SEAT Ateca (2020 - ) review

The lack of the hybrid options offered by rivals like the Toyota C-HR, Nissan Qashqai and many others shows the Ateca’s age somewhat, and will limit appeal for company drivers for whom the relatively high emissions could add hundreds to monthly tax costs. For private buyers, meanwhile, the regular petrol and diesel options help keep purchase costs keen and the mid-range 1.5-litre petrol we tried proved reasonably efficient even without any electrification. If you’re choosing between this and the closely related Skoda Karoq and VW T-Roc some forensic pricelist comparisons show the Seat is more or less in line with both, though Volkswagen makes you pay extra for a lot of the kit you get as standard on the Ateca.

Seat has a decent reputation for reliability, as proved in the 2019 JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study, in which the company placed slap bang in the middle of the manufacturer list, right on the cusp of the industry average. Seat offers fixed-price servicing to keep the cost of maintenance reasonable, but the standard warranty is three years, rather than the five- or even seven-year cover provided by some rival manufacturers.

The relative age of the Ateca’s foundations show in the lack of driver assistance systems, things like lane keeping assistance only included in the Safe & Driving Pack on the top trim level. This also includes automatic cruise control that adapts your speed to the traffic around you. Whisper it but we actually don’t mind, given lane assist is often more of an irritation than a benefit and the first thing we turn off in most cars. And the really important stuff like airbags, automatic emergency braking and Isofix child seat mountings in the back are all present and correct. All Atecas also get a 10-year subscription to Seat’s emergency and breakdown call system.

There’s nothing especially flashy in the Ateca’s design inside or out, but we’ll happily trade novelty for the easy-living functionality and practicality. So, three cheers for things like the huge boot, which swallowed luggage and bedding for a trip away for a family of four and still had room for a couple of guitars and an amp. The long rear doors also make it easy to load kids in and out (assuming you can bag a parent and child space, of course) and there’s surprisingly generous legroom back there as well. Driving position, visibility and lots of other stuff many rivals get wrong are all top notch as well, making life with the Ateca just that bit easier. For a car of this type it’s sharper to drive than most as well, feeling surprisingly agile for a top-heavy crossover. You do pay the penalty for that in terms of ride quality, though, and the 19-inch wheels on our FR Sport test car had a harsher edge that would have us going a grade down for the 18s on the standard FR.

Again, maybe we’re just getting cranky but we’ll count the relative age of the Ateca as working to its advantage here, given it combines the latest onboard tech but escapes the button-purging minimalism of more recent vehicles from across the wider VW family Seat is a part of. So, all but the absolute base trim level get a flush-fitting, 9.2-inch screen that looks a huge step up from before and is powered by a much more up to date system, with crisp graphics and an easy interface. This alone makes it worth the upgrade to SE Technology, our FR Sport test car also getting the bigger of the two available digital instrument clusters. More generally while there’s a lack of sparkle about the interior it all feels well put together and everything just works, things getting sportier as you progress to the FR models and more luxurious with the Xperience versions and their leather, heated seats and more.

If you want a faster Ateca than the ones available in the regular range fear not, on the basis sister brand Cupra does its own performance version. Back in the real world your choice is between three sizes of petrol engine and two diesels, available with various combinations of manual or automatic gearboxes and front- or, in the case of the most powerful diesel, all-wheel drive. Based on previous experience of the smaller petrol engine and its merely adequate performance for this test we upgraded to the mid-ranking 1.5-litre petrol automatic, which feels like a really nice balance of performance, refinement and decent fuel economy. There is a more powerful petrol option as well but a few hundred miles of both motorway and city driving didn’t leave us wanting for more power, and we were pleased at how far we seemed to go between fill-ups. Which is all you could ask for in a family car.