Seat Ibiza 2016

Decades ago, the only way in which automakers thought to update a vehicle was creating a whole new one. Partial updates would only be applied en masse from the 1950s, specially in the United States. These have become a very important strategy for this industry, but lately began to share the spotlights with another one. The Spanish hatchback presented in this text is the very latest to have received what could be defined as “a partial update of a partial update”. As confusing or even dumb as such name might sound, the concept for which it stands has proven itself quite important over the years.

In case you don’t understand these strategies yet, this is what most companies have done lately. A regular urban car, like hatchbacks or sedans, is entirely redesigned every eight years on average (it varies a lot). Since this is too long for the current standards, it usually receives a facelift in the middle of this period. The company uses this moment to update it usually in style and technology. However, some categories are competitive enough to motivate working on the cars more frequently. In this case, they receive two other updates, each one in the middle of the two previously defined “halves” of the big cycle. Those are even smaller, and are used either to correct some important flaw of the previous phase, or to catch up with some trend that resulted too important.

Those who remember how Ibiza looked like until not too long ago will notice that this article is a case of the latter. Having sold more than five million units in the past thirty years, the Spanish hatchback is far from needing important changes right now, so Seat focused on making it even better. In fact, this is precisely why its design remained pretty much the same: released in 2008 and facelifted in 2012, its fourth generation is still more attractive than several of its direct competitors. You will only see new 16” or 17” alloy wheels, new colors and slightly renewed headlights; the latter received a strip of daytime LEDs shaped just like León’s. Since Ibiza was outsold by its midsize brother for the first time, Seat is now using that one as the reference for its future releases.

There are more news in the cabin. In order to follow the new standards of this category, Ibiza features more upscale materials, with a softer touch. The infotainment system, in turn, received the latest Easy Connect technology, whose functions include MirrorLink: you’re now able to pair your Android or Apple cell phone with the car, so as to use its applications and navigation software through the car’s screen. When it comes to powertrain, Seat has just taken a few more engines from VW’s cabinet. Ibiza’s range now goes from a 74-hp, three-cylinder 1.0-liter to the 148 hp of a Eco TSI which can deactivate two cylinders to save fuel. This facelift was applied to the four-door hatchback, the two-door SC, and the station wagon ST, and goes on sale in the next few months.