ohtourist.com: Frankfurt: Seat IBL Concept – sleek Spanish sports sedan

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Frankfurt: Seat IBL Concept – sleek Spanish sports sedan

The grainy leaked pic of the Seat IBL we saw yesterday is authentic, and the rest of the pics show a handsome saloon from VW’s Spanish marque. Billed as a “sports saloon”, the IBL looks neat and sleek – not very expressive or full of flair, though, and a little anonymous to these eyes.

The plug-in hybrid IBL completes Seat’s trio of concept cars that previews the look of the next generation. Laying the groundwork was the IBE compact electric sports coupé from Geneva 2010. The IBX that followed in this year’s Geneva show transposed the look on a crossover style vehicle. Now, a sedan.

“The IBL shows that sports saloons within the Seat brand portfolio will play an important role in future. However, this concept car does not pre-empt a specific model, but rather shows the design philosophy we are applying to bring the unmistakable Seat identity to a saloon car, too,” said James Muir, President of Seat.

Measuring 4.67 metres with a generous wheelbase of 2.71 metres, the IBL is about the size of today’s Seat Exeo, which is a reworked B7 Audi A4. The car is 1.85 metres wide. It’s fresh that a concept saloon isn’t called a “four-door coupe” by its creator – Seat says that the IBL “almost belongs in the four-door coupe category.” Hmmm…

Gallery after the jump.