A lot of you might have not even heard of the brand SEAT, let alone the Arona. This does ring some bells for those who know about the brand and the car- is SEAT planning to come to India? Well, most probably not. SEAT is a Spanish car company owned by the Volkswagen group. This means that it shares a lot of its parts and powertrains with the German carmaker. Let’s take a look at the Arona which our reader Sahil Mulay spotted testing completely undisguised:
What is it?
The SEAT Arona is a mid-size crossover based on the MQB AO platform. The MQB AO platform is closely related to the MQB AO IN which India gets in the current and upcoming cars from the Volkswagen group of cars. The SEAT Arona comes with a range of powertrain options abroad including diesel engines. It also includes the turbocharged 1.0 litre 3-cylinder TSI engine which produces 115hp and 178nm of torque. It also gets a turbocharged 1.5 litre 4-cylinder TSI engine with active cylinder technology.
These two engines come mated to a manual or a DSG transmission. If you may remember, these two engines are extensively used in Volkswagen and Skoda’s line up in India. We suspect that Volkswagen is using the Arona to test out the platform and powertrains for their Indian line up. It could also be a test bed for made-in-India components of VW’s cost-effective modular architecture. This also explains the Arona being spotted with the upcoming mid-size sedan from Volkswagen i.e. the Virtus. The Arona spotted here is the left hand drive model. It features full LED headlamps with integrated LED DRLs, LED tail lamps and turn-indicators, the brand’s signature front grille, fog lamps, a large SEAT logo placed at the centre of the grille and on the boot lid. It also features faux skid plates at both ends along with roof rails and 18-inch alloy wheels.
On the inside, the Arona features an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system that supports Apple CarPlay & Android Auto, multiple drive modes, dual-zone climate control, ambient lighting, semi-digital instrument cluster, wireless smartphone charger; among others.
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