SEAT Ibiza review - Practicality, comfort and boot space

The SEAT Ibiza is one of the most practical and versatile cars in the supermini class. It offers lots of passenger space and a decent boot, and there are loads of places to store odds and ends. Its dinky dimensions mean it's easy to park in town, too.

Useful features on the lower-spec SE and SE Technology cars includes automatic headlights, electrically-adjustable door mirrors and a tyre pressure monitoring system, while the more expensive Xcellence trim adds parking sensors, a keyless go system and rain-sensing wipers.

Size 

The Ibiza is only available as a five door, and it’s much wider, a touch lower and a fraction shorter than the previous model. It’s still just over four metres long, but the added width makes it feel like a bigger car.

Leg room, head room & passenger space

SEAT seems to have done the impossible by making the Ibiza 2mm shorter than before, yet offering much more space inside. Leg room in the back is up 35mm, thanks mostly to the 95mm increase in wheelbase. It all equates to one of the most spacious cars in the class with space for a six foot passenger to sit in reasonable comfort behind a six foot driver with plenty of head and shoulder room.

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Three adults across the back will be tight, but children will be fine. Access to the rear seats is good and the view out is impressive, too – even without a panoramic roof the car feels light and airy. As you might expect, the only other car in the supermini class that can boast a similar amount of space is the mechanically identical VW Polo.

Boot

The rear seats will split and fold 60:40 to increase the already impressive 355 litre luggage space. A two-stage boot floor is offered, which can either set the floor level with the sill for loading, or drop lower for maximum capacity. There are no complaints about access to the luggage space, either – the SEAT badge on the boot door doubles as the release handle and the door swings high up out of the way.