Introduction
What do you get if you take the exterior of a previous generation Audi A4, add the cabin of the Audi A4 Cabriolet then put a Golf GTI engine under the bonnet? You get this, the SEAT Exeo 2.0 TFSI.
That's quite an esteemed set of ingredients, you'll agree. But as anyone who's tasted foie gras ice cream will tell you, great ingredients do not always combine well. (Granted, Heston Blumenthal might disagree.)
What are its rivals?
As a mainstream D-segment saloon, the Exeo finds itself amid a prolific group of rivals. It includes the likes of the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia, Honda Accord and Volkswagen Passat. A tough, but lucrative, segment.
And it's because that segment is so tough and lucrative that SEAT has entered it using old Audi parts: it has built a car with proven quality, yet almost no design or development costs.
How does it drive?
We know what you're thinking. And you're right - it does drive like the Audi. But despite essentially being a six-year-old car underneath (it's based on the revised version of the last A4, from 2005), the Exeo feels every bit the modern, quality product. Bland, yes, but fundamentally solid in every way.
The main benefit of its Audi provenance is that it gets all the basic stuff absolutely spot on: great driving position, no matter what your height or width, easily understood and beautifully damped switchgear and impeccable build quality. Plus, in the 208bhp 2.0-litre TSI engine from the Golf GTI, it's strong at the bottom end but satisfyingly willing to rev - unlike the diesel engines you'd expect to find in a car like this.
What's impressive?
There's very little of the sportiness that SEAT strives so hard to imbue into all its cars, but in the place of that comes the sort of quality that the company could previously only dream of. Plus it has plenty of front and rear space.
This petrol version is probably not the one you'll buy, though - for company car tax reasons, for a start - but for us it's the best one. While it's true to say that this isn't the last word in saloon handling dynamics, the Exeo can be good fun because it feels so sorted. The steering is weighted and accurate, the pedals placed just right, the front wheels don't slide about unless you're being really silly, and the gear shift has a positive action.
What's not?
The ride quality, as with many a SEAT, should be better. Given that this is a car likely to spend the majority of its time pounding the motorway (SEAT built it to sell to people who do just that), it could do with having its suspension loosened. As it is, it's quite given to following the undulations of a fast road a little too accurately, so it never quite settles into the sort of smoothness you'd get from, say, a VW Passat. The same applies to all roads, really.
Should I buy one?
It's not the most pulsating saloon in the world - far from it - but the fact is, you simply cannot buy this much quality for so little anywhere else. This car costs £22,435 in Sport trim, while a new Audi with the same power and similar spec will be over £30,000. So it really boils down to this: does image matter? There's nothing wrong with SEAT's image when it's knocking out its own cars, but could you live with your Bang & Olufsen stereo having 'Estereo' written on the front instead?
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