First drive: Seat’s Ibiza FR, with cylinder deactivation

What’s this?

It’s the Seat Ibiza FR, now with its new ‘EcoTSI’ engine. It’s a four-cylinder petrol turbo, but as is increasingly fashionable nowadays, it deactivates two of those cylinders when you’re not hooning it, all in the name of fuel-saving. Thus equipped, an Ibiza starts at £16,245.

The Ibiza is a bit old now.

In its current form, it’s essentially been with us for eight years, but it’s just had a recent facelift that brings new colours, wheels and lights, and it remains a sharp thing to look at.

It’s just a shame Seat seems so intent on making the inside of its cars so sombre. Good job there’s a jazzy new touchscreen system, capable of linking directly to your big-name smartphone of choice. Otherwise, it would all be a bit gloomy in there.

Isn’t FR the sporty badge?

It is, though it’s not the sportiest, with the recently refreshed Ibiza Cupra sitting above it. But FRs have still typically been good fun in the past, and Seat’s efforts to weave in some eco credentials is interesting.

The drivetrain is shared with the VW Polo Blue GT, and it twins 148bhp and 184lb ft performance with 58.9mpg and 112g/km economy. The 0-62mph time is a claimed 7.6 seconds, and it’s probably right, though it does feel a tad laboured getting there.

Why is that?

No doubt to help the economy, the FR’s six-speed manual gearbox has rather long ratios. So while its engine will happily rev, it seems to take an age to get through second and third gears. And you’ll only be legally redlining the latter on a track.

The engine is more than torquey enough to allow you to short shift, and given the engine’s Eco prefix, that’s no doubt the point. But the FR badge alludes to fun (it stands for Formula Racing), and gears this long do a good job of diluting any hot hatch effervescence. The cylinder deactivation is successful, mind; you’d need the hearing of a dog to be able to tell when you’re running on just two of ‘em.

Does it drive well?

It does, gripping gamely and steering sharply, but it’s not as much fun as a Fiesta. And despite its greater power output, its engine isn’t as enjoyable as the Ford’s little three-cylinder Ecoboost either. It’s a good, solid car this FR, but it feels a tad confused, trying to combine fun and frugality, and not fully nailing either.

The same problem afflicts the Polo GT it’s heavily related to: both are cars we wouldn’t stop you from buying, but both are bookended in their respective ranges by a fun three-cylinder eco option (a 94bhp Ibiza 1.0 tops 68mpg), and a much more performance-minded hot hatch option that shouldn’t prove to be heaps pricier to run (the Cupra returns a claimed 45.6mpg).

But a fun car that’s cheap to run is a good idea, right?

Of course it is. And there are cars that fulfil the brief. There’s the hybrid (or even fully electric) BMW i3, and at the other end of the scale, something like a Toyota GT86 or Mazda MX-5.

The latter two display no eco badging, but their lightweight, simple approach means that once their naturally aspirated engines are properly run in, you’ll see real world mpg figures in the high 30s or even low 40s if you don’t spend your entire life on backroads.

Okay, so they’re pricier, and not direct rivals to a hatchback, but they’re better-balanced examples of the wallet-appeasing fast car than this FR. It’s good, but it’s not the best Ibiza.