RELY on Volkswagen Group’s SEAT Spanish division for sunny colours and extrovert characters among the conservative Teutonic silvers, greys and blues favoured by VW customers.

SEAT aimed for Alfa Romeo appeal with eye-searing paintwork and sporty cars that enjoyed World Touring Car Championship success.

Now they want to be taken seriously by UK business buyers as well as their established private customer base. Both like the value Spanish assembly usually brings around sophisticated VW hardware.

The current SEAT range spreads from £9,135 for the most basic Ibiza to £23,550 for the freshest addition to the line, the Exeo ST estate, pictured above.

We drove three varied SEATs from their five-model line in Hampshire.

Beginning with the parsimonious Ecomotive Ibiza three-door (£12,355), we found an adventurous three-cylinder- diesel motor that rattled into life with a lusty vigour that was matched by an occasionally lumpy ride.

The motor’s 1.4 litres smooth out at speed, sustaining an indicated 75mpg at 70mph. We returned 57.8mpg around a mixed dual carriageway and urban route, far below the manufacturer’s 76.3mpg on the official Combined cycle.

Compensation comes from Ecomotive’s low emission rating (98g/km), which means no road tax, and insurance is cheap for this model pictured below.

Next for the Farnborough foxtrot was a sportier SEAT, an Ibiza three-door known as the Bocanegra, meaning ‘black-mouth’ in Spanish!

Representing amazing value per technology pound spent, it packs the fabled seven-speed DSG auto-manual gearbox and a turbo-supercharged 1.4 litres, yielding a sky high 180hp.

You can buy the same powertrain from £14,995 to the £16,695 of ‘our’ special edition.

Hi-tech stats are impressive, but does it work? It did for me.

If you like driving joy at affordable prices, this amazing hatchback delivers superb performance (140mph and 0- 60mph in 7.0 sec) without punishing you at the pumps, with 31mpg independently ratified.

The SEAT’s absorbent ride /handling compromise is a surprise, better for everyday Britain’s bumpy roads than the benchmark Ford Focus RS, which costs at least £10,000 more!

Finally, we stepped into the newest product on the SEAT block, the Exeo ST.

It offers five-door estate accommodation of people and baggage that will appeal to business and family users alike.

We picked the 2.0 litre TDi SE that is likely to boost SEAT’s growing UK market share. The rewards are a well-finished product betraying Audi origins in overall style and quality, although it has actually been significantly reworked from the previous A4 base.

Performance features a maximum speed more than twice the UK’s national speed limit and the ability to realise 0- 60mph in less than ten seconds.

What matters are fine manners, accessible controls, road tax at a competitive £125 and diesel economy. SEAT quote up to 49.6mpg overall, we got 34.7 over a short outing in heavy traffic.

The Exeo is an excellent vehicle, but restricted on rear passenger legroom and pushy on price. Brand brother Audi offer later technology in a current A4 Avant with that efficient 2.0 litres and similar SE trims for just £1,920 more.