JUST ANNOUNCED
Seat Ibiza
Price £9,000-£13,500 approx
On sale July 26
What’s different? The latest Ibiza is new from the ground up.
Dramatically styled, the car is larger and considerably more spacious than
the model it replaces – in fact, Seat claims the Ibiza is now the largest
supermini in the class. There will be three petrol engines on offer from
July, and Seat will introduce diesel options later this year
Why should I care? Quite apart from the extra space, the new Ibiza will
be available with a seven-speed DSG automatic/sequential manual gearbox,
which is a rare option in the supermini class. And with wider front and rear
tracks, the baby Seat should provide a sweet-handling ride
Consider also
Mazda 2 1.3 TS £8,499
Vauxhall Corsa Life 1.0i 12V £9,035
Ford Fiesta Studio 1.25, £9,450
IN THE SHOWROOM
VW Tiguan SE 2.0 TDI
Price £22,665
On sale Now
What’s different? Volkswagen’s littlest off-roader has just
benefited from the addition of a 2 litre common rail diesel. This 170bhp
unit is the most powerful diesel to grace the Tiguan, and with 258 lb ft of
torque, there’s plenty of grunt for mud plugging. On-road performance is
perfectly respectable, too, with 0-62mph in 8.9sec and a top speed of 125mph
Why should I care? The latest breed of small off-roaders are becoming
ever more responsible. In spite of the impressive power output from this new
engine, in the Tiguan it delivers 40.4mpg overall and emits 185g/km of CO2 –
less than half that of, say, a V8-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee or Range Rover
Consider also
Toyota RAV4 XT3 2.2 D4D £20,355
Nissan Qashqai 2.0 dCi Visia £17,999
Land Rover Freelander 2 2.2 Td4 S £21,205
