(Wednesday 9 April 2014)
It has taken a while, but SEAT has joined Volkswagen and Audi in offering the 1.4 TSI Active Cylinder Technology turbo petrol engine in one of its models.
Fitted to the Ibiza FR, the ACT unit is unusual in that two of its four cylinders shut down when only a small amount of power is required. How effective this is in the real world depends on how you drive the car, of course, but the official results are worth paying attention to.
Compared to the previous Ibiza 1.4 TSI, this one is slightly slower (the maximum power output having dropped from 148bhp to 138bhp), but it has much better combined fuel economy, and the CO2 rating has dropped by around 30g/km. Vehicle Excise Duty is now in Band B, the lowest before exemption, and for business users the BIK rating has fallen from 20% to 14%.
Pricing has also dropped by over 1000, though this is largely because the previous ACT engine was available only with DSG semi-automatic transmission and the new cars have manual gearboxes, which are inherently cheaper.
1.4 TSI ACT versions of the Ibiza FR cost 15,320 (three-door SC), 15,870 (five-door hatchback) and 16,570 (ST estate).
There's also a new model with the same engine called the FR Edition, which gets 17" titanium effect alloy wheels, door mirrors in the same colour, red seatbelts and brake calipers, rear privacy glass and climate control air-conditioning. In this form, the SC costs 15,920 and the five-door 16,470. There's no estate version.
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Cylinder-On-Demand Engine For SEAT Ibiza