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Why Lease The Ateca?

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Donna Kelly has over 14 years of experience in the motoring industry, writing, test driving and tweeting about cars. Her weekends are spent trackside, covering racing events.

SEAT Ateca Review 2021

The SEAT Ateca is a fun-to-drive, stylish and practical SUV. It is a popular choice with families due to its in-car technology and safety features. 

The latest generation Ateca also comes with a wide range of punchy and efficient engines, making it a viable alternative to rivals such as the Peugeot 3008, Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Karoq, Renault Kadjar, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson.

Our SEAT Ateca review covers:

SEAT Ateca Key Features

  • Stylish exterior design with sharply sculpted body 
  • Generous interior space with 60:40 split rear seats
  • 510-litre boot, which expands to 1,604 litres with rear seats down
  • Range of turbocharged TSI petrol and TDI diesel engines 
  • Six trim levels, including SE, SE Technology, FR, FR Sport, Xperience and Xperience Lux

Design, Practicality and Boot Space

With two chiselled parallel lines running from its headlights to its rear, the SEAT Ateca looks and feels like a bigger and chunkier SEAT Leon. Its extended cabin design, sharp, sporty styling, and handwritten script on the Ateca badge, make it one of the smartest-looking cars in its class. 

Seat Ateca exterior

Inside, there's a decent amount of room for all passengers to ride comfortably, offering as much room as its rival, the Nissan Qashqai. However, if you are after more space, the Renault Kadjar is slightly larger inside and offers more room for back seat passengers.

At the back, the rear  seats split in a 60:40 formation, expanding the boot size to 1,604 litres. There are also some clever storage features in the Ateca, such as the shallow yet wide storage area hidden beneath the boot floor.

As for boot space, the SEAT Ateca offers 510-litres of space, which is considerably more than the Qashqai's 430 litres. However, models fitted with four-wheel drive have a reduced capacity of 485 litres to the mechanics beneath the car - still, that’s more room than the Qashqai in front-wheel-drive form. 

Interior and Trims

The SEAT Ateca's interior feels and looks great, with an easy-to-use and well laid out infotainment system. While it doesn't feel as expensive or comfortable as some of its rivals, the Ateca's interior is solidly built. Entry-level SE models also offer incredible value for money thanks to its USB C functionality and an 8.25-inch touchscreen as standard.

Six trim levels models are available, including SE, SE Technology, FR, FR Sport, Xperience and Xperience Lux. 

The entry-level SE model is the best value version with its eight-inch infotainment screen, dual-zone climate control, front and rear parking sensors, black roof rails. It also gets a leather-wrapped steering wheel, tinted keyless entry and 17-inch alloy wheels.

The SE Technology model receives in-built satellite navigation, a nine-inch infotainment system with a built-in sat-nav with proximity sensor. 

The sporty FR model gets a grey front grille, aluminium pedals, Alcantara sports seats and ambient lighting for the interior. You also get automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers and 18-inch alloys.

The FR Sport model is essentially the FR trim but with some extra visual upgrades. You get tinted windows, black leather-upholstered sports seats, an electric driver's seat, digital driver's display, black roof lining, LED headlights and huge 19-inch wheels.

With the Xperience models, you get black plastic cladding on the exterior, making the Ateca's look a bit more off-road. You also get an Alcantara interior, adaptive cruise control with speed limiter, a blind-spot detection system and autonomous emergency braking.

The Xperience Lux model receives a 12-inch digital drivers display, a leather interior with heated front seats, a top view 360-degree camera, and 19-inch alloy wheels.

Power and Performance

Under the bonnet, there’s a choice of five engines, including a punchy 1.5-litre petrol and a 2.0-litre diesel with two different outputs. A six-speed manual is standard on entry-level engines, with a seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox available on more powerful engines. 

Seat Ateca interior

All-wheel-drive variants are also available but are limited to the more powerful versions with the automatic gearbox, such as the 2.0 TSI DSG petrol and the 2.0 TDI 150 DSG diesel. 

On the road, the Ateca is great to drive thanks to its raised ride height. Its sharp gearshifts make the SUV enjoyable to drive along twistier roads. It also performs well on the motorway producing little noise at higher speeds. 

Shame then, that compared to its rivals, you feel more of a road surface when on the move than you do with the Peugeot 3008 due to its firm suspension. That said, the Ateca makes for a great all-round and an excellent family car leasing option.  

Leasing vs Buying

Prices for the SEAT Ateca start from £27,020.00 OTR* or to lease from £240.97 per month.

