Seat altea

Seat altea

 Seat altea

Seat altea

SEAT (Sociedad Espanola de Automotives de Turismo) was founded in 1950 by the Spanish government and for many years its models were lightly modified Fiats. Fiat and Seat split in 1980 and Volkswagen moved in, taking ownership in 1986. After plugging on through the 1980 and in the early 1990s with a re-designed Fiat Panda and the first Ibiza superminis, Seat started work with VW on all new models. The first was the Toledo hatchback (based on the Mark 2 Golf) and the second the new Ibiza supermini, which was based on the all new VW Polo platform. Seat was beginning to establish its own character. Italdesign was still responsible for the styling and had developed a distinctive theme. Seat also developed a reputation for its sporty and capable chassis tuning. Then SEAT boss Bernd Pischetsrider unceremoniously dumped this approach in 2000. Working with designer Walter de’silva, Pischetsrider unveiled the dramatic, low roof, one box Salsa concept at the Paris motor show, which he said represented the future of the brand.

Seat altea

 Seat altea

Seat altea

The first incarnation was the Altea, a five door, high roof vehicle based on the excellent Golf MK 5 chassis. It was not a huge success, partly because it offered less boot space than the real MPVs it resembled. The company than added an Altea with a conventional boot grafted onto grafted the tail, followed by an ultra spacious long wheel base version. Seat’s carefully matured image had been badly damaged by the stylistic diversion. Seat hit reverse and was readying new, more conventional models for launch in 2009 and beyond.

Seat altea

 Seat altea

 Seat altea

 Seat altea

Seat altea