The SEAT Bolero is a 4-door saloon from SEAT, built from 1998, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Under the bonnet: 2.8 . Erwin Leo Himmel drew it.
How it came about
The SEAT Bolero 330 BT was a concept car presented at the 1998 Geneva Salon International de l’Auto. It was available as a four-door, four seat saloon car body style. The "330 BT" is derived from the power output of 330 PS. No five-door, four-seat estate car body style is ever produced.
One of the most remarkable aspects of this concept consists in the elimination of the B-pillar and the use of hinges, due to which the doors could open independently in a contrary suicide door like manner, leaving room for an easier access to the rear seats. The SEAT Bolero's doors open in a manner of front conventional doors and rear sliding doors. The design of the car was a four-door saloon with rear sliding doors (four door, front engine). Another interesting issue is that the design of the SEAT Bolero incorporated many stylistic elements that would later be implemented in other models of the brand, especially in the front fascia. During development, the SEAT Exeo was codenamed Bolero, before being renamed Exeo.
The hardware
Power comes from 2.8 . It shifts through a 6-speed sportronic (tiptronic) automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the SEAT Exeo. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Silverado, the Cadillac Escalade, the Saab Automobile Saab 9-3 — show what else the money bought that year. Its SEAT stablemates include the SEAT 124 and the SEAT 133.