SEAT’s sharp fifth-generation Ibiza has already proven itself to be one of 2017’s top small hatchbacks, even picking up the best supermini gong in our New Car Awards earlier this year, thanks to its combination of style, driving fun and value.
2018 sees a flock of new Ibizas enter the fray; diesel options have now arrived, but they’ll play a tiny role in the Ibiza’s petrol dominated sales figures. In Britain, SEAT anticipates that they’ll only account for three per cent of all Ibizas leaving showrooms next year.
UK buyers are offered two diesel powertrains. Both are venerable VW Group 1.6-litre TDI units used all over SEAT’s line-up, with either 79bhp or 94bhp on tap and the same headline fuel economy and CO2 figures of 74.3mpg and 99g/km CO2. The more powerful 94bhp unit finds a home in sporty FR trim cars, while the 79bhp version is spread across the range.
Here we’re trying the 94bhp unit in XCELLENCE trim; that’s a combination that won’t actually hit SEAT’s British forecourts in January 2018, but it’s still a marker of what buyers can expect.
• New SEAT Ibiza 1.0 petrol review
The headline power and performance figures on offer here outstrip that of the diesel supermini to beat right now; Ford’s 1.5 TDCI Fiesta. The 1.6-litre unit in the SEAT isn’t quite as economical and can’t match the Ford’s claimed 88.3mpg, but the 250Nm of torque on offer means that there’s more meat on the bones when you dip the throttle. That 250Nm maximum is served up flat from between 1,500rpm and 2,600rpm, so second and third-gear pull for overtaking is decent, even if most of the grunt is fast to fade away when outside its comfort zone.
The five-speed manual gearbox the engine is linked to is snappy to shift, while the steering is sweet and direct too. Dynamically, there’s nothing to set apart the diesel from any petrol model, so it’s a typically tight and responsive car to drive.
However, what does set the diesel Ibiza apart is the hefty premium on the price tag. The 94bhp 1.6-litre TDI is priced from £18,445 in FR trim, representing a hike of £2,440 over our preferred Ibiza, the 1.0-litre, 94bhp TSI petrol. On paper the petrol slacks behind the 1.6 TDI on fuel economy, but its claimed 60.1mpg is still impressive, and you’d still have to do a lot of miles to redeem the additional cost of the TDI model. SEAT’s finance deals soften the blow, admittedly, but whichever way you look at it, the diesel is expensive to stomach.
It’s also not as refined as the 1.0-litre TSI, nor is it as quick off the line, and while it sits in a lower VED band thanks to sub-100g/km CO2 emissions, the saving here is small, at just £20 off the first-year rate. To top it off, the 1.0-litre TSI sits in a lower insurance group, and for business buyers it actually chalks up a marginally lower benefit-in-kind rate too, at 20 per cent.
The problem with the Ibiza diesel isn’t that it’s poor - far from it. It’s that almost anyone walking into a SEAT dealership would be better off with the turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol option. It makes the Ibiza tick, and is one of the reasons why SEAT’s latest supermini is one of our favourites.
- Model: SEAT Ibiza 1.6 TDI 95 PS
- Price: £18,445
- Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel
- Power/torque: 94bhp/250Nm
- Transmission: Five-speed manual, front-wheel-drive
- 0-62mph: 11.3 seconds
- Top speed: 113mph
- Economy/CO2: 74.3mpg/99g/km
- On sale: Now
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