Test Drive Seat Altea 2004 - 2009 Minivan

Spanish blood

SEAT cars for many years were in third roles among other European brands. So localized production for the needs of the domestic market of poor Spain. Now among the other brands belonging to the Volkswagen concern, these cars are positioned as sports.
It sounds somehow unconvincing, if we consider that there are no such types of machines in the SEAT model row that is considered sports, double coupe or roadster. So if for the wide masses abbreviation SEAT is a terra incognita, then people are more advanced to the Ear of the Phone Sports SEAT. To dispel doubts, we took on the seat altea test and created on its basis Pseudo-road all-wheel drive seat altea freeetrack. More precisely, the Freetrack is made on the SEAT ALTEA XL database, which is elongated by 18.7 centimeters of the Seat Altea version. On the wheelbase, all cars are the same, and the elongation had to be rear Svet bodies. Of course, it worsens the parameters of the geometric passability of the car. But if you really create a truly universal car, which has a large single-visuous body, and a four-wheel drive, and an enlarged ground clearance, then the extra 123 liter of the trunk volume will not interfere at all.
You can compare our cars only in motion and in appearance: the machine's salons are almost identical, only one of them is a hand upholstery material, and another beige. This is not surprising, because both cars on the test went to the Stylance configuration. For Seat Altea, it is almost the maximum level of equipment, above only at all at all the sports version of the FR, which is distinguished by the aerodynamic body kit and the lowered road lumen.
And the buyer Seat Altea Freeetrack does not have to choose the style of Stylance for this model is the only one. The engine of the Freetrack is also only one turbocharged 2-liter Volkswagen engine capacity of 200 horses. As if underlining the sports image of the brand, both cars were with a manual gearbox, only at Seat Altea is 5-speed, and the Seat Altea Freetrack has one transmission more. This additional sixth gear turned out to be more by the way. If you go to the style to which the Seat Altea Freetrack provokes, at the sight of the average fuel consumption on the side of the on-board computer, the tongue takes such indicators more to the face of the American SUV with a multi-liter or a small truck.
However, on the second day we were adapted and found the right tactics: if you actively manipulate the box and use the fifth and sixth gears more often, without spinning the engine more than 2500 rpm, then the consumption of gasoline begins to fit into a reasonable frame. Moreover, this is not reflected on any dynamics, nor on elasticity at any speed and on any transmission, the car is eagerly accelerated and has a sufficient supply of power under the gas pedal. True, like any turbocharged motor, there are weak years here, crawling the batter turns out badly.
What is surprising, the younger brother Seat Altea in dynamics is not inferior to the eldest, although he has a power of almost two times less. At first it shocked: under the hood, the motor is 1.6 liters and some 102 horses, and on the road a complete feeling that you only go, and everyone else is standing. And all this is because the bunch of the motor transmission suspension steering brakes works very well, everything is chosen to each other exactly like shapes in a puzzle.
So we can boldly say that in this case the advertisement did not lie and SEAT cars with sports blood.
Alexey Kresin
Photo by Andrei Aksenov
 

A source: Mkmobile magazine [July / 2008]