SEAT is one of the few Spanish cars to have been produced. They were founded in 1950 by the Spanish Government with a technical agreement with FIAT. SEAT stands for Sociedad Espanola de Automovilles de Turismo.
The first cars were essentially FIATs built under licence starting with models like the 600, 800 and 850. Virtually all SEATs up to 1982 were FIAT models built locally but with a SEAT badge – in fact some cars were sold in Europe as FIATs with a small “built by SEAT” badge added.
In 1975 SEAT launched the 1200 Sport – a mix of pieces from around the industry. It used a body shell bought from NSU in Germany (who were owned by VW) and was fitted with FIAT bits.
Unusually, SEATs were exported first to Colombia rather than other European countries – possibly because of the FIAT influence. It may have been a contractual condition that they could only sell in countries where FIAT didn’t have a presence. SEATs were also built in FIAT factories in South America.
In 1980 FIAT pulled out of the agreement and SEAT built the Ronda – basically a FIAT Ritmo, so FIAT sued – the cars were spookily similar with the same type of 1.2 to 2 litre engines. FIAT dropped the suit after SEAT showed a car with all of the components that they had changed!
In 1982, SEAT signed an agreement with the VW group to share technology and the Ibiza model was the first fruit of this collaboration. The first version of this car was based on the Ronda but with quality control by VW. The tooling for this car was sold to the Chinese manufacturer Nanjing and is now the Yuejin Soyat. The second generation was based on the VW Polo / Audi A3 platform and was also built in South Africa as a VW.
In 1986 VW took firstly a 51% stake and then quickly increased this to 75%. Four years later the stake was almost 100% and the first true VW model, the Toledo was launched – it was based on the Golf Mk 2. This Toledo is currently being built by the Chinese manufacturer, Chery with the names of Amulet, Windcloud and Flagcloud! Later versions were based on the next generation of the Golf platform and shared components with the Skoda Octavio and Audi A3.
The also launched the Alhambra people mover – a design that was shared by Ford (the Galaxy) and VW (the Sharan). Another model was the Cordoba – which was a mix of bits from the VW parts bin based on the Ibiza. The Leon is the same – based on VW platforms notably the Golf (again).
In 2002, SEAT was re-organised under the Audi brand and joined Audi and Lamborghini in that sub-group under the VW umbrella. Today some SEATs are badged up as VWs for foreign markets.
VW has made SEAT the sporty brand inside the group – obviously the cheap sporty cars as the Audi S and RS models and Lamborghini are clearly the true sports models. With this in mind though, VW has spent considerable amounts of cash campaigning in touring car championships in Europe and won the drivers and constructors World Touring Car Championships in 2008.
So, like Skoda, when you buy a SEAT you are buying VW technology but in a cheaper shell.
Last updated: 02 Jan 2010