The long goodbye: 10,000 glorious miles in the endangered Seat Ibiza

Back in 2017, I flew to Barcelona to cover the launch of the fifth-generation Seat Ibiza. At that time, the Volkswagen Group was on a high; the Ibiza was at the cutting edge for a supermini; the Ford Fiesta was its main concern; and there were only nine electric cars on the market.

Nine years have passed since then and everything in the car industry has changed. Yet here I stand before a factory-fresh Ibiza that is hardly any different from the pre-production example I examined in 2017. Yes, the front end is a bit more substantial and the interior is more modern-looking, but that’s about it.