SEAT Tarraco: A highly practical and model family car
It might be anonymous looking, but it's a damn fine car, writes Declan Colley
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SEAT Tarraco |
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Rating |
★★★★☆ |
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Price |
€ 47,365 - €48,300 as tested |
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Engine |
A very familiar turbo-diesel |
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The Spec |
Surprisingly comprehensive |
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Verdict |
It might be anonymous looking, but it's a damn fine car |
The phrase ‘unflustered anonymity’ (which I just made up) is something that could be directly applied to the new Tarraco SUV from .
It might be that some people take that to mean that this is a very boring car and in some ways that might be a very fair summation of this seven-seater because it is not particularly exceptional to look at, does not spark the imagination with its performance levels and singularly fails to excite many of one’s senses.
And yet, it is a remarkably nice car to live with and drive.
once said that a bore is someone who “opens his mouth and puts his feats in it,” but you will not find anyone from shouting from the Martorell rooftops that the Tarraco is anything other than a neatly priced, well-built and tremendously practical family car.
In many respects, the Tarraco is a boring car because it goes about its business with an element of practical detachment.
Fact is it gets job done – whatever job it is that you want it to do – with any palaver or bother.
And for , that means they have done a great job and can thus feel sanctimonious about it.
One of the reasons that the Spanish arm of the Group is so smug about its car is that across Europe it is selling by the lorry-load, along with its two stablemates, the Arona and the Ateca.
maintains that as the market is set to expand by another 25% at least between now and 2025, it is excellently placed to take advantage. With small, medium and large varieties of the genre now selling well for the company, there seems to be no willingness to cavil at that state of affairs, either in or in .
And why would there be? For SEAT, the Tarraco – not to mention the Arona and the Ateca – represents a job well done and actually reflects a similar situation at fellow Group bedfellow Skoda, whose three s, the Kamiq, the Karoq and the Kodiaq, are also flying off dealer forecourts.
That SEAT and Skoda were told to up their game (not to mention profitability levels) by Wolfsburg to countermand any fall in profit levels following ’s disastrous ‘dieselgate’ misstep, is something that is not only paying off for the group as a whole, but has also boosted both junior players.
Being given access to the top table parts bin has allowed both companies to up their game considerably and will serve both well in times to come as they close in on electric future, although both will remain busy supplying cars with internal combustion engines to markets not so fussy about emission levels.
That being so, the Tarraco will have no bother finding homes here in or many other markets as we move into new and uncertain times.
The nuts and bolts of the Tarraco show us that it is closely related to both the Tiguan Allspace and the Skoda Kodiaq, being based on the group’s -A2 platform and sharing mechanical underpinnings. It is also built on the same production line in as the Tiguan.
But, as models Europe-wide sell to a younger demographic than either of the or Skoda cousins, the Tarraco has considerably more zing in the styling department, even though the looks are not exactly of the ‘take-the-eye-out-of-your-head’ variety, even in the trim as tested.
That said, it still brings to mind the old Alhambra MPV (which was a seven-seater, like the Tarraco) which was dullness personified to look at, but was a delight to live with. Despite being completely different concepts, they both provide startling practicality and easy liveability.
Now SEAT might not like their new standard-bearer being compared with something from the last century – literally – but both machines are excellent examples of what the company does well and in some ways the Tarraco takes many of the best bits from the old Alhambra and dresses them up them in a nice new suit.
Throw in a battery of tech mod cons, a slice of serviceable looks and a pinch of clever engineering tweaks (the suspensions are tuned by themselves to provide a mildly sporty on-road demeanour) and you have something which is quite appealing to a modern family audience.
From a technical point of view there is little about the car which will get you excited as most of the running gear has been around for some considerable time and is very familiar. The two-litre turbodiesel (150 bhp output in the tester, although there is a 187 bhp variant available) and the seven speed gearbox have been with us since Methuselah was a boy.
That being the case, we are all familiar with the performance parameters on offer, but just for the sake of refreshing our collective memories, this Tarraco will sprint from 0-100 km/h in 6.8 seconds, which is sprightly enough for a vehicle this size. Top speed is 196 km/h, the 2 emission rate is 148 g/km, and the annual tax bill is €210.
On the consumption front, it will return some 5.4 l/100 km (51.8 mpg) and that’s not outstanding, but it’s not bad either considering that the car can be pedalled along comfortably at a much brisker pace than its’ size might have suggested, if you’re not a consumption junkie.
And that it will pedal comfortably along at an energetic pace is largely thanks to that in-house suspension tweaking already alluded to and despite 20” alloys which can sometimes ruin a car’s poise.
The grip levels – despite only being a front driver – are impressive and, apart front mild body roll when cornering on the door handles, the car is impressively leech-like. The handling is well sorted and the worst characteristic you’ll encounter is a touch of understeer when you’re particularly enthusiastic on the throttle.
The interior décor is largely as uninspiring as the exterior look, but the plastics are tactile and the rest of the materials utilised here are pleasing to the eye and to the touch. The seats are tremendously supportive and very comfortable.
The rearmost two seats fold flat into the boot floor and have reasonable access. Legroom in the back row is tight, so you won’t be getting LeBron James in there. The Lakers’ star would have no problem with the middle row of seat seats as there is loads of legroom back there and the larger-than-usual rear doors assist with access and egress from the two rear rows.
Despite its spirit, this is decidedly a family car; it is well loaded with toys and drives really well while also having bags of room and decent cargo capacity when its not loaded up with humans.
It might be that the Tarraco lacks road presence, but it does not lack for talent and if you can get yourself past the anonymity of it, you will find underneath a car with a lot of inherent talent. That it does its business with quiet efficiency, only adds to the many plus points on offer here.
‘Unflustered anonymity’ might be a jaundiced view in some quarters, but once you get under the skin of the Tarraco, you will find a beast with many and varied talents.
