2001 Seat Ibiza Chill from UK and Ireland - Comments

Incorrect clutch fitted during manufacture and so far the car has had 1 new clutch & 4 clutch cables. Still not resolved.

Central locking locked me in and would not open for a while. This could have been dangerous if in an accident.

Flickering dashboard lights.

Squeaky driver seat repaired 3 times.

Badly closing back doors.

Engine Management Light comes on at regular intervals.

The engine misfires every now and again.

Faulty bonnet catch.

Noisy exhaust.

Door panel faulty and now replaced.

The car has been one big problem since I bought it.

I am still waiting for the clutch to be resolved.

It sounds to me as if you have had a bad experience with your car, more over I think you have had a bad apple. I have owned my Seat Ibiza Chill for neatly 2 years and 25000 miles and have not had one single problem. The first service cost £120 and the second £85. In fact it is such a good reliable and stylish little car my brother, sister and father now all have a Seat Ibiza Chill.

I know this may seem like I'm trying to win you over to like the car, but all ia mean to say is that it just a bit of bad luck for you whereas most Seat owners are very happy with their car.

I have recently purchased a 2001 1.4 Seat Ibiza S/cool. I have had a few problems with the car, 1st the clutch is very stiff despite the clutch cable being replaced under warranty, and 2nd the car radio switches on by itself with the ignition off.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I currently the 2001 s cool and so far the clutch went stiff, I've had 2 clutches, the slider plate that the clutch release bearing slides on has shattered to pieces and had to be replaced and the pedal box has fallen apart on me twice.

The pedal box was a quick fix though cos the pin that holds the pedal on had come out and all it needed was a new circlip and the throttle cable kept falling off, but that also only needed a circlip.

I also found that after purchasing a new slider plate from seat the clutch was no longer stiff. and the slider plate was only 30quid from the main dealer.

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!

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

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!

I currently own an T reg Ibiza 1.4, had new gearbox and clutch fitted at 60k cost nearly 2 grand from seat.

Now 4 years down the line the car needs yet another gearbox and clutch, my wife only drives 6 miles a day to get to work and back and she is no sterling moss.

Have rung seat customer services to see why my gearbox would fail after 4 years and was basically told you get 2 years warranty on a new box after that its tough luck.

So now have to fork out again for another gearbox and clutch, I would strongly recommend that people do not buy these cars.

What annoys me is that you work hard to buy a car which the manufactures claim is the best and has been built to the highest specification only to turn out to be a lemon.

Car manufactures whom make cars that have faults that they know about and don't recitify before production should not be producing cars.

Whats the point in buying something that don't work only for you to have to spend more money on getting the damn thing to work.

Good work Seat the ibiza is a credit to you.

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.

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.

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...

I got a Seat Ibiza S 2001 and all been fine, Just few problems, Clutch really stiff but from sounds of it my clutch is on its way out but its done 55k so can understand, My window wipers went up but didn't go down and this was just because bolts came loose so soon tightend them up and all fine and my driver side window dropped but never got this fixed as the plastic clip which I need Seat won't sell by itself and goto buy the whole lot £100 to fit new motor etc... So when I finally get time im gonna nip down the scrappy and nick a plastic clip off another VK or Seat, Great little run around but it does like a good gulp of petrol :S I would get another Seat as think they are neat little cars.