The Spanish savings plan
The Seat Altia is now going for a song, thanks to VW withdrawing the brand from SA.
Generally, South Africans are timid consumers. Many of us would tip a waiter even if the service was not up to standard.
Were it not for this compliant consumer behaviour, Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) would have run into trouble ages ago. The cars are absolutely excellent, but you cannot help but question the company’s judgment.
For example, VW is still selling CitiGolfs, a 30-year old design, without air bags, ABS brakes or any of the most important safety features developed over the past three decades.
And then there was the Seat drama. VWSA introduced what’s basically a cheap Spanish Volkswagen range to South Africa in 2006, at a price higher than VW’s own models…and then recently suddenly withdrew the Seat.
The result: 2 600 South African Seat owners are furious with VWSA (just read the letters in the latest issues of the magazine topCar). The value of their cars dropped by thousands of rands overnight.
Nowhere else in the world is Seat sold as a premium brand above Volkswagen’s own models. Why did VWSA’s managers in Uitenhage think it would work here?
The good news for someone looking for a bargain is, of course, that you can now buy a second-hand Seat for a song.
Hey, José, what have we here?
The Seat Altea is a spacious five-seater minibus powered by VW’s two-litre turbo-diesel engine. It’s fairly luxurious, with seats you can fold flat in any combination, air conditioning, alloy wheels, fog lamps and a radio/CD player.
The model we looked at had only 33 900km on the clock, but its price had fallen by a whopping R100 000 in a year, from new.
Is it as good as a VW?
Seats are all powered by Volkswagen engines and are mechanically sound, but their build quality is not as refined as that of their German cousins. The radio and ventilation control buttons are primitive, and the plastic panels look cheap. If you start hearing creaking noises in a year or so, it’s probably not your knees.
Safety?
It comes with six air bags and anti-lock brakes, and the Altea is the first Seat model to get
five stars in the world-benchmark European crash tests.
How does it go?
It’s built on the chassis of its sedan sister, the Leon, and therefore behaves more like a sedan than a minibus. Seat claims average fuel consumption of 5,8 ℓ/100km for the TDi Altea.
Where will I have it serviced?
We would normally strongly urge you not to buy a car after the mother company has left the country, but VWSA has undertaken to keep servicing all Seats in South Africa.
Go! says: If you’re in the market for a good second-hand car, Seat’s withdrawal is a boon.
Price: R129 000 (2007 model, 33 890km).
New: Not available any more; the last available price in September 2008 was R228 920.
(Note: Prices accurate in January 2009)
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