9th Apr 2004, 12:34

I bought a Seat Ibiza 1.4 Chill in September 2001. I have had nothing, but problems also.

The driver's seat started squeaking after 2 months. The dashboard squeaks. The doors do not close properly and the central locking on my petrol cap has broken 3 times already.

My clutch is also very stiff.

I also have had rubbish customer service from Seat themselves when contacting them, they are very unhelpful.

2nd Jul 2004, 16:01

I bought my Seat Ibiza Chill in June 2002, when it was 6 months old. I seem to be very fortunate I have had no problems with mine at all, just the usual services, I only need to change brake pads, and that's no surprise at 30,000 miles.

I love the car and am considering upgrading to another new one.

4th Oct 2004, 07:52

I've had much the same problems with my 1.4 chill. To top it all the clutch has now gone at 35000 miles, and although the car is still under warranty Seat consider this to be normal wear and tear and its going to cost me £395 at the main dealer!!. Before this I had the previous model and the gearbox went at 60000. Maybe its me, but I'm a bit too old to be a boy racer!

9th Dec 2006, 22:57

I've had my Ibiza 5 years now.

Have replaced 3 clutch cables, replaced the pedal box twice due to the clutch pedal snapping off while driving along the road, and had a whole new 3 piece clutch kit fitted.

The stereo is dodgy also, turning on and off when gong over a bump.

Interior panels are also loose, causing them to rattle a lot.

My engine does only run on 3 plugs from time to time, causing it to lose a lot of power, but it's only the sake of changing one of the coil leads.

I would recommend an Ibiza, though maybe as a second car just for work, as the clutch is not really able for constant use and abuse. Apart from small things, the clutch is the only problem with them.

25th Oct 2007, 04:38

I have been delighted with my Seat Ibiza Chill (though I did get the garage to remove the 'Chill' stickers before I bought it. At 55 I'm not driving around with a car with 'Chill' written on it!).

The interior storage space is small, but it's a nice car to drive. Only two problems in 3 years:

1) Driver's window fell down. Almost £300 to fix, but it is quite common, according to my garage they take two or three a week. Not just Seat, the worst culprits are Range Rovers!

2) No long journeys in the car for a week. Exhaust failed - it lasted almost five years, so no complaints there. Went to my usual exhaust supplier (ATS, normally great). They couldn't do it. Went to Kwik-Fit - they couldn't do it. Went to a local exhaust supplier, with a fantastic reputation - welding equipment, the lot. They found it, after twenty minutes, ordered one, and it didn't fit. Rang the main Seat Dealer. How much will this be? "Can't possibly give you even an idea until we see it." So there is a whole day given over to this tomorrow. Just strikes me that this is inordinate hassle for what should be a routine item.

I'd still buy a Seat again!

29th Nov 2007, 10:23

My clutch has just started 'clicking' after five years. Typical; I had better get it checked out.

3rd Feb 2008, 18:02

I have bought an Ibiza 1.4 2001. Before 3 weeks and it has a stiff clutch, so as I can see, that is a globally Ibiza problem!

Also, it seems to me that it isn't so economic car, about 8l/100 km average!

24th May 2008, 11:52

I have owned a Seat Ibiza 1.4s since new and I've had the usual problems:

Stiff Clutch since new (never got it fixed)

Radio can turn itself on when I take the CD changer out of the boot. Radio also stopped turning itself off when the ignition was turned off. Happened after about 2 years.

It seems that seat made these cars with the same faults. Shame they never told anyone sooner.

17th Aug 2008, 07:28

I've had a Seat 1.4 Chill 2001 for about 7 months now, and since I bought it I've had to get the window wiper motor fixed, get a new gearbox, get a new clutch, and when the car has stopped at traffic lights or something smoke starts coming out of the bonnet. I'm not sure what it is, but the gauge in my dashboard says the car is burning up like mad.

I would never buy Seat again, I hate my car soo much.

2nd Sep 2008, 10:37

I also own a Seat Ibiza 2001. Like the rest of you it has a stiff clutch (repaired by Seat once - this made no difference), the engine fault light goes on and off, the petrol gauge randomly goes up and down, it is very uneconomical and the exhaust is noisy (in fact it snapped with rust 2 weeks after a full Seat service).

My main issue though was the extremely poor customer service I got with Seat - they never called when they said. Told me my car was ready for collection, then the next day when I went to collect it, I arrived and was told it was not ready...

4th Nov 2008, 13:18

I bought my 2001 Ibiza about a month ago, and have not really had any problems. A few days after I bought it, I did about 500 miles in a couple of days and had no problems, although when I go above about 60, I do hear a random whining sound from under the bonnet. Took it to a repair shop and they said it could be the tensioner, although there is the probability it could have been one of many things. I then took it to another garage where my friend is a mechanic and he said that it's nothing to worry about. I've done over a thousand miles with that little noise, but it hasn't gotten any worse, so I'm not worried.

It also had an amazingly stiff clutch when I bought it (I test drove 3 different Ibizas of the same age and stature, and they all had the same problem) but after my friend looked at it he 'made a couple of adjustments to the clutch to make it last longer', and since then it's been a very good car to drive, with no more stiff clutch! I think if you take the car to a local garage with people you know you can trust (as opposed to a SEAT dealer), then they will sort out a lot of your problems nice and cheap!

8th Feb 2009, 03:52

Hey guys, I was a Seat mechanic for 9 years..

Not going to lie to you guys, but the gear boxes in Seats are crap.. I own a 99 Ibiza; had it since new. I have fitted 5 gear boxes to it and 3 clutches.. and let's not forget about the clutch cable; fitted 49 since new... clutch bracket broken 4 times (clutch pedal falls to floor)... mostly what I noticed was the clutch cables were put on too tight, slacken them of slightly give a small amount of play in clutch pedal.. if they're too tight you put strain on the bracket, which can lead to it breaking...

Not much I can say about the gear box though; stripped hundreds of them, fitted new gears and they still do the same thing 6 months down the line..

If you check the gear oil regularly and check the clutch cable, you should not have any problems. I have had none since I started doing regular checks.. Hope this helps you guys.