There are some cars. Its designs are so ingrained that we can tell which car it is from even the smallest detail. For example, Tofaş brand vehicles that sell like cheese and bread in our country and still continue to be the vegetation of traffic after years are an example of this. Or Renault’s Broadway is among the vehicles we see most on the roads of our country.
How many of you know the SEAT Malaga, which was launched in 1985 and sold well in its own country? Although it is not very well known in our country, we will get to know this car, which is very similar to the cars we often see.
This is what the SEAT Malaga looked like:
As you can see, the vehicle is very similar to both Tofaş Doğan and Renault Broadway. When we look at the history of this vehicle, we see that it has a design line inspired by SEAT’s partnership with FIAT.
Before moving on to SEAT Malaga, let’s take a closer look at the SEAT – FIAT partnership.
Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT had a partnership with both Tofaş and FIAT, which achieved very good sales success under its own name in our country. Within the scope of this partnership, we saw that SEAT launches cars that are almost exactly the same as FIAT. One of them was the SEAT 131, a copy of the FIAT 131. By the 1980s, the partnership between the two companies broke down and in 1982 the partnership between SEAT and Volkswagen Group started.
In 1985 SEAT Malaga was introduced.
We looked at the history of SEAT. Now let’s switch to this car. SEAT Malaga was produced as a 4-door sedan. Designed by Italdesign under the supervision of Italian designer Giergetto Giugiaro, Malaga came with two different engine options at its debut. These were the 1.2-liter engine producing 60 horsepower and the 1.5-liter four-cylinder carburetor engine producing 90 horsepower.
Why does this vehicle look like Tofaş brand vehicles?
Although the SEAT Malaga is actually based on the SEAT Ronda, it is actually considered a sedan variant of the SEAT Ibiza. In fact, this vehicle was a redesigned sedan version of the SEAT Ritmo. The SEAT Ritmo was also descended from the FIAT Ritmo vehicle from the old FIAT partnership period.
Regata, the sedan version of the FIAT Ritmo, naturally resembled the Malaga.
The Regata model, which FIAT released as a sedan version of Ritmo, later became the vehicle that used the infrastructure of vehicles such as Şahin and Doğan in our country. In other words, the similarity between SEAT Malaga and Tofaş brand vehicles in our country actually comes from here.
The SEAT Malaga was produced until 1991, after which it was replaced by the SEAT Cordoba.
SEAT Malaga, which is very similar to Renault 9 Broadway, but has no connection other than its seasonal design proximity, continued to be produced until 1991. In this process, it became a popular car, especially in the Spanish market. In the international market, the desired success was not achieved. If the right steps were taken, maybe we could see SEAT Malaga on the roads today.
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