In the mid-80’s, SEAT was acquired for a symbolic price by the Volkswagen Group. The German consortium was commissioned to meet their debts, and pushing to SEAT the funding and technology needed to become a brand of first the european level. The SEAT Toledo was the first car launched under the umbrella of Volkswagen. A saloon is traditional, with touches and sports a design created by Italdesign Giugiaro. The prototypes SEAT Proto T and SEAT Proto TL would be graced embryos.
The SEAT Proto T was the first to release a new logo of SEAT, more modern and more rounded.
In the Hall of Frankfurt in the year 1989, is presented to the public the SEAT Proto T. Would be the first advance of the SEAT Toledo, whose sales would begin in 1991, positioning itself as one of the cars most successful and acclaimed brand. Although the SEAT Toledo would be a saloon-traditional three volumes, the concept presented by Giugiaro was the blurring of the border between the minivan and the sedan traditional. Knowing this, it should be little surprise that the shape bulging out of his behind or the large glass area of the car.
a Few months later, at the Geneva motor show of 1990, SEAT presented the Proto TL. It was a simple aesthetic evolution of the SEAT Proto T, which has received great praise the previous year: no one expected that SEAT – a brand-reviled of government property – cast so quickly, a product of european quality. I called attention to its aerodynamics, with a coefficient of only 0,243, unpublished at the time of her segment. The same could be said of its huge panoramic roof, which covered the entire surface of the car.
Their mirrors were cameras, which sent the captured images to two screens situated in the instrumentation.
This sunroof had a transparency variable, in function of the exterior lighting. You can also verify that the car didn’t have rear-view mirrors: they were two chambers that projected their images on both sides of the digital instrumentation of the car. All in all, its exterior design was not so far from the production model, which would inherit their front without many changes, and part of the rear, having altered the design in search of a look more graph – also more simple and affordable to produce.
would Not have a trace of the aero kit, so stuck to the floor, and with openings designed for proper cooling of the brake discs. The two huge exhaust outlets central anticipated powerful engines, when the production version of the more powerful – the Toledo GT – I would use a engine 2.0 a maximum power of 150 HP of power. Where yes there were changes far more substantial was on the inside, that in nothing resemble the technological rolling hall of the prototype presented by Italdesign.
multifunction steering wheel – they were the controls of the radio and its corresponding liquid crystal display – would not make it to production, and the design of the dashboard would be much more traditional. Neither the elaborate armchairs front or the sunroof would do so, but the prototype did manage to get outlived its task: teach the world what that SEAT was able to offer the automotive industry and how he had changed – for good – the Spanish brand after its move to the Volkswagen Group.