A TRIP THROUGH TOLEDO (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_SeatToledo_2013

BY JONATHAN CROUCH

Introductionword count: 65

If you're a practically-minded family buyer on a supermini budget who really needs the kind of space you'd find on something much bigger, then you're target market for this car, SEAT's fourth generation Toledo compact hatch which sold between 2012 and 2019. With space for five, durable build quality, low running costs and an enormous boot, it offers a lot of car for the money.

Modelsword count: 10

5dr hatch (1.2, 1.2 TSI, 1.4, 1.4TSI, / 1.6 TDI)

Historyword count: 268

Think family hatchbacks are pretty much all the same? It's not true. Ask SEAT. If you're searching for something Golf or Astra-shaped made in the 2012-2019 era, then this Spanish brand will offer you two very different alternatives. Most will choose the company's third generation Leon. Hi-tech and trendy, it's a Golf in all but name but better value and with a little extra attitude. But there is another option with a SEAT badge for Focus folk - another way to go. A less trendy take on the compact family five-door genre but one that's spacious and sensibly practical. Launched late in 2012, it's this car, the fourth generation Toledo. This was the kind of model the Toledo was when first we saw the MK1 version in 1991, a no-nonsense hatch with an absolutely huge boot. Back then, it was the first fully Volkswagen-engineered design the brand had ever brought us and its size, shape and packaging was subsequently even more successfully copied by another Volkswagen Group brand, Skoda, in their Octavia of 1996. For second and third generation Toledos, SEAT unwisely deviated from this winning formula and sales were disappointing. So when the opportunity came to re-invent the MK1 Toledo design for the modern era through the simple expedient of re-badging and re-branding Skoda's Rapid model, the Spaniards grabbed it with both hands. The result is, well, a sensible set of wheels, the kind of car the motoring mags get all sniffy about. But also the kind of car that makes eminent sense to real, recession-hit families in the current climate. This MK4 Toledo sold until 2018.

What You Getword count: 643

SEAT may talk about 'motion and emocion' when it comes to the styling of all its cars but the truth is a little different. Apart from the two designs that account for a large proportion of its sales - the Ibiza supermini and the Leon family hatch - it's effectively been allowed to little more than badge-engineer a clutch of remaining models based on other Volkswagen Group designs. By the beginning of the 21st century's second decade, the Mii citycar, the Exeo medium range saloon and the Alhambra people carrier had all fallen into this category and in 2013, they were joined by this Toledo. This Toledo is pretty much identical to its Skoda Rapid design stablemate. There's a SEAT-specific front end with its broad, angular headlamps and slender trapezoidal front grille. And a light makeover at the rear too. But these cosmetics apart, the two designs are very similar. They were even built together at Skoda's Mlada Boleslav factory in the Czech Republic. Is that such a bad thing? We don't believe many likely buyers will think so. A smart, clean but rather conventional shape, the Toledo's silhouette isn't actually very conventional by class standards, at around 4.5m long and under 2m wide being significantly longer but slightly narrower than the Focus-sized family hatchback class norm. Raise the wide-opening tailgate and you find yourself looking at a simply enormous boot. Though the damper mounts and wheel arches intrude a little from the sides, there's still 550-litres with all the seats in place, so this is nearly 60% larger than the trunk you'll find on a rival Ford Focus from this era and nearly 40% bigger than the boot in SEAT's other family hatch, the Leon. In fact, it's basically the same size as you'd get in something Mondeo-sized - and bigger in fact than the boot room you'll find in Executive saloons like the BMW 5 Series, the Audi A6 and the Mercedes E-Class. And it's a versatile space too, with space below the boot floor and the option of bag hooks and storage boxes behind the wheel arches. For the carriage of larger items, you can of course push forward the split-folding rear seat. That unfortunately doesn't create a completely flat loading deck, but it does free up 1,490-litres. In other words, you're looking here at the kind of carriage capacity you'd get from a typical estate body style in this segment. That's why, in contrast to rivals, the Toledo range doesn't need to offer one. Those few Toledo buyers able to remember as far back as the first generation Nineties Toledo model may recall that this huge trunk space was paid for with restricted legroom for rear seat passengers. Fortunately, that mistake wasn't made again here. The rear doors open wide for easy entry and exit and there's comfortable knee and headroom for two, though tighter space for three adult occupants. Good legroom too - 47mm more in fact than you get in SEAT's more expensive Leon family hatch, despite this car's shorter wheelbase. One adult six-footer can easily sit behind a driver of the same height, which can't be said of too many cars in this segment. At the wheel, well it's more Skoda than SEAT, the design clean, functional but not particularly exciting, with many of the surfaces quite hard to the touch and things like the unlined storage bins suggestive of budget brand pricing. Still, everything is nicely laid out and seemingly built to last and there are plenty of useful nooks and crannies, including a slot for your parking tickets. A 'V'-shaped centre console rises up from the foot well to the main dashboard and houses both ventilation and stereo controls. Through the three-spoke wheel you glimpse a large, clear twin-binnacle instrument display. Nothing then to especially catch the eye, but everything perfectly in its place.

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