Ateca shines a light on Seat’s driver-friendly touches

Seat little features on the Ateca should help Seat dealers to sell the virtues of this car to customers who want to be subtly different from the
mainstream brand set.

In Xcellence trim, our Ateca has puddle lights beneath the door mirrors so that drivers won’t unwittingly get their feet soaked when parking up at night. But these are not every-day puddle lights – they shine an Ateca logo onto the ground. These work whenever the doors are opened, independently of the LED headlamps’ ‘coming home’ function, which keeps them illuminated for a chosen period after the car has been locked.

It’s a very superficial thing, but the months spent testing our Ateca have proved these puddle lights leave a memorable impression on passengers. The multi-colour ambient lighting inside the car is less memorable; occupants find it novel initially, but it’s soon forgotten.

Another premium feature is that the door mirrors of all Atecas, no matter the trim grade, fold in for safety when parking at the roadside or in tight spaces, to provide easier access and minimise the risk of damage from passers-by.  However, buyers may need reminding that they have to press and hold the lock button on the key fob (or on the keyless entry door handles) to activate this function. A minor inconvenience is that the rear door handles don’t have the keyless lock function, although this eliminates the chance of an over-eager child pulling their handle too soon and de-synchronising the central locking.