Sunny future for revamped Ibiza

I HAVE often heard it said that green cars are unlucky. Well I was driving a lime green version of the revamped Seat Ibiza last week and thankfully I didn’t knock anybody down or veer off the street and drive under a ladder.

When I went to pick the car from Seat’s Irish headquarters in Liffey Valley there were two brightly-coloured cars outside the door, a yellow one and a green one, and the latter was the one for me.

Seat has been around for a long time, providing inexpensive and attractive motors. The company was formed in Spain in 1950 and initially made cars for Fiat. In 1982 they broke away from the Italian giant and built their own Ronda. The first Ibiza was produced in 1984.

The company use the names of Spanish districts for their cars and they are now a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen. I always think of the sun when I hear names like Cordoba, Alhambra etc.

Ibiza is an ideal name for a supermini as we tend to associate the Spanish island as a fun place for young people who wear bright colours, like the Ibiza range of cars.

Now the Ibiza has got a facelift and there are discreet changes externally and internally. At the front there is a sharper look with new bumper, new grille, plus new headlights and fog lamps.

The design is the work of the highly rated Brussels-based Luc Donckerwolke, who has since moved on to become Head of Design at Bentley.

My test car was a 1.2 litre four-door, which went down well in the Creedon household. Inside the decor is bright and the upholstery has been improved from the previous version.

The dials on the dash are well laid out, but Seat continues to use just one button for the radio/cd. Most other car companies have two buttons for the radio/cd, but I did like the

‘scan’ button on the radio, which got me tuning into different stations all the time.

If you have moved on from radio to something more modern there is a jack for an MP3 player in the dash area.

There is room for two or possibly three adults at a squeeze in the back. You get a decent-sized boot; once again space was left for a spare wheel, but all we got was a repair kit.

Seat is anxious to step out of the shadows of their colleagues at VW and Skoda in the VW group and under a new sales team led by Adam Chamberlain, is planning to double its share of the Irish market by 2017.

The company aims to spend e20 million over the next five years extending its range, cutting prices and reducing the cost of its finance packages. The number of sales outlets in Ireland will be increased from the current 18 to 23 by 2015.

No complaints from me about the Ibiza except for the one-buttoned radio. Historically the Seat brand has often remained just below the radar here.

Seat says they hope that the refreshed Ibiza will appeal to young Irish motorists, who value style and substance at an affordable price. With prices starting at

?¬13,800 for the 3-door version, the Ibiza should be attractive to a wide range of Irish drivers. The four door version starts at

?¬15,750.

It’s a very lively motor and if you don’t want to own a brightly coloured model, you can opt for something safer like red or blue.