This is the new 2021 SEAT Tarraco full review design.

The Tarraco – named after the old name for the Spanish port of Tarragona – completes Seat’s threesome of SUVs, joining the little Arona and midsize Ateca. And it’s a biggie, built to rival the likes of the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Skoda Kodiaq, which of course is also the Tarraco’s not-so-distant cousin. All UK cars get seven seats over three rows, so it’s a real family mover.

Seat already makes one of those in the Alhambra, which can also seat an entire water polo team with the bonus of sliding doors, but let’s be honest, MPVs are as fashionable as socks-and-crocs these days. SUVs are where it’s at, and the Tarraco actually has the looks and the dimensions to carry off the label (4735mm long and 1658mm high, if you were curious).

But it’s not just a range-topper in terms of size. It also gets upmarket materials, higher specs and more equipment than its showroom subordinates. Seat says it

“Blends design and functionality, sportiness and comfort, accessibility and quality, technology and emotion – but in a form that suits a wider variety of lifestyles.” Sure. You could also say it’s basically a big, practical thing that isn’t bad to look at.

Its silhouette is very similar to the Kodiaq’s – unsurprising given the shared architectural underwear – though the Tarraco is marginally longer, lower and more angular. There are bonnet fins. And a geometric grille between pointy, inset headlights. At the other end there’s a full-width ‘lightbar’ across the bootlid, which doesn’t actually light up, so it’s just a useless stripe of plastic. Shame about the fake, blanked-out exhaust trims, too. Why bother?

As for driver assistance, all Tarracos come with lane assist and front assist, which picks out pedestrians and bicycles. Their riders too, hopefully. Optional gear includes the usual fare: blind spot assist, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise and traffic jam assist, which does the slowing down/speeding up for you. It’ll also buzz the emergency services if you crash.

You have a choice of two petrol engines – a 148bhp 1.5-litre and a 187bhp 2.0-litre – plus two 2.0-litre diesels, producing 148bhp and 178bhp. Entry-level models are front-wheel drive with a six-speed manual, while higher-spec cars get a seven-speed DSG and an 4WD system. If you do long journeys with every seat occupied, you’ll want the torque and economy of the diesels. If it’s just for quick school runs the petrols are fine. Indeed, most people will opt for the 1.5 TSI.

Eventually there’ll be a faster FR model too, which may also get adaptive suspension. Expect it to be something like the 237bhp Kodiaq vRS, which recently became the fastest seven-seater ever around the Nurburgring. Who knows, Seat’s newly-independent Cupra division, which already makes a 300bhp Ateca, might also get its hands on the Tarraco sooner or later.

The 4WD system can send 50% of the power to the rear axle when called upon. Of course that has advantages in the wet, but also if you venture into the wild. It’s unlikely that most Tarraco owners will be faced with an overland adventure through the Gobi, but the 4WD and traction systems were good enough to pull us up a gravelly, 40-degree hill from a standstill. So they’ll probably get you over a festival field.

You sit up high, so it feels like a proper SUV. All models get a digital dashboard, replacing analogue speedo and dials, and a ‘floating’ tablet-style touchscreen above the centre console. As with any touchscreen it’s not the easiest thing to operate on the move (if you stab at the screen on anything other than a perfectly smooth road, your finger will almost inevitably press the wrong thing), so you tend to resort to the fiddlier wheel-mounted buttons. Some specs also get gesture control – a first for Seat – and an Amazon Alexa-powered voice command system.

And whereas some Seat cabins can be a little dark and soulless, the Tarraco plays with some interesting materials and textiles – our car had a wood-like strip across the width of the dashboard, and was trimmed in places with what looked and felt like denim, which arguably is more appealing than the full leather upholstery of the most premium trims.

Moving rearwards, there’s loads of headroom – even with the panoramic glass roof on higher-spec models, which eats into cabin space – and the second row of furniture slides and reclines, creating more room for third-row passengers, who will certainly appreciate it. Max bootspace with the third row folded is 700 litres, a useful 70 litres – or a large coolbox – more than a seven-seat Kodiaq. With seven seats up, there’s room for a few soft bags but not much else.

2021 Seat Tarraco
Seat Tarraco 2021
Seat Tarraco facelift
new Seat SUV
Seat Tarraco 2021 interior

#SEAT #Tarraco #design