10:19 am, December 5, 2008
WHAT on earth am I doing here? Checking my economy, that’s what.
I’ve been on the launch of SEAT’s new Ibiza Ecomotive this week. It will be a significant car for SEAT dealers: 98g/km of CO2 will mean lots of interest from fleet customers. Retail buyers will also love the free road tax.
It returns 76.3mpg, making it the most economical five-door on sale in Britain. And all for an estimated list price of £11,000.
All sounds good. But how does it perform in real life? That’s what SEAT challenged us to find out. A 145km test route, on varied, flowing Spanish roads. What could we eek out of it?
Well, over the next two hours, we found out. We drove sensibly, ecologically, but not ridiculously. We kept flow with the traffic, didn’t crawl along and most certainly didn’t fold in the electric door mirrors ‘to reduce drag’. Unlike some of our Spanish counterparts…
Data was downloaded at the end, and numbers crunched. Result? 72.1mpg. Best Brits on the event (hurrah!). A score I don’t think is too bad at all. We could have driven even more economically – one journo scored 81.2mpg – and it just goes to show how ‘eco’ new cars can be.
With 2009 looking like a heck of a year ahead, such demonstrations, of how much new cars could save buyers, might be just the sort of promotional event you ought to be considering…
Richard
