If you’re not used to read many texts of the modern cars’ history, seeing the latest releases must make you think the automakers have a monotonous strategy, right? After all, there are lots of brands and names, but everyone seems to replace their old vehicles with ones so similar to each other… Well, you’d be wrong. There are so many curious examples of so many kinds that taking some time to read more about this gets really fun. One of the lots of chapters could be this Spanish sedan, which text you’re about to read.
After it was bought by the Volkswagen Group, Seat became something like the exotic division of it. Their following releases all shared platform with the German cars, but most of them had complete freedom when it comes to design, specially because this must’ve been the main reason why the people outside Seat’s homeland should buy a car with an entire VW’s technical part but without VW’s brand or therefore its image. However, they became a high-quality automaker through the years managing to maintain these improvements far from affecting their typical style. The first Toledo came in 1991 as a mid-sized sedan sharing the old Golf 2 platform but featuring a typical early 1990s design: the lines were still square, but projected to optimize the air flow: it started at a wedge front with small air intake and headlights, passed through clean side lines and ended in the classic tall third volume reminding of Fiat Tempra but with a notchback tailgate. The second generation came at 1998 using the PQ24 platform, therefore improving very much at both modernity and construction quality. It became a more conventional sedan but featuring a much more modern design and an interesting sporty appeal which helped the price argument to boost its sales.
However, 2004 saw the first turning point at Toledo’s history. Who could imagine Seat would give its third generation as a minivan? Even though the new body had Walter de’Silva’s good design taste, used the VW’s PQ25 platform and brought huge internal space, it was really hard to see it abandoning the sporty sedan style, even with another minivan recently released – Altea’s design and proposal were so alike that it could cover both vehicles’ functions without any difficulties. Toledo’s sales now weren’t so good, and kept declining until Seat ended its production in 2009. And now it comes to the spotlights again, but again in a new category. VW Group has developed a compact sedan to sell under more than one brand, in order to enter a very competitive market, specially among the emergent markets. This sedan has already emerged to the public in Europe as Škoda Rapid and the new VW Polo Sedan, although this one’s hatchback variety comes from a different project. The Chinese markets are finishing two regional variations, and now the Spanish one was released. With the exception of Polo, they will all focus at offering a modern construction with good trim levels but at low prices, by smaller investments at luxury.
That is, while VW will sell their own sedans at their bigger markets, Seat and Škoda will be restricted one more time to Europe, focusing at their respective homelands. Toledo features Seat’s most recent visual identity, with angular lines and strong cuts to express a different kind of sportiness, creative and way distant from the conventional ideas. On the other hand, the interior shares many parts with its project siblings, but this becomes a quality when it comes to the construction quality. This car will bring a nice equipment list, with items such as multimedia sound system with LCD touchscreen, and stability and traction controls, besides what is common at its price range. Using diesel, this car’s 1.6 TDI can have 90 hp or 105 hp, but the gasoline options will be contained: the 1.2 TSI will have 75 hp while the 1.4 TSI generates 105 hp, maybe to avoid direct opposition to Polo. But it’ll have an Ecomotive version for lower consumption and emissions, and even use the DSG transmission. But the big question still is “Why naming it Toledo?”. If this car is supposed to fill in the sedan blank in a price range whose hatchback and estate are the Ibiza line, it would be much more natural to call it Cordoba again, like the first Ibiza’s sedan version, instead of changing Toledo’s image one more time and getting even more far from that stylish sedan from the 1990s.
29/09/2012 update: There were added some new informations and the pictures were changed.