2017 SEAT Ateca Finally Arrives in Britain to Be Reviewed

You see, several years ago, the Volkswagen Group developed something called "MQB." It's a platform that underpins all sorts of vehicles, but none are cheap and sure-footed enough to compete with the Nissan Cashcow.

As Mat Wattson says in his review of the Ateca, which is the first RHD one we've seen, the SEAT is about GBP 2,500 cheaper than the VW Tiguan.

And even though it's much smaller than its Volkswagen cousin, it's not like the Ateca is crammed. In fact, there's still loads of knee and headroom. The fact that you can't recline the back row is a problem for some people, but I don't even like to recline the driver's seat.

The rest of the stuff being said about the Ateca is pretty fair. However, it's always worth looking into the other side of any issue. Mat says the 1.0 TSI is not to be recommended if you're carrying 4 people regularly, which is true. But are you? We almost never see a fully loaded crossover.

If we are to consider that the Ateca is like a regular compact car, then we'd like to mention almost everybody who bought a 1.2 TSI Golf or Octavia is happy with it. So the 1.0 TSI version of the SEAT should be okay, but mainly for town use.

We'd definitely go for the 1.4 TSI. It's got fantastic punch for its size and fuel economy is decent, especially when you also factor in the fact that it's less noise and warms up faster in the winter.

Finally, we have to talk about the suspension, which is indeed hard. The Tiguan isn't all that comfortable either, but at least it's got fully independent rear arms. But I don't think Mat is 100% correct. The Ateca should have this more advanced setup on some models, especially the top trim level with the powerful 2-liter diesel.