New Seat Exeo saloon for 2009

For all intents and purpose, the new Seat Exeo is set to be a face-lifted interpretation of the previous-generation Audi A4 saloon initially sketched by Seat in 2007, only espousing characteristics redolent of the Spanish car manufacturer’s distinctive automotive personality that embraces current design sportiness.

Set to cut its teeth in both D-segment family saloon and estate car guises when it falls under the European car buying public’s scrutiny in spring 2009, the world will catch its first official glimpse into Seat’s saloon car future at this year’s Paris Motor Show.

Seat has been quick to silence suggestions that the Exeo’s arrival will signal the demise of the current Toledo models, and have confirmed that it will sit alongside the full Seat complement on its introduction.

Mooted to be a ‘dynamic’ saloon, the name Exeo derives from the Latin word ‘exire’, meaning ‘to go beyond’ or to ‘go further’.

Seat certainly appears to have excelled on the naming front then. However, on further investigation, the literal translation appears to bear closer relations to the word we understand to mean ‘avoid’, ‘go out’ or ‘leave’. And as such, sadly not the most convincing strap-line.

Straight out of the pages of those occasional lists of ludicrous names to burden someone/thing down with – and phonetically pronounced ‘Ex-ay-o’ - the Volkswagen-owned carmaker says that its new entry in the D-segment will go straight into battle with the big hitters, Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia when it sheepishly introduces itself as Exeo in 2009.

Still, and on a plus point, Seat has finally lost faith in naming all its cars after Spanish towns. Ibiza, Leon, Toledo and Altea might sound all cosmopolitan and dreamy if you live in Skegness, but even the now almost defunct British motor industry gave up on calling vehicles after Oxford and Cambridge in the last century, although Bristol bumbles along caught in its very own automotive time warp.