The SEAT Toledo is a

small family car The C-segment is the 3rd category of the European segments for passenger cars and is described as "medium cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "small family car" size class, and the compact car category in the United States. In 2011, the C ...

produced by the Spanish manufacturer

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair ...

, part of

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercia ...

. The Toledo name was first introduced to the SEAT line up in May 1991 being named after a Spanish city with the same name, with the fourth generation being introduced at the end of 2012, for the model year of 2013. Production ended in February 2019, and the nameplate is currently not in use. __TOC__

First generation (''Typ'' 1L; 1991)

The initial version of the SEAT Toledo (''Typ'' 1L) was launched as a four-door

fastback A fastback is an automotive styling feature, defined by the rear of the car having a single slope from the roof to the tail. The kammback is a type of fastback style. Some models, such as the Ford Mustang, have been specifically marketed as ...

saloon, and its sales career lasted from May 1991 to March 1999. Technically it was a five-door liftback, as its boot lid opened together with the rear window. This generation of the Toledo was the first SEAT

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

developed entirely under

ownership, and it was built on the Golf Mk2 Volkswagen Group A2 platform with a 550-litre

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is c ...

expandable to 1360 litres when folding rear seats, larger in shape and size than the Volkswagen Jetta/Vento's combined with the advantage of a tailgate. As saloon versions of

s were rare in Europe, it was sometimes considered a

large family car The D-segment is the 4th category of the European segments for passenger cars, and is described as "large cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "large family car" size class, and the present-day definition of the mid-size car category use ...

due to its overall length and boot size, despite having comparably less rear leg room, and pricing closer to small family cars. It went on sale in most of Europe in May 1991, though it did not arrive on the British market until October 1991, with the official launch at the London Motorfair. The Toledo initially featured the then standard range of Volkswagen Group engines for the class, from a base 1.6 L petrol engine up to one ''GT'' version using the 2.0 L engine. Later, the Toledo would see the addition of more powerful versions, including a 2.0 GTI 16v, and 1.9 TDI which, like many diesel engines built since 1996 by the

, is advertised as capable of running on either mineral diesel or

biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat ( tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oi ...

. This model later received a mild

facelift A facelift, technically known as a rhytidectomy (from the Ancient Greek () "wrinkle", and () "excision", the surgical removal of wrinkles), is a type of cosmetic surgery procedure used to give a more youthful facial appearance. There are mul ...

in September 1995, and made its début at the 1995

Frankfurt Motor Show The International Motor Show Germany or International Mobility Show Germany, in German known as the ''Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung'' (''IAA'' – International Automobile Exhibition), is one of the world's largest mobility shows. It cons ...

. Sales were not strong however, as has been the case for all the generations of the Toledo.

Engine specifications

The following engines were available:

Motorsport

SEAT Toledo Marathon *(1992 to 1994) (2100 cc 330cv) *(1997 to 2001) (PVR 3500 cc) SEAT Toledo Class 2 *(Championship of France superturisme) 1993 to 1994 (195cv) *(Belgium) 1993 to 1994 (195cv) *(CET) 1994 (195cv) *(CET) Meycom 1995 to 1996 (282cv) *(United Kingdom) 1997 (230cv)

Rebadges

This generation of the Toledo has also been produced by the Chinese manufacturer Chery, and sold under the names of ''Chery A11'', ''Chery Windcloud'' and ''Chery A15'', ''Chery A168'', ''Chery Amulet'', ''Chery Cowin'', ''Chery Qiyun'', ''Chery Flagcloud''. Chery acquired the chassis of the 1993 Toledo from a Mexican dealership, after authorisation from SEAT. Chery Cowin, which is based on the SEAT Toledo, already has an authorisation to market it in Europe, along with Russia and South America. Apart from the Chery rebadged models, the first generation Toledo is also currently built by the Russian car maker TagAZ, rebranded as the ''Vortex Corda''.

