A lifestyle review of the new SEAT Arona

In November last year, as part of SEAT’s marketing campaign for their new car, my partner (Liza) and I got the opportunity to experience the Arona for a weekend. SEAT wanted to showcase the cars' lifestyle capabilities (I'll go in to that a little later on) and so decided to team up with a young couple who ‘wanted to tick a few things off their bucket list’.

The end product of this campaign was to be a 2 page spread magazine article and a video hosted on YouTube. After a lot of deliberating, the plan was agreed upon by all parties and we finally knew which activities we’d be doing that weekend… a graffiti lesson and quad biking, all while getting the opportunity to test out the SEAT Arona, it sounded like a lot of fun!

What on earth is 'lifestyle'?

The SEAT Arona is a mini-SUV borne out of the recent fad in the market where customers are buying ever-increasing numbers of small SUV’s and so every manufacturer (naturally) wants a slice of the pie, and from a business perspective, as I’ve previously mentioned, they’d be silly not to.

So what’s this ‘lifestyle’ word even mean!? The SEAT Arona was not built to satisfy car lovers who want to get that thrill out of driving, small SUV’s haven’t had huge success because they’re awesome to drive, consumers are lapping them up because they are brilliant all-rounders that suit a wide variety of consumers lifestyles, whether that be the active type who want to carry golf clubs, wetsuits and body boards in their cars or small families who need space for kids and dogs.

What happened on the trip?

Outside a pub in Brighton we got briefed and mic’d up, ready to be followed round by a camera crew for 2 days. We were introduced to Req a street artist, he showed us round many of the graffiti hot spots in Brighton, there were loads, and I’m sure we only saw a handful. He insisted what he did was called street art and explained the difference between the two, to which the difference was strikingly clear.

We then headed back to his studio for a graffiti lesson. Req was a great teacher and started by showing us the basics of spray techniques and shapes. After a while my ‘exceptional’ attention span begun to get the better of me, and soon there was a striking difference between Liza's and my canvas, namely because mine looked like a mess where I’d lost concentration and Liza’s didn’t. To Req’s credit he noticed this and we moved on quickly, eventually getting the opportunity to draw our own masterpieces. I’d made a total mess of mine, so had to spray the whole thing over and start again. Using the techniques Req had taught us, I must say I think I did a pretty good job of saving it. Liza went for a more pop art look, with an ode to Brighton, which looked awesome. Better yet, we got to take our art (if that’s what you can call it) home with us and they are both now hung pride of place in our flat.

We then put them in the back of the car and headed off to take some further photographs. On the second day, it was time for quad biking. When we arrived it was pouring with rain and therefore, extremely muddy! Fortunately the rain stopped in time for us to begin quad biking, rather obviously the ground was covered in muddy puddles, but this actually made the experience even better! As our allotted hour grew to a close, the both of us got ever more confident on our quad bikes and drove increasingly faster, spraying more and more mud up on to our bikes and the camera crew, so that by the end our shoes were caked in mud, we could barely see our shoes… but we didn’t care, it was great fun!

Once quad biking had finished we jumped back in the Arona and drove up to Beachy Head to take some tracking shots before heading back to the hotel to drop off the car and head back home.

So what did I think of the car?

Now, when reviewing this car (or any for that matter), it’s important to remember the market it's aimed at. I could spend all day labouring on about the traditional factors discussed when reviewing a car, but as much as that’s important, and should still be covered by journalists, that was not the purpose of this campaign and arguably won’t be top of the list for most buyers. It’s likely the majority of customers will buy this car on a PCP deal, they may buy some kind of service pack from the manufacturer and with the car being new if anything were to go wrong, it should be covered under the warranty. Yes, that doesn’t help the second-hand market, and how well these cars do once the fad is over will be interesting to see, but that’s a discussion for another time.

So lets’ discuss this car from the perspective of how well it suits someone’s lifestyle .

The Arona felt airy, small and nimble, visibility was good and the car gave me confidence when driving it around town. We sat higher up than a number of cars, but still felt we could squeeze in between tight gaps in traffic, something which I’m sure will be a big pull for potential customers.

I drove the 1.0 TSI and it’s certainly not a quick car, if you like a little more punch I’d advise getting the slightly more powerful 1.5 TSI. However even in the 1.0, once we got it out on the winding roads of Beachy Head where I was able to get up the rev range, the car was incredibly fun to drive. The Arona was responsive, the steering felt surprisingly connected to the wheels and being that it was light and nimble, made for a great drive.

I drove a manual, which likely contributed to why the car was fun when driving it on the roads near Beachy Head, but other than it often being cheaper to buy a manual, I can’t see the point in giving a car such as this a manual gearbox. Automatics are brilliant these days, and I’m confident the cars’ target market don’t care too much about having that feeling of being engaged while pushing the clutch down and manually selecting a gear. But that’s my thinking, and I’m sure others may feel different.

With the rear seats folded down there was plenty of space in the boot and it easily fitted our graffiti art. The Arona was stuffed full of technology, more than I’d use on a daily basis. The wing mirrors were a little on the small side but still offered good visibility and although not a new technology, the overtaking warning lights on the wing mirrors were extremely useful, this all came together to make the car feel light and nimble. In the evening the dimming rear-view mirror was brilliant and stopped me from suffering the inevitable temporary blindness caused by other drivers’ poorly adjusted headlights.

Rather overtly the SEAT Arona feels very VW inside (which isn’t a bad thing), however I would say some of the buttons did feel slightly on the cheap side, that being said, it’s not supposed to be an overly luxurious car, and looking at it from the perspective of an all-round family car, the quality of the cabin was vastly more impressive than I’d imagined. The large infotainment screen was a big plus, the speakers sounded great and the wireless charging coupled with Apple Car Play/Android Auto was a great feature to have.

So what's my rating?

I admire the way SEAT have gone to market with the Arona, even down to how buyers can spec their models based on the 'type of person they are'. Although this needs some refining, it offers a glimpse in to the direction SEAT may be looking to take with their cars in the future.

All in all the Arona is a great all-rounder. If you’re looking for a car to do one specific thing well, better than the majority of competitors, then it’s likely not for you. However, if you’re in the market for a car to suit a variety of lifestyles, that’s capable of doing most things in and around the city with ease, then I'd highly recommend you consider it.

Here's a link to the finished video for your viewing pleasure… complete with some questionable acting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMnW057ATJc