Seat Ateca is part of manufacturer's 2018 retail success story

Seat has been one of the star VW Group brands in 2018, with year-on-year registrations up 14%, or 6,253 units (to 50,490) by the end of September.

Ateca sales have dropped slightly this year, nudging just over 7,000 units compared with 8,500 in the same period in 2017, but retail demand has held flat and Seat’s freshest and smallest SUV, the Arona, has ensured the brand remains in overall growth.

To support Ateca sales, Seat has introduced a four-year 0% APR offer in its Solutions PCP finance product, which runs until January 2. Alternatively, buyers can select a 6.3% APR PCP over the same duration, which is incentivised by a £1,750 deposit contribution.

In the past month, we’ve put another thousand miles on our Ateca and it got its chassis wet on a return journey from our briefing at the Birmingham NEC for exhibitors at November’s Automotive Management Live, crossing the ford across the River Ise at Geddington in Northamptonshire. That aside, the furthest it has been off-road is parking on a front lawn, so sometime in the future it will explore my favourite rough track, from Heacham to Hunstanton in Norfolk.

I’m contemplating whether to visit a Seat workshop, too. On one recent occasion, the infotainment system failed to activate until about 10 minutes into a journey. And prior to that, the car rolled forward on my drive, leaving me unsure about the auto-hold function of the electronic parking brake. Both were one-offs, I’m sure.