Seat Ateca

Many years after launch, what has become of this once class-leading compact SUV?

As you’ll soon learn from this comprehensive test of the Seat Ateca, we are now reaching the end of the road for the car brand once touted, in fairly ambitious yet serious terms, as the Volkswagen Group’s answer to Alfa Romeo.In a recent interview with Autocar, VW Group board member Thomas Schäfer revealed that if Spanish car maker Seat has a future, it’s probably not in making cars.Over the short to medium term, he explained, Wolfsburg’s Spanish outpost is set to transform into something that may sound more interesting at first – an e-mobility provider, or some other kind of pioneer of alternatives to traditional car ownership. One by one, the firm’s models will either morph into sportier, more desirable, pseudo-premium successors sold under the new Cupra brand, or be removed from sale altogether. And by the end of this decade, Seat will cease to exist, at least as we have come to know it.Were we to look for where it went wrong for Seat, we certainly wouldn’t start with the Ateca compact SUV. This Nissan Qashqai rival has been one of its maker’s most widely acclaimed cars since its 2016 launch and was for a significant period Autocar’s class favourite.Here, then – without sentimentality or agenda – we find out what kind of car the Ateca has become in later life; whether it can still be considered one of its class’s more attractive picks; and what kind of impression of the Seat brand it might leave an owner with, as its manufacturer moves towards its new and uncertain future.The range at a glanceModelsPowerFrom1.0 TSI SE109bhp£28,3851.5 Eco TSI SE148bhp£30,310The Seat Ateca range has been cut down a couple of times since its 2016 launch and now consists of only the front-wheel-drive petrols that would once have made up the lower echelons of the offering.For model grades, you start with SE and SE Technology, and progress up through the various sporty-looking FR versions, with Seat’s Xperience and Xperience Lux derivatives offering an alternative higher-end treatment. There are no hybrid or PHEV versions.