Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the city car segment and utilize the same 3-door hatchback body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Audi-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 20-valves 180hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 80hp engine designed by FIAT.

Safety

The fact that the Seat got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, isn't really an advantage, taken the poor 3-star rating it received. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the city car segment, which is generally not a very good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Spanish car offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that FIAT does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Seat with an average rating of 4.5, and models under the FIAT badge with 4.3 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Ibiza as average reliability-wise, and Palio is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the Spanish car rank it on average as 4.8, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.3 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Seat is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 5.7 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 220 kilometers per hour, 53km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Italian car, averaging around 0 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (0 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 100% difference compared to the Spanish car!

Verdict

Seat appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Spanish car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same direction, with Seat outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... I believe that, when we take all into account, we have only one winner here - the Seat. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.