SEAT Ateca practicality and safety

• Interior of the Ateca is very practical
• Lots of passenger space to spread out
• Also plenty of storage space

How much space is there?

The SEAT Ateca offers a generous amount of space for four passengers, with plenty of head and legroom without having to juggle the seating position of the front seats - even behind a tall driver.

There’s space in the back for three adults although you won’t want to sit in the middle seat for too long if you’re tall, despite the transmission tunnel in the centre being relatively narrow.

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There are deep door pockets and cubby holes dotted around the cabin to help stow things while on the move, including a sunglasses holder up by the rear-view mirror and storage trays under the front seats.

All models come with a 12v socket and two USB-C ports up front, along with a wireless phone charger, which sits under the media system - a handy place to store and charge your smartphone.

Those sat in the rear get map pockets on the front seat backs, cupholders on the centre armrest and a small cubby below the two USB-C ports.

Boot space and storage

Two-wheel drive cars are more capacious with a 510-litre boot expanding to 1,604 litres with the rear seats down. You can flip the backrests down with handles located in the boot for convenience too.

Pick a four-wheel drive car and you lose 25 litres of space in the boot but gain the ability to tackle more challenging terrain.

The Ateca’s boot trounces many of its rivals for luggage capacity with the rear seats in place. With them folded, a total of 1,910 litres is on offer, which is also very impressive.

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The boot floor can be set at two heights to boost practicality, and the physical process of moving seats about and removing load covers is also very simple and stress-free, with them folding 60:40 as well as offering a load-through port through the centre seat once you fold down the armrest.

Is it easy to park?

When you consider the amount of space on offer inside the Ateca, it’s surprising that the exterior seems so compact. It’s very easy to manoeuvre in and out of parking spaces thanks to big windows, as well as front and rear parking sensors and park assist standard on all models. A rear-view camera is standard on higher-spec Xperience models.

Once you’re out of town, it’s also very easy to judge thanks to the higher driving position and the compact dimensions. It’s very easy to drive.

How big is it?

View full specs

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Safety

• Plenty of safety equipment as standard
• Euro NCAP awarded it five stars
• Driver assistance tech can be added

The SEAT Ateca has been awarded a full five-star rating by Euro NCAP, and it’s easy to see why. You get seven airbags, seatbelt reminders, electronic stability control, an electronic differential lock (called XDS), hill-hold control and a tyre-pressure monitor all as standard.

All cars also come with Front Assist with City Emergency Braking and Pedestrian Protection, Tiredness Recognition and a Multi-Collision Brake system as standard. All use cameras and sensors to detect an impending collision and take evasive action.

Various driver assistance packs enable you to add things like traffic jam assist, which controls the steering, brakes and throttle at low speeds, a lane-keeping assistant, rear cross traffic alert, blind-spot monitor, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control. You’ll have to pay extra for these, though.

The adaptive cruise control fitted to our test car was a little hit-and-miss with its decision making, as it would sometimes slow down for cars in the lane next to us, right when we wanted to overtake them.

Finally there is the emergency assistant, which keeps an eye on the driver and can send visual and audible alerts or pump the brakes in an emergency, before autonomously slowing the car and activating the hazard lights.

There are two Isofix points located on the outer rear seats.

Watch: SEAT Ateca Euro NCAP crash test