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“I recently bought a 2004 1.2 Seat Ibiza from my mother...”

written by ChrisBUK2 on 22/03/2010

I recently bought a 2004 1.2 Seat Ibiza from my mother who taught me to drive in it. She previously owned it for 3 years so I have a good overall experience of this car as both a passenger and a driver.

I'm not exactly sure which trim it has, but I believe it is the "1.2 Chill".



Overall we are both very happy with the car. It's been very reliable, with only one or two problems which I will describe below. It's incredibly easy to drive (and that's coming from someone who only passed their test 6 weeks ago!). It's responsive with an excellent gearbox, and considering it's only a 1.2 I think it's nippy if you choose the correct gear.

My mum previously owned a 1.4 Rover 25 (AWFUL car) and this Seat 1.2 is leaps and bounds ahead of it in terms of power.

However, because it is only a 1.2 it does require more revs to really get it going. My mum used to always drive it around the 2,000 - 3,000RPM mark, which is perfect for around town, but when you want it to move or you need the power to get it up inclines, it really starts to pull beyond 3,000RPM.

On the motorway/A roads it's very happy to cruise at low RPMs.



The car has pretty much everything that I would need, including air conditioning and a decent CD player.

It's also got power assisted steering and ABS on this particular model trim.



The interior is what you'd expect from a car of this price range. It's pretty basic with nothing really exciting and the plastics do feel a bit cheap, but I expected that anyway.

The seats do feel surprisingly comfortable though and they are very supportive, even on long drives.



It's a very fun and easy little car to drive and it does look very stylish compared to it's competitors (in my opinion). It's definitely a decent looking car, and because it doesn't have "1.2" written on the back of it, people would think it's a more powerful car.



Now to the running costs. I don't know exactly how many MPG this car gets, but I know it lasts on a tank of fuel for a very long time. I rarely see the fuel light on, which is brilliant. It's only an insurance group 3 and the tax is cheap too because of it's low emissions.



However, we haven't been so lucky when dealing with Seat themselves. The last service and work costs were colossal, and the customer service appalling.

When my mother owned the car last year and she had it serviced, they claimed that the car needed a new anti roll bar and suspension bushes, among other things. My mother asked how much it would cost and they told her £400. She told them to go ahead and do the work, expecting a bill of £400 at the end of it.

When we both went to pick the car up we were asked to wait because it was being taken out for a test drive. We sat in the waiting room for 40 minutes until we eventually asked where on earth they'd taken it. It turned out that the car had actually been back for about 30 minutes, but nobody bothered to tell us.

They then gave her a bill for £750! Apparently when they quoted £400 on the phone, it didn't include the service and labour costs, etc.

I feel that she got completely and utterly ripped off, and after speaking to experienced mechanics, they questioned whether the work was even needed. My mum drives at the speed limits and is very careful, it's very unusual for a car to need a new anti roll bar unless it's been in a collision. The car was only worth £4,000 at the time, so a £750 bill is ridiculous and it made the overall running costs of the car not so good after all.

My mum shares a Range Rover 4.6L as a second car, and she's never had to pay out costs like that even on a Range Rover. We both expected the servicing and work from Seat to be very cheap.

It's really put a cloud over my view of Seat unfortunately, and I certainly won't be using my local garage again. My mum, who was going to buy one of the new Seat Leons, has now bought a VW Golf instead because of the poor service from Seat.



The only other problems we've had with the car, besides the anti roll bar/bushes, is the headlights which seem to keep misting up. Apparently it's a common problem with these cars. We haven't had it fixed yet so I don't know the costs, but it's only a minor problem.



I would definitely recommend the car itself, especially to young/learner drivers, but watch out for the service you get from Seat and make sure you get a proper quote from different garages before going ahead with any work needed.