SEAT Toledo 1.6 TDI CR
SEAT car review: DAVID WILKINS
What is it?
SEAT’s Toledo badge returns after a three-year gap with this latest fourth-generation model.
The new car, a close sister of the Skoda Rapid, marks a return to the Toledo’s roots as a hatchback with an extended tail that makes it look like a saloon – offering business car buyers a perfect blend of hatchback practicality and a saloon profile for the company car park. 
The reason for that change is obvious; the first SEAT Toledo sold over 22,000 units in the UK but the last model, an awkward-looking MPV, sold only about 3,000.
Past Toledos were based on the Volkswagen Golf but the latest one is built on a stretched version of the smaller Polo’s platform – this is still the longest SEAT Toledo ever, though.
The new car has more than a few company car-friendly attributes, including keen pricing, high levels of practicality and a wide range of economical, low-CO2 engines, ideal for keeping company car tax in check.
What’s hot?
- The Toledo’s stretched Polo platform provides huge rear legroom and class-leading seats-up luggage space of 550 litres
- Keen entry-level pricing starts at an expected £12,500 for a bare-bones E model with Volkswagen’s 75 PS 1.2-litre twelve-valve three-cylinder petrol engine.
- Other petrol choices include 1.2-litre turbocharged TSI four-cylinder engines with either 86 or 105 PS (both with fuel-saving stop/start), and a 122 PS 1.4 TSI for customers who want a DSG auto gearbox.
- The only diesel is Volkswagen’s smooth 105 PS 1.6-litre common-rail engine – this appears here in its Ecomotive version with fuel-stop/start and delivers 72.4 mpg and 104g/km (with steel wheels fitted). A 90 PS version of the same engine will arrive in mid-2013.
- Three familiar trim designations will be available in the UK. The most basic E-badged cars only get air-con as an option – that’s standard on the S, which also gets Bluetooth, a split rear bench and electronic stability control. The SE also has 16-inch alloy wheels, climate control and a leather-trimmed steering wheel and gear knob. SE buyers can also opt for the SEAT Media System, which provides sat-nav, Bluetooth audio streaming and a DAB radio.
What’s not?
- The £12,500 entry-level car is good value but there’s a steep price gradient if you want to upgrade. Despite the wide choice of engines and trims, SEAT has limited the number of permutations quite heavily, so it will cost you at least £16,640 to get into a diesel, at least until the 90 PS engine arrives – that chips away at the Toledo’s underlying value for money.
- Sporty drivers need not apply – the company is playing down the possibility of an FR performance version, and this car is set up for sensible family and business motorists rather than boy racers.
- All that practicality and closeness to Skoda – which also builds this car in the Czech Republic – means that the Toledo doesn’t have much SEAT-style Mediterranean flair.
