This is Seat's first car to be
wholly developed within the Audi brand Group, since it was established
in 2002. It carries across 90% of its prototype version, the Altea
Prototipo, unveiled last year at Frankfurt. Alongside the Salsa, Salsa
emoción and Tango, it represents Seat's style evolution that began
a few years back.
The Seat Altea shows a new direction in car production for the Spanish carmaker |
|
 |
Visually created by Audi Group's design director, Walter de'Silva and
his team at the technical centre, the car incorporates something called
a Dynamic Line, visible from the side that is new to the carmaker and
a feature to be seen on all future Seat cars.
The body is sporty-looking and proportionally compact. The face features
a bold radiator grille with chrome surroundings that frames the large
'S' logo. This alongside the eye-shaped double headlamps gives a strong
initial visual contact.
But essentially as a family car, it needs to be roomy and functional.
The Altea represents a new vehicle concept, the Multi Sports Vehicle (MSV),
which means it has to be both functional and sporty. The car is relatively
compact from the outside, but reasonably roomy inside. As current trends
in this segment dictate, it's a tall car, though the driving position
isn't as awkward and unbalanced as in others of similar proportion. Most
importantly, in the rear region, the two-tiered floor boot offers over
400 litres of luggage space.
New technology on the Altea include the 2.0 Fsi direct injection petrol
engine, the dual-clutch DSG gearbox, the latest generation engine range,
a newly designed front suspension and multi-link rear axle, new electro-mechanical
power-assisted steering, individual driver and passenger climate control
and exclusive to the Altea, wiper blades concealed at rest within in the
windscreen A-pillars.
Engine choices in the petrol range include the 2.0 litre FSI, Seat's first
direct injection petrol engine that delivers punchy performance as well
as a 1.6 litre. On the diesel front there is a 2.0 litre Tdi and a 105ps
1.9 litre Tdi.
The 2.0 litre FSI and Tdi are the most powerful engines, and are mated as
standard to a six-speed manual gearbox. The FSI is also available with
a six-speed Tiptronic transmission, whereas the six-speed DSG transmission
is a desirable option on the 2.0 Tdi. Although the DSG can be considered
and indeed driven as a fully automatic gearbox without a clutch pedal,
it is actually a combination of two, three-speed gearboxes with two multi-disc
clutch mechanisms whose pinions alternate.
Featuring comprehensive active safety, the Altea has ABS, TCS and ESP
with a built-in emergency braking system (EBA) and is the first Seat sold
in the EU to be equipped as standard with six airbags. There is, additionally,
a newly designed chassis, incorporating the agile chassis technology developed
at Seat's Martorell technical centre.
"The Altea is a vehicle that combines the traits that characterise
the image of all future Seat products," says de'Silva. "It's
not about evolution, but a revolution. The Altea will be followed by other
models that will confirm this enormous design advance. Our integration
in the Audi Brand Group will bring a positive transformation for Seat."
The car will be joined later in the year by the latest Toledo.
|
|
