USED Seat Ibiza Hatchback (02 - 06)

My car

As well as an Altea 2.0 TDi DSG and my wife's Ibiza 1.4 S auto, I have an Ibiza 1.4 TDi SX five-door used by my son.

Its road manners very good. It's pretty comfortable, the height-adjustable seats help my tall frame (unlike my wife's fixed-height seats). It's economy is very, very good, and it's fairly quick too for a smallish diesel.

Any problems - yep, unfortunately.

After just two months of use, it needed a brand-new gearbox (I couldn't believe it!) and guess what - just three months later (today) the car is back in with the same symptoms so watch this space - maybe another new gearbox!

What is happening to the great VW quality?

I will keep you informed.

My car

I have the 1.4 auto in three-door trim.

Its road manners are good. Its economy is good and hopefully will improve. Its comfort is pretty good for my wife but not so good for me (I'm tall) so keep to my Altea as much as possible.

It does everything it says on the tin.

My car

This car scares the pants off the Corsa boy racers and is still a good all-round family run-about with excellent fuel economy.

My car

Until recently I owned an Ibiza 1.2S. My biggest disappointment though was how I came to part with my Ibiza!

Between the end of January and the beginning of March this year I had persistent problems with the (various) EGR valves I had fitted on the car. Over the two-month period, I had to return the car to the dealer no fewer than four times in eight weeks to have replacement EGR valves fitted.

Each time, the car would keep cutting out at low revs when the the car was stationary. Once this even happended in a traffic jam in the middle lane of the M62! In spite of the dealer's best and extremely helpful attempts, they couldn't find an issue other than the fact that each of the valves was jamming open and could offer no other solution other than to replace the aforementioned component.

Due to the amount of time and inconvienience this problem was causing, I decided to trade the car in. It is vital that my car is running properly so that I can get to work every day and reliability is a must.

Despite these issues, I do still have a soft spot for Seats and may well return to them in the future, but I felt I must make you aware of this issue as some owners may not be in the financial position where they can trade a car in if they have problems.