Seat Arona review

It wasn’t that long ago that the Seat Arona was just a twinkle in the Spanish brand’s eye. In fact, until Seat's bigger family SUV, the Ateca, hit the road, Seat had as much experience of building SUVs as Ferrari did mobility scooters. The Ateca was a fine first effort, though. It won a major gong at that year’s What Car? Car of the Year awards, and, not content to rest on its laurels, the Arona arrived a short while later.

Named after a small municipality in Tenerife (Seat has a long-standing tradition of naming its cars after places in its native Spain and surrounding territories), the Arona is based on the Seat Ibiza (its small hatchback). That makes it a small SUV of roughly the same size as the Ford Puma and Volkswagen T-Cross, but a little shorter than the Skoda Kamiq.

It's a bit pricier than some of its peers, but still cheaper than the premium models in the class, which include the Audi Q2, Mini Countryman and Volkswagen T-Roc. The good news is that, being from the Volkswagen Group stable, the Arona shares a lot with the Q2 and T-Roc beneath the surface, including a similar range of pokey petrol and diesel engines.

But how does the Seat Arona stack up against those and other key rivals? And which engine and trim level make the most sense? Read on over the next few pages and we'll tell you all you need to know. 

And when it’s time to buy your new small SUV, or any other car for that matter, What Car? has your back with our New Car Buying service. Without any awkward haggling, you could save a fortune on the Seat Arona and pretty much every other new car on sale.