Want to know more about leasing the SEAT Ateca? Nationwide Vehicle Contracts is one of the UK's largest car leasing providers. All of our lease deals include the full manufacturer's warranty, road tax for the duration of the contract, breakdown cover and free mainland GB delivery (exclusions apply). 

What's more, with fixed monthly rentals, a low initial outlay and flexible mileage and contract terms, leasing a SEAT Ateca could be cheaper to lease than you think.

*'On the road' price is correct at time of publication and includes one year's road fund license, DVLA first registration fee and number plate fee. Prices are subject to change. Always check with your nearest retailer.

  

Customer Reviews

SEAT Ateca
Average Rating Based on 141 reviews
4.3 out of 5

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3.6 out of 5
George SEAT Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR

The infotainment system in the car has a habit of resetting and rather than come back on it just constantly resets until you do a master reset. It's potentially dangerous and wouldn't buy again for that reason alone.

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4.3 out of 5
Adela Seat Ateca 1.0 TSI SE Technology

Really enjoy driving this car. The only issue is that occasionally the computer drops and cannot reconnect properly. It usually resets itself after stopping for a while but if I was relying on it for directions and that happened I would have an issue.

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3.1 out of 5
Luke Seat Ateca 1.0 TSI SE Technology

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5.0 out of 5
Joseph Seat Ateca 2.0 TDI 150 Xperience DSG

I have always had VW cars, since 1969, when I got my Beetle. This car is my first None VW car. I am aware that Seat are owned by VW, so I don't feel that guilty about moving onto Seat. The Ateca, is only 2 wheel drive, but it is a lovely car to drive and you could say enjoyable. .My only comment about the car. I miss the little drawers and cubby holes. To put thing in. I'm getting overall, 49mpg. Also, I haven't had to put any Engine oil in it, since I got the.

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4.1 out of 5
Steven Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR Sport

Very good service & car

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4.9 out of 5
Robert Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR DSG MY23

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4.4 out of 5
Johnny SEAT Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO SE DSG

Very nice family vehicle. Smooth to drive and everything we needed for a small family. Boot is a good size too.

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3.6 out of 5
Peter Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR Sport DSG

Electronic systems are a bit dodgy, especially Sat Nav voice which will.not find anything. Also screen goes blank randomly and needs resetting. This has happened more than 20 times. However I like the car but would prefer a bigger boot.

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4.6 out of 5
Thomas Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR DSG MY23

The cars been great really pleased, wish I’d gone for the next trim level up. Infotainment system is bloody terrible and my local Seat dealer has closed and nearest is over an hour away now. Also to be fair I’m bored and would love to change.

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4.7 out of 5
Jacqueline Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR DSG MY23

Problems with the SatNav sometimes works/doesn’t

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3.1 out of 5
Damian Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR DSG MY23

All in all the car if excellent and I would love another ateca but unfortunately seat have annoyed me.....I got this car and within a week the satnav/radio kept rebooting turning off and on all the time, it's been for an update, and been in again buy have been told last October that seat need to build something to fix my issue, it is now June, I have chased this but been told not to call again and they will call me when I can bring the car back for a fix, so I have had this car a year with a satnav/radio which does what it wants, I can not tell you how many journeys I have been on and had to use my phone for a sat nav or the wife's for music as the cars just isn't working. Seat just don't want to know, if I had bought this car I'd be going nuts and demanding another car or refund, then again maybe I should with this paying £350 a month for something which decides when it wants to work or not....I went for a job interview somewhere I didn't know and even had to borrow my mum's car so I had a satnav, bit poor really. Other than that I love the ateca

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5.0 out of 5
Lee Seat Ateca 2.0 TDI 150 Xperience Lux MY22

This car is great- it has great fuel economy but is also high spec and really comfortable with some great gadgets. It has room in the back for bikes and I’ve had no issues with it.

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4.7 out of 5
Oliver Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO FR DSG MY22

Economy isn’t brilliant but fairly close to expected so no big issue, other than that it’s a brilliant car that feels really well built for the money.

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4.9 out of 5
Douglas Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO Xperience Lux DSG

Very happy with this Seat Ateca 1.5 TSI EVO Xperience Lux 5dr DSG .Loaded with all mod cons and had no problems with it after one full year.

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4.3 out of 5
Brian Seat Ateca 2.0 TDI 150 Xperience

Excellent car, a few issues with the nav system and adaptive cruise control that took several visits to the dealer to sort but it was all sorted in the end, slightly disappointed with the MPG, I had the 1.6 diesel before and it returned much better MPG (10 MPG difference), and I thought this model came with heated seats but it doesn't but overall very happy with the car

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