The Seat Ateca Review - Simple, Practical Perfection!

  • 5 months ago
Get ready for an adrenaline-pumping adventure with Jim Starling, as he reviews the sleek and powerful Seat Ateca!

The Seat Ateca might boast a sleek and simple design, but don't let that fool you! It's a masterclass in practicality, offering a driving experience that seamlessly blends style and substance. From its exterior aesthetics to the thoughtfully designed interior, Jim takes you on a tour that showcases how simplicity meets functionality making the Ateca an absolute game-changer for families everywhere.

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Transcript
00:00 Hello folks, welcome to Men and Motors. Today I'm here with the SEAT Ateca. This is the
00:07 1.5 turbo petrol version and it's in SE technology trim. Now this starts at about 33 grand, the
00:14 one I've got here today is 34 because it's got an optional 2 on it. That gets you 110
00:19 PS of power, it's got the DSG automatic gearbox in this one, MPG is around about 39 to 42
00:29 and really it gives you all the performance you need for this kind of car. You can also
00:34 get a 1 litre petrol 3 cylinder version. I'd probably go for this one, it's got 4 cylinders,
00:41 it does also have some technology in that can basically deactivate 2 of those cylinders
00:46 when it doesn't need them. So when you're cruising on the motorway at 70 for example,
00:51 it'll switch off a couple of the cylinders, thus saving you a few readies on your fuel
00:55 bill. Now the Ateca was launched in 2016 and it's the sister car if you like of the Skoda
01:02 Karoq. There are certainly funkier looking cars around, I mean the main rivals for this
01:07 car apart from the Karoq will be things like the Kia Sportage, the Nissan Qashqai, all
01:14 similar kind of money as well. And there's certainly more interesting designs on one
01:19 hand, however you can say sometimes those more interesting designs don't date as well.
01:25 This might not be the most exciting car to look at in its class but I sort of somehow
01:31 feel like it's going to grow old a bit more gracefully than one or two of the others perhaps.
01:38 By the way, although this is similar money to the Qashqai and the Sportage, it's 3 grand
01:43 less than the Peugeot 3008. So onto the interior and I think you'd call it sort of a clay
01:49 classic and familiar design. Certainly if you've been in a VW group car in the last
01:55 10 years, this will all be very familiar to you but don't necessarily think I'm saying
02:00 something negative there. I feel like this is a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix
02:06 it. There are certainly more interesting looking interiors, certainly funkier interiors in
02:11 some of the car's rivals but in terms of functionality and ergonomics, everything's pretty good.
02:19 We don't have any silly haptics on the steering wheel. We've got physical dials, physical
02:24 buttons. The steering wheel's lovely. VW group, if you want to know how to do your
02:28 steering wheels in future, do them like you're used to. This works brilliantly well, as good
02:34 as anything on the market at the moment. No need for any haptic controls. The infotainment
02:39 system has touch controls on it but you can obviously control volume and things over here
02:44 with a proper dial if you so wish. On this SE technology model, it's a 9.2 inch touch
02:50 screen. Really nice crisp resolution, nice and bright, really good colours. Android Auto
02:56 and Apple CarPlay, the Apple CarPlay being completely wireless. It does take a little
03:02 while to connect to the car when you first get in, maybe 10 seconds or something. First
03:07 world problems, I know, but I'm here to pick faults in these things I guess. But yeah,
03:13 it's a joy to live with really. No issues with it whatsoever. Physical buttons and dials
03:19 again for your air conditioning. Why wouldn't you? It works. Over here we've got a really
03:25 nice bright vivid colour digital display. Really great actually that. It's not the full
03:31 virtual cockpit that you can get in some of the higher level trims, but you might have
03:36 seen that in Audis and various other VW group cars. However, I don't think you really need
03:41 it. This is so good and the information on it is all relevant. I don't think you need
03:47 to mess about with it too much. And because the infotainment system is just there facing
03:51 towards you as the driver, just ever so slightly, I don't think you need to go up that trim
03:56 level. I think this spec works perfectly well and it would do for most people. The seats
04:02 are very comfortable in this. They are cloth apart from a couple of tiny little bits of
04:07 leather trim. There is a lower lumbar support, although I've had far better in other cars,
04:11 I have to say. But yeah, they suit the car well. They're not sports bucket seats or anything.
04:17 They're really nice and comfortable, but you're not sort of sliding around in them as you're
04:20 going up and down the road. Some of the plastics in here are not the best. You've got some
04:25 really hard, sort of slightly cheaper feeling stuff down here, slightly squidgier up here.
04:31 That's not really a problem in everyday usage. You just have to wonder how they might wear
04:35 over time. To be honest, I think they'll be absolutely fine, but it's not the plushest
04:40 or fanciest interior. What it is, is reasonably utilitarian, but very, very easy to sit in,
04:48 use everything and not be distracted by having to go through your infotainment screen for
04:53 basic functions or having to try and work out how to use this slidey thing to make it
04:59 warmer, colder or turn the volume down on the radio. It's good. Very, very good. In
05:05 the back of the car, it's a very similar story to the front, really. It's not very excited,
05:11 not very imaginative perhaps, but very comfortable, very practical and I don't think you're going
05:17 to have any problems with it. You've got two USB-C's down there, so people in the back
05:21 can charge their devices. Electric window controls, not too much else. You've got a
05:26 seat back pocket there and we've got an armrest that comes down with cup holders and a through
05:32 load space, which is always nice to have. Plenty of headroom. I'm about 5'9" and a bit,
05:40 maybe 5'10" on a good day and plenty of headroom for me. Driver's seat's in my normal position
05:45 and there's acres of legroom there and a reasonable amount of space to put your feet as well.
05:50 Really, quite a nice place for your rear seat passengers. The boot space is really good
05:55 in this car, very competitive. It's not a flat floor, there is a big duck down, but