Awards

*'Carro do Ano' award in 1992, in PortugalPalmares SEAT http://www.seat.pt/pt/generator/su/pt/SEAT/site/campanhas/DesportivoDoAno/main,lang=pt.html

Second generation (''Typ'' 1M; 1998)

The second generation Toledo (''Typ'' 1M) was introduced in 1998, and made its début at the 1998

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

as a four-door

notchback A notchback is a design of a car with the rearmost section that is distinct from the passenger compartment and where the back of the passenger compartment is at an angle to the top of what is typically the rear baggage compartment. Notchback cars ...

saloon. Sales commenced in October 1998. In Britain, the Toledo (''Typ'' 1M) may not be considered a

saloon. It went on sale there in March 1999. It was more rounded than the previous first generation shape and had a much more fluid design, although both were products of Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign studio, with the latest generation being influenced by SEAT's chief of exterior design Steve Lewis. It shared components with its

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

and Škoda PQ34 platform mates, the Volkswagen Bora and the

Škoda Octavia The Škoda Octavia is a small family car produced by the Czech car manufacturer Škoda Auto since the end of 1996. It shares its name with an earlier model produced between 1959 and 1971. Four generations of the modern-era Octavia model hav ...

, being positioned as the sportiest of the three. In the interior, the dashboard was derived from that of the first generation Audi A3. It was built on the Volkswagen Golf Mk4 platform, which meant stiff springs to support the load of the large 500 litre boot increased to 830 litres when folding rear seats. The early models were built at the Volkswagen/Audi plant in Belgium, with improved build quality (compared to the Spanish built previous generation), although the Toledo was still presented as an economic alternative to the lower level of the

D-segment The D-segment is the 4th category of the European segments for passenger cars, and is described as "large cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "large family car" size class, and the present-day definition of the mid-size car category us ...

, and included in the basic price a high level of equipment. One of the features most associated with the Spanish model, the tailgate was removed in favour of a more traditional four door saloon

opening. The following year, the Toledo would be used as the base for a proper

hatchback A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. ...

, the

SEAT León The SEAT León (), also spelled Leon in some other languages (named after the city of León, which also means "Lion" in Spanish), is a hatchback compact car built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since October 1999.ETKA The first two Leó ...

Mark 1. Base model was now a crossflow 1.6 litre petrol engine, followed by a 1.8 litre twenty valve unit, while the top of the line was represented by the 2.3 litre VR5 engine (V5). Diesel engined versions used the 1.9

Turbocharged Direct Injection TDI (Turbocharged Direct Injection) is Volkswagen Group's term for its current common rail direct injection turbodiesel engine range that have an intercooler in addition to the turbo compressor. TDI engines are used in motor vehicles sold by th ...

(TDI) engine, with a variable geometry turbocharger, offered initially with power outputs of or . In 2001, the V5 engine was uprated with a 20v head (four valves per cylinder), boosting power to . Later in the series, the 1.8 litre twenty valve Toledo received a

turbocharger In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

, capable of delivering , and a later evolution of the VW TDI engine, produced engines of and . These three versions all featured a six speed

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

. The 130 PS TDI also featured white dials instead of the standard black dials on the 110 and 150 PS TDI models. Production of the ''Typ'' 1M Toledo ended in July 2004.

Engine Specifications

Petrol Engines

Diesel Engines

Motorsport

In 2003,

SEAT Sport Cupra Racing, formerly known as SEAT Sport, is the high-performance motorsport subsidiary of the Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT, founded in 1985, succeeding the "SEAT Special Vehicles department" which had been formed in 1971 with the mi ...

introduced the SEAT Toledo Cupra Mk2 in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with drivers

Jordi Gené Jordi Gené Guerrero (born 5 December 1970) is a racing driver who competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005 and 2010. His younger brother, Marc is also a ex-racing driver and is currently a Brand Ambassador for the Scuderia Ferr ...

Frank Diefenbacher Frank Diefenbacher (born 19 March 1982 in Pforzheim) is a German auto racing driver. Career Diefenbacher won the German Junior Kart Championship in 1996. His first steps out of karting were in Formula Ford in Germany in 1998, where he finished ...

and former

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed a ...

winner

Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Cham ...

