SEAT Ibiza
On sale 15th April

UK workers spend almost twice as long getting to work as the Italians and Swedes, with the average time taken to complete the journey to work being 45 minutes.

So if I am setting out for work on a cold wet miserable day, the last thing I am going to want to do, is to sit in an equally uninspiring all black interior of a car, for 45 minutes.

The new SEAT Ibiza, which features a raft of changes for 2006, will impress everyone who drives by me on my miserable dreary journey to work, because of its sporty, dynamic styling. However, as the driver or passenger of this supermini, sitting in its very dark cabin, I am not seeing the best of it. Unless that is, I am driving with my headlights on, at night, when all the instrument panels glow with a warm red light, or if I am driving the range topping Cupra or FR models which have brief tinges of red trim to fire the imagination.

However, as SEAT’s best selling model to date, the Ibiza has plenty of other things going for it, like the exterior styling.

The 3 and 5 door models have been revised with a new front bumper and a more dramatic air intake design. All models have double headlamps, a new rear bumper and the minimum wheel size in the line up has increased from 14” to 15”. There are also some very nice new colours and wheel trims. The FR model is the most visibly modified and it has a far greater presence and a more overtly sporty character than before, featuring a new 17” alloy wheel design.

The interior has new trim fabrics and colours and although rather humdrum, the build is of good quality. I found the radio and air conditioning controls small and fiddly to use and not easy to read. However, there are a lot of storage areas and a wide range of standard equipment, which includes front electric windows, height and reach adjustable steering wheel and CD player. Seats are very comfortable and supportive.

Safety systems include ABS and driver and front passenger airbags.

The Ibiza offers one of the widest choices of engines in the supermini sector and starts from a 1.2 litre petrol. I drove the 1.4 litre petrol, the 1.8 litre turbo petrol and the 1.9 turbo diesel, which is the most powerful diesel engine available in the Ibiza’s market sector. Top speed is 137mph and 0-62mph is reached in 7.6 seconds. Combined fuel consumption is a frugal 51.4mpg and this model will cost £10,795 for the Sport version.

All powerplants respond well on acceleration and handling is good. Precise steering is speed sensitive and electro mechanical. I found long distance motorway driving becomes irritating, because there is a lot of road noise, particularly at high speed.

Prices start at £7,545 otr and if you can live with the plain black cabin, then you might also be inspired by the prices of some of the more sportier models, which are actually £1000 less expensive than their predecessors.

By Sue Cooke