Photo: SB-Medien
Camouflaged prototypes are so common that today you can buy the wrap off eBay/Amazon and pretend that your rust bucket is a million-dollar tester. But Spanish automaker SEAT went with another approach when it came to the Ibiza, hiding it under the guise of a Hyundai i20.
Of course, nobody is ever going to believe that this is just an ordinary Hyundai hatchback. It looks like it has warts and Donald Trump's fake hair. But the effort needs to be applauded because it probably involved renting an i20 and/or actually buying one of its bumpers.
The piece glued onto the front looks like an actual i20 bumper minus the badge. The transformation is equally convincing around the back.
If we squint hard enough, we can see the outline of the new Ibiza underneath, but explaining it is an entirely different thing. The general styling seems to be influenced by the Ateca, but with more pronounced rear shoulders and hood lines that meet in the middle to for an X-shape.
The real 2017 Ibiza hiding underneath that i20 camouflage probably won't have such a bulky C-pillar shape with a black inlay. The camouflage also obscures how the upper and lower character lines down the side.
We know for a fact that the second smallest SEAT model will debut early next year, most likely at the Geneva Motor Show 2017, in March. Like the mini crossover that's based on it, this generation of the Ibiza will also ignore the MQB platform in favor of something cheaper.
Some buyers will be disappointed. But considering the Ibiza will never use independent rear suspension, a plug-in powertrain or even many 4-cyliner engines, it makes sense for SEAT to stick with its A0 architecture.
Most of its appeal will consist of combining the frugality achieved by the 1.0 TSI or 1.4 TDI with added trunk space. How much trunk space? At least 300 liters, if not more.
While we can't say anything about the future of the Ibiza Cupra, it's being revealed that this 2017 model will be cheaper to ensure. That big hole in the middle of its fake bumper is for a radar-based scanning system. On the latest VW and Skoda models, it can even detect pedestrians and cyclists, but we think the Ibiza's will only be able to avoid regular car crashes.
The piece glued onto the front looks like an actual i20 bumper minus the badge. The transformation is equally convincing around the back.
If we squint hard enough, we can see the outline of the new Ibiza underneath, but explaining it is an entirely different thing. The general styling seems to be influenced by the Ateca, but with more pronounced rear shoulders and hood lines that meet in the middle to for an X-shape.
The real 2017 Ibiza hiding underneath that i20 camouflage probably won't have such a bulky C-pillar shape with a black inlay. The camouflage also obscures how the upper and lower character lines down the side.
We know for a fact that the second smallest SEAT model will debut early next year, most likely at the Geneva Motor Show 2017, in March. Like the mini crossover that's based on it, this generation of the Ibiza will also ignore the MQB platform in favor of something cheaper.
Some buyers will be disappointed. But considering the Ibiza will never use independent rear suspension, a plug-in powertrain or even many 4-cyliner engines, it makes sense for SEAT to stick with its A0 architecture.
Most of its appeal will consist of combining the frugality achieved by the 1.0 TSI or 1.4 TDI with added trunk space. How much trunk space? At least 300 liters, if not more.
While we can't say anything about the future of the Ibiza Cupra, it's being revealed that this 2017 model will be cheaper to ensure. That big hole in the middle of its fake bumper is for a radar-based scanning system. On the latest VW and Skoda models, it can even detect pedestrians and cyclists, but we think the Ibiza's will only be able to avoid regular car crashes.
Google News