicles more environmentally-friendly and the Altea is part of the Ecomotive series which means the carbon emissions are lowered and it benefits from stop/start technology among other things, but thankfully not at the expense of the performance.

So you can still enjoy your ride and not worry too much about your carbon tyre-print.

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