We’ve had enough experience with the latest Golf to know that it offers an excellent basis for creating a dynamically proficient car. Yet the Toledo is merely good, without possessing any of the dynamic character that Seat’s marketing types claim is the brand’s essence. It rides well, if without the last percentage of polish in its damping possessed by a Golf, and steers with the same accuracy and numbness we’ve come to expect from VW’s electrically-assisted racks. Yet this Stylance model – without sport suspension – rolls too much for a sporting drive. Couple this with the high, MPV-style driving position and a steadfast tendency to understeer, and you have a drive that you’re never going to get excited about. Which is no surprise, really – this is not a sports hatch.
Previously, VW’s diesels have often been the pick of the range, and the 1.9 TDi the lynchpin. In this version, the Toledo gains 5bhp over its Golf equivalent via engine management tweaking. But the 1.9 is rough and unpleasant, except at a leisurely cruise – perhaps the extra power is to blame, or maybe it’s the installation in the Toledo. Never the sweetest of engines, it telegraphs vibration through the pedals and revs coarsely. This engine might be ageing, but we don’t remember it being this unrefined. Nor is it brisk, 60mph arriving from rest in 11.4sec. But 184lb ft shifts the Toledo’s 1465kg (our figure) along at a reasonable rate once it’s on the move. One pleasant surprise is the gearchange, whose snappy shift would suit a sports car.
