Prepare to feel old! The SEAT Ibiza is now 40 years old. Yes, 40 years since the Spanish company brought together a veritable Avengers Assemble grouping of car industry legends to help it develop what was, arguably, the company’s first truly modern car.
Supercar DNA
While that original Ibiza may have been a humble small hatchback, with a mere 46hp 1.0-litre engine for the base model, but it had supercar DNA. No, seriously - the exterior design was done by Italdesign, the Italian styling house set up by the great Giorgetto Guigiaro. The whole car was engineered for production by German company Karmann, which would also work on the BMW 6 Series, the Ford Escort Cosworth, and even the Porsche 911 and 968.
Speaking of Porsche, that company helped SEAT to design the Ibiza’s engines, but the Spaniards still had to pay a royalty of 7 Deutsche Marks per car so that they could use a ‘System Porsche’ badge on the back of the Ibiza.
That was all 40 years ago, of course, and now the Ibiza - and SEAT itself - is of course part of the sprawling Volkswagen Group, which rather helpfully includes both Porsche and Italdesign as subsidiaries.
Special paint and seats
To mark the date, SEAT has launched an Ibiza Anniversary Limited Edition model, which comes with exclusive Graphene Grey colour on the body and Cosmo Grey on the 18-inch alloy wheels.
Inside, the cabin gets exclusive textile bucket seats. Because the Ibiza is, these days, built alongside the Arona crossover, the Arona too gets a special edition, with the same paint and wheels and some jazzed-up cabin trim, but because it’s not 40 it can’t be called the Anniversary Limited Edition, so it’s just called the FR Limited Edition instead (for the record, the Arona turns seven this year).
Stronger than ever
“The success of the iconic Ibiza meant that some countries recognised the vehicle even before the brand! The SEAT brand currently has the best product range in its history and is now stronger than ever”, said SEAT CEO Wayne Griffiths. “With the challenge of sourcing semiconductors normalising, sales have grown 24 per cent in 2023, reaching 288,400 cars delivered.”
While the Ibiza is celebrating its 40th birthday, SEAT Ireland is also giving Irish buyers some temping deals for the run-in to the July registration period, with monthly payments starting from €199.00 per month for the Ibiza, from €209.00 per month for the Ibiza Anniversary, €189.00 per month for the Arona, €219.00 per month for the Arona FR Edition, €289.00 per month for the Ateca, €229.00 per month for the Leon, and €449.00 per month for the Taracco, with all of those being on zero per cent finance, aside from the Taracco which is on a 5.9 per cent interest package.