I must say that I remain skeptical about this concept and there are a couple of things that I would prefer to be different. As Woodsie23 has mentioned I also believe that the central exit exhaust was a great feature and gave the
Ibiza Cupra a nice signature style.
Being somewhat of a traditionalist, I am disappointed that the car will not be offered as a 3 door and is intended as a 5 door model only along with the rest of the New
Ibiza range. It is a shame as it seems that the traditional 3 door hot hatch seems to be disappearing what with the Polo GTI going the same way and of course the Fabia Vrs has only ever been a 5 door from the start.
The most contentious point for me has to be the
badge and its colour scheme. The reason given by the SEAT CEO is that the company still had an image
problem and that this was costing the
CUPRA badged models sales. When he was working for FIAT he did the same thing with the reintroducion of the ABARTH sub brand for the performance models of FIAT. I do not agree with this as I do not feel that SEAT has an image
problem at all and that the image of SEAT in recent years has been far better than FIAT much in part to the VAG connection so I do not think this comparison is justified. I personally think it would have been better to keep the
CUPRA models with SEAT badging or if they did want to go down this road then they should have used the well known recent
CUPRA badge with the chequered flag and red detail. The chosen
badge design and colour scheme has no traditional connection for me whereas in the case of FIAT, the ABARTH
badge has a long history of being associated with the company.