USED Seat Altea Hatchback (04 - )

My car

My company car. 9 months old now and just hit 30K miles. No breakdowns or problems with the car so far. Car has never been back to the Seat dealer network - it is serviced by Lex at Nationwide Autocentre which does not effect the warranty.

This car needs servicing every 10K miles which is a con as my previous Skoda (same engine etc) had the special expensive oil in it and it had variable service intervals of normally around 18-20K miles.

Chose the car because of it's size as I did not want an estate at the time but have now come to regret that decision for 2 reasons. The seats do not fold flat when carrying a larger load but more importantly, the boot lip is very high when loading something heavy over it so it's very hard work on your back.

Great seats and driving position even after long journeys with all the gadgets you could need. Love the privacy glass. Standard ipod connection. I find drivers door armrest very hard and gives my elbow some jip. Not the quietest of cars. A mixture of road noise through the cabin and the VW 2.0 diesel is not the quietest diesel on the market by a long way.

I drive it like I stole it all the time and it averages 40 mpg

I like the Seat and would recommend it over the equivalent Golf because of price but put it on a par with the Skoda Octavia.

A final note, a colleague at work has just had a 1.8 Tdci new Mondeo estate delivered and it is in a totally different class to the Seat. Drive one and see, it is stunning!

My car

This car was rented not long ago on a 07 plate and had less than 500 miles on it so it was brand new. The rented car was a 1.6 XL model in Grey Met.

Well, I was stunned with the new innovative design of Seat's latest models! Far better than any common Vauxhall or Ford.

The interior cabin was without a doubt the sportiest, yet sophisticated, cabin i came across with stunning designs, colours and gadgets.

Although it was a huge let down on the most simplest of things: the electric window switch was that off a Lada!

Well, it had my eye so i took it for a spin, and the fuel economy was SUPERB since it got all the way to Bristol and back on very little fuel!

The luggage space was great, leg room and positioning of the seats was dead on perfect and comfy.

But like all good things, they must come to an end and with this Seat it was sad to say that the handling was like air! It was so light the slight movement would turn it. I do not know about Seat's customers but I hated it and worst of all the steering wheel was half the size of a normal one!

Wait it just got worst! This car climbs slower up a hill than a 7.5 ton!! I dropped from 70 up a hill to 20 in a matter of seconds, with cars flashing me from behind.

My hope for Seat faded after that incident and i strongly recommend if you want to buy one that you test the power on hills whilst on your test drive and don't get trapped in by Seat's good looks.

My car

Bought o6 ex demo car from local dealership, car was 5 months old with just over 6000mls on clock.

Four months after having the car it developed clutch judder when cold. The car was in garage for 3 days while they replaced flywheel. I have since had 2 steering racks, a steering column and track rod end because the steering was knocking.

Other things that have gone wrong are the cruise control switch, wrong head light switch fitted, new gear stick, cigarette lighter disintergrated (i'd never used it), rear seat belt clap fell apart while my son was belting up. The dash rattles constantly as do the rear seat belts when empty. I would never buy another SEAT again.

I owned old shape LEON previously and had problems with that as well

Customer services are a waste of time, they didnt want to know.

My car

I am also driving my brother's Touran at the same time. Both cars are same looking from inside, buttons,computer programme etc.

If you have 3 children or more then buy Touran (back seat is larger), if you got 2 or less then Altea XL is the best of all MPVs. If you are new to Seat then you must know the models well as it will be too late to say I wish I bought Stylance. Well Stylance is the best of all.

The car is more like a family car than for racing. Yes it is slow.

But I test drived XL DSG 2 TDI and it was faster then dad's Mercedes 2.20. Buy that if you got enough money.

If you are in between choosing Altea or Altea XL just because XL looks big and difficult to find a parking space, then you are wrong. All XLs come with standard parking sensors and you can park anywhere you think you may just squeeze in.

One thing I hate is the rain wipers, it is designed for left hand drive.