I recently purchased a 2025 SEAT Arona to be my main whip at my home in Spain. SEAT is a Spanish brand that made licensed Fiat clones in the 1960s but is now part of the Volkswagen Group. The Arona is a B-Segment crossover built on the same platform as the VW T-Cross, similar in size to American offerings such as the Nissan Kicks, Mazda CX-30, Subaru Crosstrek, and Kia Niro or Hyundai Kona.
Editor’s note: Retired automotive journalist Jeff Zurschmeide recently moved to live in Spain part-time with his wife and, what I presume will be, many cats and dogs. He’s a well-known and highly respected journalist.
The Arona seats five adults, if you put three across tightly in the snug back seat. With the seats in use, the Arona offers less than average cargo space for the class. The Europeans measure that as 400 liters with the rear seats in use, or 1280 liters with the seats folded. That works out to 14 cubic feet and 45 cubic feet, compared to 20 and 45 cubic feet for the Mazda CX-30, or 20 and 55 cubic feet in the Subaru Crosstrek.
Power comes from a 1.0-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine. Base trim Aronas make 95 PS, or about 94 horsepower, but our test vehicle is a higher trim, so they wring 115 PS or 113 horsepower out of the engine, with 200 newton-meters or 148 lb-ft of torque.
That may sound like a recipe for a slug, but the 7-speed twin clutch automatic transmission with front-drive makes the Arona quite appropriately peppy for Spanish roads. You can cruise the motorways at 120KPH (75 MPH) with ease, and you’ll still get close to 40 MPG out of the Arona. The all-important 50-to-80 MPH acceleration is brisk, so passing slower cars is not a problem.
Inside, the higher trim levels offer most modern safety and convenience features. Our test Arona carried automatic high beams, adaptive cruise down to about 5 MPH, blind spot monitors, rear cross-traffic alert, reversing camera, proximity warnings, and automatic emergency braking. It also includes a wireless phone charging pad and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, so most features of GPS navigation are available even if you don’t have cell service where you are.
Interior trim and materials are where you are reminded that SEAT is an economy brand. The VW-branded T-Cross will have nicer materials where the SEAT includes a great deal of hard plastic. As a rule, the SEAT offerings are a bit nicer than the Skoda (another VW brand) equivalents, but not as nice as the VW trim. However, the seats are comfortable, even if they’re not heated and leather. For the record, they’re Alcantara centers with vinyl bolsters.
On the road, the Arona rides solidly and smoothly, with about 2,785 pounds of curb weight. The steering is responsive, as we expect from a B-segment vehicle, and it’s reasonably quiet even on rough Spanish roads. Obviously, the Arona is not a sports car, but it carves through Spanish roundabouts neatly and predictably.
The basic sound system that comes with the 8-inch touchscreen infotainment is perfectly adequate for most people.
Pricing on the Arona starts at 22,800€ (or $26,861 in USD) and rises to about 28,000€ for top trims. However, any SEAT dealer will have spotless 1- or 2-year-old lease-return Aronas with about 10,000 km (6,200 miles) on the clock for about 5,000€ off of the new prices. I bought my top trim 2025 Arona with 9,600 km showing for 22,900€, and it still carries a three-year warranty.
(Photo by Jeff Zurschmeide)
The bottom line on the SEAT Arona is that it’s a good all-around utility vehicle for a region where you have to get up in the mountains to find snow. AWD is a luxury here; even the ubiquitous Audis on the road are rarely Quattros.
However, 95 octane gasoline runs close to $7 a gallon in Europe, so the increased fuel economy of FWD is more prized than the capability of AWD. Plus, modern traction and stability controls make FWD almost as good anyway.
Most of all, the Arona is right sized for the often-narrow streets in Spanish towns, and yet big enough to haul just about anything you want. Would I buy this car again? So far, absolutely yes.
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