Say hello to the facelifted Seat Ateca

Far as crossovers go, the Seat Ateca is pretty good. One we’d recommend over and above many others, mainly for reasons we’ve hidden behind these blue words. It’s a good thing, then, that the new one isn’t much different. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, et cetera.

There’s not much to say about the exterior, which has been given a subtle going over to, presumably, more closely resemble the new Leon. New front and rear bumpers add a couple of centimetres to the Ateca’s overall length and feature sharp LED lights, while the Ateca badge (now in an incongruously twirly font) has been moved to the middle of the boot.

The car pictured is ‘Xperience’ spec. Replacing ‘Xcellence’ as the priciest Ateca, its black plastic lower bumpers and aluminium trim are supposed to give the crossover a “more robust off-road character”. The rest of the range is unchanged – starts with SE and SE Technology, then arrives at Xperience via the sporty-looking FR and FR Sport.

Inside is much the same as before, though there is a new steering wheel and some of the trim has been redesigned. The most obvious change is the new screen, which is 9.2-inches across in higher-spec cars and runs Seat’s latest UI. It’s compatible with CarPlay/Android Auto, has “natural” voice control (wake it up by saying “hola”) and can talk to your smart appliances. A built-in eSim means it’s always online.

Seat has also added more safety tech, so the car can better identify and react to possible collisions. Predictive Adaptive Cruise Control uses GPS and camera feeds to adapt your speed to the road ahead, meaning it can slow you down for roundabouts and so-on.

Engines are mostly as before, but updated for better economy and emissions. There’s many to choose from, offering a choice of manual/DSG gearboxes, front/all-wheel drive and petrol/diesel. No news of a mild- or plug-in hybrid yet. Petrols stretch from the 1.0-litre three-cylinder to the 2.0-litre four-cylinder, while the old 1.6-litre TDI has been chucked in favour of a cleaner 2.0-litre.

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