Fleet World Fleet: SEAT Ibiza

Luke Wikner reports back on our SEAT Ibiza Anniversary Edition FR 1.0 TSI 115PS

Report 3:

Fleet World Fleet: SEAT Ibiza

P11D: £24,390 BiK: 30% I £122 (20%) / £244 (40%) CO2 emissions 126g/km ECONOMY 48.7-50.4mpg ON FLEET 52.2mpg

The colder weather creeping in of late has left me a little envious of others on the FW Fleet with their heated seats, heated steering wheels and the like, but one of the upsides of ICE motoring vs EV motoring is the relatively minimal effect heating the cabin has on efficiency. And with the Ibiza’s interior being quite a compact place to be, it heats up quickly too, and clears condensation on the inside of the windscreen speedily as well.

This compactness, I’ve discovered, does translate into relatively snug legroom behind the driver, however. At just under 6ft, it turns out that my comfortable driving position in the Ibiza results in the seat being set quite a way back, causing a passenger to say it reminded them of the character Hightower in the 1980s Police Academy movies, who had to rip out the front seats and sit in the back. I’m not sure I’ve had this issue before so I suspect a bit of seat-height readjustment is required to mitigate this, but on the plus side, legroom in the back, behind a normal-sized passenger in the front, is fine.

Last week’s Autumn Budget, and the fuel duty freeze actually reminded me that these days, I do keep an eye on the prices at the pumps. Nine months or so behind the wheel of a pure EV tends to make you oblivious to such things, but it’s reassuring that taxes won’t be going up there any time soon. I’m still averaging well above 50mpg in the Ibiza which I’m more than happy with. It’s not EV levels of efficiency but the sprightly 1.0-litre turbo engine definitely demands less journey planning.

I also realised that as I do a fair bit of driving in and around central London, I’d got used to having free rein in the congestion charge zone – a detail that very nearly caught me out the other day, and resulted in a last-minute route change and had me praying that I hadn’t inadvertently erred where I shouldn’t have. As a car for urban driving, manual gearbox aside – even though it’s brilliantly light and easy to use – the 40th anniversary Ibiza takes some beating. It’s refined, comfortable even with the Sport suspension, has great speaker quality (I fixed my previously mentioned Podcast Bluetooth issue), fits in most narrow streets and is easy to park too.

I’m a pretty passionate advocate for downsizing, and if a supermini-sized car fits the bill for 99% of your motoring needs, then why incur the extra weight, expense, depreciation, BiK etc. And as supermini-sized cars go, the Ibiza, particularly in 115PS form, is very hard to fault.

Four decades after the original Ibiza launched, we head behind the wheel of the special-edition ‘Anniversary’ model to see if SEAT’s supermini has still got what it takes.

SEAT Ibiza Anniversary Edition FR 1.0 TSI 115PS

PRICE £24,390 BiK 30% ECONOMY 48.7-50.4mpg CO2 EMISSIONS 126g/km ON FLEET 50.9mpg

First report:

Our new Anniversary Edition Ibiza long-termer

Having previously covered 4,000 miles in a SEAT Ibiza 1.0 TSI FR 95PS nearly three years ago, it’s actually really comforting to get back behind the wheel and familiarity has definitely bred content.

I’ve not had an Ibiza-free life in that time though, as my next-door neighbours were so impressed with SEAT’s supermini back in late 2021, that they ordered one on a three-year PCP deal. I wrote at the time that the pick of the range was probably the 1.0-litre TSI 110hp model (now bumped up to 115hp in the latest Ibiza), so that’s the model they went for, and have been delighted with it, with the next conundrum being whether to buy it outright or figuring out what to replace it with at the end of the lease.

Our new Anniversary Edition here celebrates 40 years of the SEAT Ibiza, a statistic that leaves me unable to work out whether it makes me feel young or old. Nevertheless, in addition to the extra 20 Pferdestärke this latest Ibiza offers over our previous FW Fleet star, there is an exclusive-to-the-limited-edition metallic (though this is hard to tell outside direct sunlight) Graphene Grey paint job, wonderfully comfortable bucket seats, keyless entry and an impressive nine-speaker BeatsAudio system with subwoofer and amp. Its pièce de résistance though is the excellent panoramic sunroof, unavailable across the rest of the range.

And speaking of excellence, the Ibiza in Xcellence Lux trim – priced very slightly below the 40th anniversary edition – offers probably the only two additional options we’d like on our car, namely, a reversing camera and adaptive cruise control.

It also offers the ‘comfort’ suspension, but having driven our car in FR trim and therefore with the standard ‘sport’ suspension, we would happily forgo a little softness in favour of its slightly sharper dynamics.

The black microsuede interior is predictably dark, not helped by the dark headlining fabric, but the sunroof really does a good job of lightening up the ambience on brighter days. The Ibiza also feels very, very well put together – more so than I remember – and the few additional extras on this limited-edition model have the effect of elevating SEAT’s supermini and giving it a premium feel.

There’s no doubt also that the bespoke colour scheme for both the car and its wheels definitely suit it, and help justify its range-topping price tag.

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