, while the 'SEAT Sport Italia' Toledo Cupra Mk2 with

Gianni Morbidelli Gianni Morbidelli (born 13 January 1968) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 70 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 11 March 1990. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 8.5 championship points. He currently competes in the T ...

also participated as an additional team. As in 2005, the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), the SEAT Toledo Cupra Mk2 competed in the WTCC from

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

Peter Terting Peter Terting is a German auto racing driver, born on 19 February 1984 in Kempten. He won the Volkswagen Lupo Cup in 2002, earning him a DTM drive for Abt Sportsline in 2003, although this proved to be too big a step up, and the teenager struggle ...

replaced Diefenbacher, while Jason Plato also joined the team for four rounds and Marc Carol for one round. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

and

SEAT Sport also ran in the

with two SEAT Toledo Cupras Mk2 identical to those used in the European Touring Car Championship under the 'SEAT Sport UK' banner. Initially, the SEAT Sport UK cars were campaigned by RML Group although at the end of the year the partnership was dissolved as RML entered the WTCC with

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...

and the team was run by Northern South since 2005. At the wheel were Jason Plato,

Rob Huff Robert Peter "Rob" Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British professional racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) driving for Zengő Motorsport. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the ...

James Pickford James Pickford (born 30 April 1979 in Macclesfield, Cheshire) is a British race car driver. As a child his interest was in motorbikes; his father Keith ran bike racing teams. James started at the beginning in karts in 1994. For a while he was coa ...

and Luke Hines. However, there were also independent teams running with SEAT Toledo Cupras Mk2 till the

2009 British Touring Car Championship season The 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 52nd British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. It began at Brands Hatch on the Indy layout on 5 April and finished after 30 races over 10 events on the Grand Prix layout at ...

, like the Motorbase Performance, the Team Air Cool/GR Asia, the BTC Racing and the Maxtreme teams.

In popular culture

The SEAT Toledo makes an appearance in the

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

an film of 2007, ''

Just Follow Law ''Just Follow Law'' () is a 2007 Singaporean comedy film directed by Jack Neo. In the film, a blue-collar technician and the events and promotion department director swap souls after a freak accident at a fictional government agency Work Allocati ...

'', directed by Jack Neo. In this film, it is used by the character Tanya Chew ( Fann Wong) and was involved in the rollover collision during a chase in which Lim Teng Zui ( Gurmit Singh) confronts her about cutting his bonus due to his incompetence and poor work ethics. It has the

vehicle registration plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificat ...

of ''SGC 1659U'' and painted in

scarlet red Sudan IV (C24H20N4O) is a lysochrome (fat-soluble dye) diazo dye used for the staining of lipids, triglycerides and lipoproteins on frozen paraffin sections. It has the appearance of reddish brown crystals with melting point 199 °C and ma ...

Awards

*'Die besten Autos' 1999 Award, by the German magazine '' Auto motor und sport'' *'Carro do Ano' Award in 2000, in Portugal

Third generation (''Typ'' 5P; 2004)

The third generation Toledo (''Typ'' 5P) was introduced in 2004, and as a production car made its début at the 2004 Paris Motor Show. However, a preview of it had already been revealed at the 2004 Madrid Motor Show, with the presentation of the SEAT Toledo Prototipo. Production lasted from February 2004 to May 2009. Its bodywork is completely different from the previous two generations: abandoning the traditional

three box The configuration of a car body is typically determined by the layout of the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, which can be shared or separately articulated. A key design feature is the car's roof-supporting pillars, designated from fron ...

saloon format, the Toledo Mk3 has a five-door hatchback sedan design penned by Walter de'Silva, although now closer to a compact MPV with the

Altea Altea (, ) is a city and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain, on the section of Mediterranean coast called the Costa Blanca. At present, the economy of Altea is based on tourism, which started to grow in the 1950s because of ...

