First look: Seat winds Ibiza party up

SEAT revealed its saucy new Ibiza hatch in five-door form in April and has now unveiled an even raunchier three-door version, predictably dubbed the SportCoupe.

Apart from being more closely related to the (three-door) Bocanegro concept presented at this year’s Geneva motor show, the smaller Ibiza is the most aggressive interpretation yet seen of the Volkswagen Group brand’s new ‘Arrow’ design language introduced on the new Ibiza.

And though the Spanish SportCoupe looks just a little like the new Mazda2 in side profile, at 17mm lower than its five-door sibling overall the baby Ibiza has a much more striking silhouette – not unlike the way the similarly-sized Astra Coupe sexes up it donor hatch’s shape.

The redesigned Ibiza, which could spearhead Seat’s range in Australia if Volkswagen decides to revive the brand here, not only debuts an all-new supermini platform for the German giant, but in using its latest DSG double-clutch automated manual gearbox becomes the first model in its class to come with a seven-speed transmission.

In Europe, the latter will only be available with 75kW 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol versions – and presumably in the more potent versions like the Cupra, which Seat promises will be shown in coming months as an effective replacement for the 110kW/180Nm 2.0-litre Seat Ibiza Cupra Sport three-door last sold here in 1999.

Seat says the rest of the Ibiza SC’s engine line-up is not yet confirmed, but at the entry level could include the five-door’s 51kW 1.2 and 63kW 1.4-litre petrol units plus a 1.4 TDI diesel and, eventually, two 1.9 TDIs.

The new Ibiza was developed in 23 months – 14 months faster than its predecessor – thanks to the use of new virtual processes. It is also five per cent or 47kg lighter than before - despite being almost 100mm longer in five-door guise and coming standard in Europe with electronic stability control and four airbags.