Long-term report: Is the Seat Ibiza the car to fill the gap left by the iconic Ford Fiesta?

They say turkeys don’t vote for Christmas but ever since Ford did exactly that by killing off its most successful model ever – the Fiesta – the firm’s rivals have been desperate to fill the gap in the supermini market.

But while everyone knows about the likes of the Volkswagen Polo and Vauxhall Corsa, one option which some people may not have considered is the Seat Ibiza. In a bid to put that right, last month we took delivery of a brand new Ibiza Anniversary Limited Edition FR.

I’ve been running the Ibiza for just over a month now and I have to say that the early impressions have been somewhat mixed. Starting with the positives, from the outside the car looks great. Compared to its stablemate – the VW Polo – the Ibiza’s sportier body with its grooves in the bonnet and exuberant square exhausts cannot fail to stand out. Our car is also helped by being finished in VW Group’s Graphene Grey metallic paint, which looks fantastic.

Another plus point is how the car drives. The natural home of the Ibiza, and other cars of this size, is the city and a mixture of laziness and an incredibly tedious social life has meant that my Ibiza has not had to take on many motorway miles as yet. Around town though the car feels light, agile and nippy. Put it in sport and it also accelerates really well and sticks to the road in a way which would feel impressive in some much more expensive cars. Overall, the car’s little one litre TSI engine feels spirited and, although the seven speed automatic gearbox can take a while to change up, this can be addressed manually using flappy paddles behind the steering wheel.

There’s more good news in the cabin too. On the whole I love the way the Ibiza feels inside. The black Microsuede seats are comfortable, there aren’t too many cheap-feeling plastics and everything feels well put together. However – while we are on the subject of cheap-feeling plastics – I do have a few gripes with the inside of this car.

First up – and this is just a personal thing – I am really not a fan of the white, almost translucent plastic which Seat has fitted around the air vents. After night falls, red lights behind the plastic switch on and give the cabin a nice, focussed feel but unfortunately for Seat we’re currently in July. It doesn’t get dark until gone 9pm and as a result, the majority of the time I’m forced to look at what appear to be offcuts from old milk cartons.

Aside from the semi-skimmed air vents, I’ve also had a few issues with headroom. I stand at pretty much bang on 6ft (on a good day). I am not some Peter Crouch-style giant (other noughties target men are available) nor – more’s the pity – do I have a Rod Stewartesque hairdo with towers above my head! Even so, on several occasions I have found myself driving along, only to feel the top of my hair grazing the ceiling. The issue appears to come from the fact that this particular Ibiza has been given a panoramic sunshine roof. And while the additional light into the cabin is fantastic, the feature appears to have taken away a not insignificant amount of head room.

However, a mild fear of concussions has not been the biggest issue to arise in the first month of living with the Ibiza. No, that would be the constant, relentless, unrelenting bonging! This is not a dig at Seat at all – a lot of modern cars suffer from the same problem – but the Ibiza has a helpful little audible alert for pretty much every eventuality.

Driving 1mph over the speed limit? BONG! Not pulled away quickly enough at a set of lights? BONG. Scratched your nose or smashed your head on the ever-so slightly too low roof? BONG! This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if you could simply turn the driver assistance features off but unfortunately, in the Ibiza it’s not quite that simple. You see, every time you turn the engine off, the car’s onboard computer resets itself and you’re back to square one and once again find yourself wading through the car’s many menus to disable them again.

Having said that, if after one month, my biggest complaint about this car is that it makes some slightly annoying noises, then I can’t help but feel Seat has done a good job with this latest Ibiza. I’m now looking forward to seeing what the next five months with the car will bring. Who knows, this could yet be the car to take the Fiesta’s crown!