1988 Seat Malaga GL 1.5 petrol

Summary:

Horrifying!. The best thing I did with this car was sell it

Faults:

I had so many issues with the automatic choke, until it finally broke. I didn't even bother replacing it.

Over the years, the heater core corrodes; in my case, it ended up practically completely rotted out.

The pedal gets stiff; in my car, it also made a hellish noise. It was a headache every time I had to shift gears!.

Constant stalling and carburetor maladjustments.

The brakes failed before the 50,000 km mark (what kind of car is this??). And the worst part was that I was out driving; luckily, there were few people around, or else I would have had an accident.

General Comments:

By far the worst car I’ve ever owned; I can’t recall a single good thing about it.

Starting with the interior—which was of the absolute worst quality—there were crude plastics that would break if you so much as looked at them, hard seats with stitching that came undone, a steering wheel that was awkward to grip, and a terrible ride.

The bodywork was terrible—there was rust all over the car, even though it had always been kept in a garage. It had absolutely no features—no air conditioning, and the heating was poor. Steering (even without power assistance) was awful; it was a very unstable car. Driving it on the highway was dangerous; even a Citroën 2CV was safer than this Málaga. Good grief, what a horrible car. Let's just say it was a cheap knock-off of the Fiat Regata/Ritmo, but with much worse build quality.

The only positive thing I can say about the car is that it had very low fuel consumption (despite being a gasoline model) and the engine was actually quite good, giving me very few issues. I wanted to be charitable and find something good to say, but beyond that, there is nothing else.

An ordinary, unattractive, and poor-quality car. I became convinced that Spanish cars, at least those from the 80s, were of the same quality (or worse) as those made in the Eastern Bloc.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 30th July, 2026