's front section, a high roof, and a rear end inspired by Renault Vel Satis, paying homage to the original Toledo's hatchback/saloon rear. All pretense of a sporty identity was thrown out, in favour of a more upscale and alternative image. A large five hundred litre

DIN DIN or Din or din may refer to: People and language * Din (name), people with the name * Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates * Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken by ...

boot is an interesting feature, while it can be increased to 1440 litres after folding rear seats. Under the bodywork, the SEAT Toledo uses the same underpinnings as the

Volkswagen Golf Mk5 The Volkswagen Golf Mk5 (codenamed ''Typ 1K'') is a compact car/ small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen, as the fifth generation of the Golf in three- or five-door hatchback (August 2003–2008) and a five-door station wago ...

. All engines are identical to other

units, with petrol engines ranging from to and diesel engines from to . Updates include the arrival of a TDI engine in 2006, as well as a

tiptronic The modern usage of the automotive term manumatic denotes an automatic transmission that allows the driver to select a specific gear, typically using paddle-shifters, steering wheel-mounted push-buttons, or "+" and "-" controls on the gear select ...

gearbox in the 2.0 FSI model. A 1.8 L turbocharged version of this engine became available in the middle of 2007.

Engine specifications

The internal combustion engines used are the same as for many other cars in the

, and are all inline four cylinder engines. * only for some export markets

Reliability

Along with other SEATs, the Toledo has been a markedly reliable vehicle – more so than the Audi A3 and Volkswagen Golf, with which it shares platforms. In May 2006, Warranty Direct, a provider based in the United Kingdom of mechanical warranties for used cars, rated the Toledo with a higher reliability index compared to the Golf produced over the same period and the Audi A3. In 2010, and though currently out of production, the Warranty direct's Reliability index marks that the SEAT Toledo still ranks within the list of the United Kingdom's one hundred most reliable cars of the last decade.

Fourth generation (''Typ'' KG; 2012)

SEAT released an Audi A4 (B7) based

called the

SEAT Exeo The SEAT Exeo () is a large family car and flagship model, that was built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT, subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. Previously codenamed ''Bolero'', (though not to be confused with SEAT's earlier concept car bea ...

in October 2008, with both four door saloon and five door estate bodystyles. The Exeo was not intended as a direct replacement for the Toledo according to the company, although production of the Toledo was ended in May 2009, due to low sales. A

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

based on the Toledo Mk4 production model was presented at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. This vehicle is closely related to the Škoda Rapid as a five-door liftback, both are based on an adaptation of the A05+ (PQ25) platform and are assembled in the same Škoda factory in

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive ind ...

. The Toledo commenced sales in Spain and Portugal towards the end of 2012, and the rest of Europe and Mexico in the beginning of 2013, with the all new Toledo sitting in between the smaller

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...

supermini The B-segment is the second smallest of the European segments for passenger cars between the A-segment and C-segment, and commonly described as "small cars". The B-segment is the largest segment in Europe by volume, accounting for 20 percent ...

and the larger León

. The Toledo received a five star rating in the Euro NCAP. The Toledo was pulled from UK sales lineup due to poor sales in November 2018. In February 2019, the Toledo ended production although sales in selected markets continued well into 2020.

Special Editions

Toledo CONNECT

The SEAT Toledo CONNECT is part of a special edition line presented at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. This model is equipped with Full Link Technology and a Samsung Galaxy A3 smartphone. This allows the user to connect to the car and access connectivity features of the SEAT ConnectApp right on the dashboard. The SEAT Toledo CONNECT is available in a range of exterior body colours that also allow the mirrors and wheels to be customised. Interior details, including stitching are in blue.

Engine specifications

Reception

In October 2014, '' Top Gear Magazine'' placed the Toledo on its list of ''The Worst Cars You Can Buy Right Now''.

Sales and production figures

1,019,636 SEAT Toledo have been produced during 4 generations. The total production per year of SEAT Toledo cars, manufactured in SEAT is shown in the following table.

References

External links

SEAT.com
- official SEAT website {{Authority control Cars introduced in 1991 Compact cars Sedans Hatchbacks Police vehicles 2000s cars 2010s cars Toledo Front-wheel-drive vehicles Cars powered by VR engines Touring cars Cars of Spain