IAA 2011: Seat IBL Sedan Concept Leaks Online

Seat had told us that it would be unveiling a "new and exciting" concept car at the upcoming 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, but a Spanish fan club beat them to it by publishing the first official photograph of the study, which it claims found on the pages of Spanish newspaper ABC. We asked around and can confirm that the scanned image is indeed is official.

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UK Insurer Parts the Most Unreliable and Costly Car to Fix

In an article on a BMW-faced Honda Accord we found for sale on Craigslist back in 2008, we wrote that in a perfect world, our ultimate car would be “designed by Italians, engineered by Germans, built by Japanese and marketed by Americans”.

So, what’s the worst car one could imagine? Well, if we played around with the above statements, we’d say one designed by Japanese, engineered by Americans, built by Italians and marketed by Germans.

But UK insurance firm Warranty Direct had something a little bit different in mind. Instead of playing the origin card, the company decided to check out its database of 50,000 live policies on cars aged five years on average to part the UK’s most unreliable vehicle that would break down every other month and cost an average of £2,050 (equal to US$3,270 - €2,330) to fix each year.

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Report: Seat to Launch Four New Models in 2012 including a Four-Door Sedan

VW's Spanish subsidiary is expecting a 10 percent rise in sales this year and aims further growth in 2012, when it will launch four new models. According to CEO James Muir, new products such as the Ibiza ST and the Alhambra will boost Seat sales in 2011.

"We want to increase our 340,000 unit sales from last year – by 8 to 10 percent – thanks to existing models. We aim to sell 45,000 units of the Ibiza ST (station wagon) this year. And the Alhambra already is well above plan so we expect a full-year volume of 20,000 units. This proves that our brand is gaining strength," Muir was quoted as saying by Autonews Europe.

For 2012, the company has even bigger plans, fueled by the launch of four new models. "We will launch four new cars: the new Leon, a totally new entry-level model, a four-door sedan and a major Ibiza facelift," said Muir, who was appointed head of Seat in 2009.

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Photo-Scoop: 2008 Seat Toledo

The Spanish edition of Car & Driver Magazine gives it's interpretation to as how the next generation of Seat's totally unsuccessful Toledo model should look like. The photoshop unveils a sporty sedan based on the Leon platform which looks rather nice with it's Cordoba / Alfa 156 rear end.

In my opinion this is the road that Seat should have followed from the beginning. Seat was supposed to be the sportiest brand among the marks in the VW group. Leaving aside the fact that it doesn't know if it's a hatchback, a sedan or a MPV, today's Toledo (picture on the left) is no where close to being characterized as a sporty model. The only characterization I can give it, is of being a Spanish interpretation of Renault's humpback styled Vel-Satis model (picture on the right).

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Xtra-ugLy: The 2007 Seat Altea XL

Oh my God!- And I thought things couldn't get any worse! After the atrocious Toledo - an Altea MPV with a boot, Seat presented this monstrocity: The Altea XL, something like a Spanish version of a Pontiac Aztec MPV...

Anyway, just for the record, the SEAT Altea XL measures 18.7 centimetres longer than the Altea. Consequently, the 409 litre capacity of the Altea's boot has increased to 532 litres in the Altea XL, while sliding the rear seats forwards by 14 centimetres expands the boot's volume further to 635 litres.

Compared to the Altea, the rear seats in the Altea XL can be moved back by an extra two centimetres, meaning additional legroom for passengers travelling in the rear. The fore-aft adjustment range of the rear seats has therefore been extended to 16 cm in the new XL.

The Altea XL will be launched with a choice of two petrol models -the 102 hp 1.6 and the 2.0 FSI developing 150 hp (only available with the six-speed Tiptronic gearshift) --and three diesel engines: the 1.9 TDI with 105 hp, the 140 hp 2.0 TDI (with the 6speed DSG gearshift as an option) as well as the 170 hp 2.0 TDI. These engines can be combined with three different trim lines: Reference, Stylance and Sport-Up.

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