Long-term report: Time with the Seat Ibiza draws to a close
Dave Brown has been running the Seat Ibiza for the past six months. What has he learnt about it over that time?
With the four-day Easter weekend on the horizon, and the weather forecast featuring wall-to-wall blue skies and glorious sunshine, I was thinking of taking a little springtime road trip in our wonderful long-term Seat Ibiza.
We live near the sea, so a jaunt to a nice beach, perhaps? Maybe head inland for a walk around the countryside and a relaxing picnic?
I was whiling away a peaceful 20 minutes pondering the possibilities when my daydreaming was interrupted – and my plans were radically changed.
You see, my wife and I are in the middle of a few household renovations and I was asked to abandon thoughts of leisure and pleasure and instead focus on making a couple of tip runs and a visit to a tile shop. Yay.
In actual fact, KY68ZXK was excused making any journeys that involved getting rid of our old rubbish, but the car was pressed into action tile-wise, along with the other vehicle in the family at the moment, a rather battered Mitsubishi ASX.
The Seat being a lot smaller, it was only asked to accommodate a couple of the tile boxes (they were pretty heavy) – the Mitsubishi swallowing the rest.
Now we just have to wait for Gary the grout to do his stuff and we’ll have a bathroom again.
My wife’s desire to refresh our little home made itself apparent as soon as spring arrived. There’s nothing like a spell of warmer weather to make you feel like a bit of a change and that’s what I’ll be having soon, sadly, as our Ibiza will be leaving us before too long.
Looking back at my previous reports about the car, I was reminded that it arrived with us shortly before the festive season which allowed me to describe it as ‘a Christmas star’ and ‘a little cracker’.
As I batter my keyboard putting this report together, we have just had Easter, so by rights I should be saying it has been egg-celent to drive and that the Ibiza and I have had some egg-citing times together.
And while the jokes may be as old as the hills, the truth is that the Ibiza has been simply superb and will be very much missed. It has suited me down to the ground over the past few months and hasn’t put a foot wrong.
I mentioned at the start of the year that although the Ibiza is described as a city car, that really doesn’t do it justice as it’s completely at home on motorways tackling journeys that are a lot longer than a typical daily commute.
It’s comfortable, completely sorted as far as infotainment and connectivity are concerned and more than adequately powered by its punchy and eager 1.0-litre petrol engine which is mated to a slick six-speed manual gearbox.
One tiny thing – and I’m definitely not referring to this as a complaint but kind of thought it would happen automatically – is that the clock didn’t adjust itself forward by an hour at the start of British Summer Time.
Our old ASX took care of itself but it’s probably just a case of me not having read the Seat manual thoroughly enough. It’s never been my strong point.
So farewell then, KY68ZXK. It’s been a blast but all good things must come to an end.
And now to the $64,000 question: Would I buy one?
Well, if I was in the market for a stylish and bang-up-to-date small car, designed superbly and loaded with useful tech, I would do so in a heartbeat.
It would be eggs-actly right for me.