05:59 I like that because it means your shopping doesn't fall out as soon as you open the boot
06:03 on a slope. It's really nice and deep. There's also some under floor storage there where
06:10 spare wheels used to live back in the bygone era. Nice, big, easy space to get things in
06:16 and out. You've got controls there so you can easily drop down the rear seats from here.
06:22 Not anything particularly clever or special once again, but very, very easy to use. Nice
06:27 space. Once you get out on the open roads, you'll find this thing really quite a nice
06:34 drive. The DSG automatic gearbox for the most part pairs up really nicely with this little
06:41 1.5 litre engine and it gives you a smooth, consistent ride. You can find it a tiny bit
06:49 slow on the uptake at times though. For example, if you're sitting at a roundabout and you
06:53 need to sort of nip out a bit quickly or perhaps you're coming to a stop and then sort of take
07:00 off again, it can occasionally just take a second to decide what it's going to do. But
07:06 otherwise, I think the DSG automatic is one of the best ones out there for actual driving
07:12 feel. It doesn't feel sort of numb. It doesn't take away from the driving experience too
07:18 much as some automatics can. Despite its only having 110 PS of power on tap, the car can
07:26 get up and go when it needs to. 0-62 in 9 seconds which is obviously nothing spectacular
07:33 but I think it's more than reasonable on a car like this and you don't ever feel like
07:38 you're lacking for power even with four adults in the car. Now I drove a Kurok recently which
07:45 is obviously the sister to this car and I feel like the suspensions may be a tiny, tiny
07:50 bit firmer in this but by no means is it harsh and I think the real benefit from that is
07:58 that actually it corners really nicely. It's not boaty at all. The car feels planted at
08:04 all times and I might be being overly harsh to be honest. It may have been a slight difference
08:10 between the two cars, maybe different wheel size or something but this is perhaps just
08:15 a hair firmer than you would get in the Kurok and perhaps also you can say the same thing
08:22 for the Qashqai which is perhaps a tiny bit more cosseted on the old cheeks than this
08:28 is but don't let that sort of distract you from the fact that this is generally a very
08:35 comfortable car to get down the road in and I'd say it's a bit better in the corners than
08:39 the Qashqai. You might be listening to me babble on about this car thinking this is
08:45 all sweetness and light, there's nothing wrong with this car. Really that's the story of
08:50 it, there's nothing wrong with it. I couldn't put my finger on anything with this car really
08:55 and say that's a negative. When I do talk about things that perhaps are not quite as
09:02 good as something else I'm literally trying to find fault because the car doesn't present
09:06 you with any obvious faults whatsoever. It's a nice thing to drive, it's got plenty of
09:12 room for your family and your luggage which I would say most people buying this kind of
09:17 car are doing it because they've got a family and possibly some luggage and it's just nice
09:22 and easy. Everything about it is easy yet you don't have the compromise of it being
09:27 really boaty in the corners and feeling like it's going to take 15 minutes to get up to
09:34 60. It's a car without too many compromises however it's not very exciting. That's its
09:42 biggest fault is it's not very exciting but if you like your motoring to be functional
09:48 and reliable and solid then I think this car's got a lot going for it, it really has. As
09:56 an all round package if you could live with the perhaps slightly dull looks I think this
10:02 is a better car than the Nissan Qashqai where it does have a bit more stiff competition
10:07 is with the Kia Sportage because that's a great all round package as well and does have
10:13 sort of the added little bit of flair here and there that perhaps this one lacks. But
10:18 I think they're just a really really good car that I'm struggling to find anything negative
10:23 to say about. This will also be a great used buy and obviously there are plenty of these
10:29 on the road, plenty of them on the open market right now and I think if you're looking at
10:35 a used one perhaps that 1.5 turbo is the sweet spot yet again. You'll also find diesels out
10:42 there in the market but for many people that do mostly short runs I would say you should
10:47 probably avoid a modern diesel at all costs and look towards petrol only or petrol hybrid
10:54 cars moving forwards. However folks, the Ateca doesn't need to be all sensible because the
11:01 good folks over at Cupra will happily furnish you with a new Ateca with 300 brake horsepower
11:08 if that's something you desire. It's all a little bit livelier, a little bit more interesting
11:14 and the performance is absolutely breathtaking. You're looking at a Golf R engine in that
11:19 thing so yeah it is definitely a fly by the seat of your pants experience. I think Seat
11:26 is sometimes like the forgotten sibling of the VW Audi group and I think that's really
11:31 really unfair. You know over the years they tend to have had the last generation equipment
11:37 sometimes so like your infotainment system might not be the most up to date version.
11:43 The steering wheel might not be the most up to date version but when you compare that
11:47 to some of the things we've seen in recent VW Audi group cars particularly with the VW
11:52 badge on, that's a really really good thing. We don't have some of the annoyances that
11:59 have appeared in the interiors of those cars in recent years and this is all the better
12:05 for it. I know I mentioned it earlier but as an example I would take this steering wheel
12:10 over the steering wheel in any current Volkswagen car. It's not broke, we don't need it to be
12:18 fixed. So if you're in the market for a mid-size family SUV you should absolutely go and test
12:25 drive a Seat Ateca and if I were going to test drive a Seat Ateca I'd ask for this.
12:32 I'd ask for SE technology trim with the 1.5 turbo petrol and I don't mind the DSG at all.
12:40 Folks, if you've enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up, please subscribe to Men
12:45 and Motors if you haven't already done so and please share this video on your social
12:49 medias. Now, if you want to see more of this go and check out my good mate Tom Shorrock.
12:55 He's been driving something very special. Click it, go on.
13:00 [Music]

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