| COMFORT AND EQUIPMENT RATING: |
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Despite its size, the Arosa is a comfortable car. The ride is pliant, which cushions you from town pot-holes but means things get a bit floaty at higher speeds. The 16V Sport is less comfortable about town, naturally, because of its more sporting nature and firmer suspension. The Arosa's seats are, by the standards of the class, large and supportive, and the lightness of the controls and general ease of driving also make the Arosa a pretty pleasant place to spend time. The only thing that stops it scoring four stars here is the fact that you can't specify air-conditioning, as you can on a VW Lupo. You used to be able to, but not any more - perhaps VW would rather the Arosa didn't steal too many Lupo sales. In the front, at least, the Arosa is extremely roomy. Thanks to its high roofline and distant windscreen, even the tallest should feel comfortable in spacious surroundings. Things, unsurprisingly, aren't so good in the back. We wouldn't recommend more than short journeys for four adults, and even then only if the front-seat occupants aren't too tall. The boot, meanwhile, has decent depth beneath its loading sill, but is quite short. Fortunately, split/fold rear seats turn the Arosa into a fairly adequate luggage-carrier if there are no more than two passengers. An average-sounding, Seat-branded unit which proves infernally difficult to tune at times, as the auto-seek flashes past your favourite radio station and you ponder how to manual-tune the darned thing (it gets easier with practice, but is never intuitive). There's no CD option, either.
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