SEAT Exeo Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: SEAT Exeo range
Prices: £18,240-£22,940 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 12-14
Emissions: 143-179g/km
Performance: [2.0 TSI] 0-60mph 7.3s / Max Speed 149mph FUEL CONSUMPTION [2.0 TDI 143] (combined) 53.3mpg
Safety: Six airbags, ABS, ESP, EBA, active head restraints.
Dimensions: length/width/height [4dr] 4661/1772/1430mm

SPANISH VALUE

Our Rating: 7.6 / 10

SEAT’s Exeo may have an Audi heritage but it has its own take on value for buyers in the Mondeo sector. Jonathan Crouch reports

SEAT’s Exeo saloon and estate models borrow heavily from Audi to bring to bring impressive standards of quality to the medium range Mondeo sector at affordable prices.

I’ve often wondered why motor manufacturers plough millions into new model development when as long as the original product was good enough, they could just as well have taken the old version, bolted on a new nose, put in some more up to date engines and thrown a couple of off-the-shelf gizmos at it to create an apparently all-new car. Let’s be honest, if the price was right, most buyers wouldn’t notice the difference. Evidently someone at SEAT thought the same, hence the thinking behind their Exeo model.

If you think you’ve seen this design somewhere before, then you’re right, you have. This is a straightforward piece of platform recycling, SEAT’s VW Group partner Audi having donated their second generation A4 saloon and Avant estate for the purpose. The Spanish maker is a mite irritated when you point out that this is a design dating back to 2001. The MK2 A4 did, after all, retail in the £20,000-£30,000 bracket on Audi showroom floors as recently as 2007, out-selling compact executive Mercedes and BMW rivals, so SEAT’s provision of the same car for much less money in the theoretically less demanding Mondeo medium range sector ought to satisfy most. In any case, as the Spaniards point out, over 30% of the parts are different in the Exeo, including an up-to-the minute range of the hi-tech engines used in pricier modern Audis.

If the most important part of any car is its engine, then this SEAT scores quite heavily here. The common rail 2.0-litre TDI diesel that most Exeo buyers will choose, though a little noisy at idling or low speeds, is otherwise pretty outstanding, offered in either 120, 143 or 170PS guises. Pulling power in almost any gear is superb and sixty from rest in the 143PS version that most will choose takes just 9.2s, quicker than the identically-engined MK3 Audi A4 that will cost you over £4,000 more. Such is the price of badge equity. If you want outright pace, then you might be one of the minority who could end up opting for the petrol 2.0 TSI mod

Unlike the A4, SEAT aren’t offering an all-wheel drive option but otherwise, the best bits of the old Audi have all been retained and improved upon. The advanced multi-link suspension for example, has been tweaked so that buyers can choose from either ‘Comfort’ or ‘Sport’ settings and Sport-trimmed models get offer the option of lowered ride height and stiffer suspension. Go for the stiff set-up and you get a well controlled driving experience but one that can be fidgety over poor surfaces at low speeds. At the helm, the Audi Servotronic steering system has been re-programmed for a sharper feel on the road.

SEAT has had something of a hit and miss record of design over the last few years, their efforts ranging from the handsome Leon to the oddball Toledo. Perhaps then, the dash of conservatism necessitated by the Exeo’s Audi-derived shape is no bad thing. The differences over the German brand’s MK2 A4 amount to little more than a crooked false moustache and a sombrero, being minor at the rear, almost non-existent at the side but quite substantial at the front end, thanks to the re-engineering work necessary to plumb in the new engines.

But as I keep suggesting, none of this Audi influence is a bad thing, something particularly evident once you slip inside and tweak the reach and rake-adjustable steering wheel and height-adjustable seat to get the perfect driving position. SEAT decided to use the old Audi A4 Cabriolet’s cabin for this car (apparently it was slightly nicer than that of the saloon) and wisely, apart from adding a big S in the middle of the steering wheel and some classy splashes of chrome, has otherwise kept changes to a minimum. This is the best interior of any SEAT model and in a car from the Exeo’s family saloon sector of the market, it feels very special indeed.

Compact executive cars like Audi’s A4 and BMW’s 3 Series were – and still are – smaller than the Mondeo-class models in the sector below, so it’s not surprising to find that the Exeo do