SEAT Ibiza 1.9 TDi

Introduction I'll start with an introduction to tell you why I've chosen this car. I've recently owned a SEAT Leon Cupra, which was great fun. Although the car was very nice it did cost a fair bit to run and insure. With me wanting to buy a house and being 22 years old the Leon Cupra was not the ideal partner for me. This called for me to look to buy another car - one that is economical and hopefully fun too. Seat Ibiza FR Since its launch in Mid 2002, the SEAT Ibiza Mark 4 has been very successful having won several motoring awards (including WhatCar Car of the Year 2003). It was only natural ... more

Before this car I had an 1.4 MG ZR (petrol) which although gave excellent performance for that size engine, was proving costly for my commute to work - on average I was achieving about 33 miles per gallon. So, after only having had that car for 8 months I decided to switch (to the dark side as some would say!) to diesel. I decided to move away from MG as the build quality was not great and the engines somewhat outdated in comparison with other manufacturers, in particular Seat which shares the PD (pump-deuse) diesel engine platform with other names such as VW, Audi and Skoda. I took the Seat ... more

I purchased one of these in May 2004 (2003, 03 plate), the 1.9 TDI PD 130 version. This car uses the same 130bhp 1.9 litre diesel engine used extensively throughout the VW Group (VW, SEAT, Skoda and Audi) range. The first thing you notice about this car is the power and especially the torque generated by this engine. Due to turbo lag, it is a little sluggish at extremely low rpm, but once over 1500rpm, the torque and the turbo begin to kick in. Use the 6-speed gearbox to keep the car around the 2000rpm mark to feel the full benefit of this power. The handling of this car is also fantastic ... more

First of all i'll start by saying that the Seat Ibiza is put together very well, it is so sturdy and hard wearing. My Ibiza had 130,000 miles on the clock and it's still going strong and the bodywork has kept its "new car" look. Although, along the way it has had some replacement parts i would still say it lasts a lot longer than other makes and models of cars. In terms of speed i have found it to be a very quick car, you can really feel the turbo kick in when you accelarate. I'm sure it's a lot faster than people would expect it to be. These PD engines also react well to a remap. The car has ... more

I recently got a new job and I knew I'd be doing a lot more miles in the car. What I needed was a new deisel engined car. I had driven a Golf TDI and knew they performed well, however they were out of my price range. I use to own a Seat Ibiza before they were bought out and it was a rubbish car, a tin on wheels. So I was quite surprise to see the new Ibiza, it had changed dramatically. When you look at the car first glance its a very attractive looking car, you look again to see who it's made by, this did prompt me to go to a show room and take a look and get some prices. I was surprised at ... more