• Compact exterior hides spacious interior
• Lots of leg and headroom, front and rear
• Boot offers class-leading space, too

How much space is there?

Passenger space is much more generous in the Arona than you might first think. To look at, and stand next to, the Arona isn’t a big car, but it’s been well packaged to allow for a spacious interior that’s also flexible. Two adults will comfortably fit in the front, and if they don’t have long legs, two six-footers will also fit in the rear seats. What’s most apparent is the boost in headroom over the Ibiza, and a more generous amount of legroom too. 

If there’s a tall driver behind the wheel, then an equally-tall passenger may struggle in the back, but for most average-sized adults and children, the Arona offers a generous amount of space inside. There are plenty of areas to store odds and ends in the cabin, thanks to big door bins, cubbies and pockets scattered throughout. 

During our six-month review of the Arona, our tester Percy Lawman concluded: ‘On the inside the Arona is large enough for four adults. You could fit five in, but it would be quite cosy, even with the increased SUV height. Four plus one child in the smaller centre seat is about the limit.

‘The seats are comfortable, if not plush, being more functional than luxurious. I was surprised that a journey of two-to-three hours didn’t produce any rear-end ache often associated with some interiors. On the contrary – the seating did a good all-round job.’

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Boot space and storage

Considering its compact size, the SEAT Arona offers an impressively large boot with a good amount of flexibility thanks to a two-level boot floor and the ability to fold the seats down and free up a total of 823 litres.

At 400 litres with the seats in place, it offers 50 litres of extra capacity over a SEAT Ibiza, 20 litres more than a Volkswagen Golf, and 66 litres more than the Hyundai Kona. However, the Renault Captur, Peugeot 2008 and MINI Countryman all beat the Arona for boot space, with 455, 410 and 450 litres of space respectively. 

In practice, we lived with a SEAT Arona for half a year and rarely found ourselves needing a bigger boot. You can always flop the back seats down if you need to expand the loadbay.

Is it easy to park?

The Arona doesn’t look like a big car, nor does it feel like one to drive and manoeuvre. It’s barely longer than a SEAT Ibiza, and the extra height is a boon to visibility when manoeuvring in a cramped car park. This makes it easy to thread around town, which is where most Arona buyers will be using the car. 

Useful touches such as parking sensors and a reversing camera aid getting the Arona in its slot. Self-parking is available, but it’s expensive and it’s a faff to use.

Safety

• Plenty of airbags as standard
• Driver assistance tech available as optional extras
• Should be safe for small families

The Arona comes with the usual suite of airbags as standard, as well as a pair of Isofix childseat fittings in the rear of the car. Front Assist – SEAT’s name for autonomous emergency braking – comes fitted as standard to all Aronas, while more driver assistance technology becomes available as you move further up the range.

For example, luxurious Xcellence models add things like blindspot detection, rear cross-traffic alert and adaptive cruise control to the equipment tally, which all help make the Arona less likely to crash in the first place. When crash-tested by the experts at Euro NCAP towards the end of 2017, the Arona received a full five-star rating – so it should protect occupants well if the worst does happen – but the test has become a lot tougher in the intervening years.

Watch: Euro NCAP crash test video