SEAT Altea Freetrack Plays in Mud and Snow, Is as Good as any Crossover

But first, a little confession. I'm quite fond of the Leon X-Perience and am thinking of getting one in a few years. It looks sharper than the Golf Alltrack, is almost half the price of an A4 allroad. With the top 2-liter TDI or the 1.8 TSI, it also goes like stink.

But I always knew the X-Perience had a predecessor, which was the Altea Freetrack, a jacked up minivan that arrived way before a Leon wagon became available.

Sadly, the Altea went out of production in 2015, together with the off-road version. MPVs aren't selling well, and you can blame SUVs for that. Other car companies have made similar vehicles, the most notable of which being the Renault Scenic RX4 and Scenic X-MOD.

However, the Altea Freetrack is special because it features all the best Volkswagen technologies of the time. For example, you could order it with the 1.9 TDI and the 170 PS 2.0 TDI. That one needs to be recalled, if we're not mistaken.

Unless we're mistaken, even the Golf GTI's 211 PS turbo mill could be ordered in the last two years of production. Also available was a Haldex-based on-demand 4WD system, similar to the one in the old Tiguan.

SEAT never said the Altea Freetrack was an SUV or even a crossover, yet in many ways, it's similar to the Nissan Qashqai. By modern standards, it's heavy and not very frugal, but there's an undeniable charm about it... or maybe I'm turning into a hipster.

Anyway, all three videos where the Altea is slung through the mud and snow seem to come from Russia. They are pretty good, but the guy in the snow could have tried a lot harder.