The SEAT Tribu was a

compact SUV Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a ...

concept car that was built by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

automaker The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, repairing, and modification of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries ...

SEAT, S.A. A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e "seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The fol ...

in the autumn of 2007.

Overview

The first time when the name ''Tribu'' was used by SEAT was at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show for the

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

, which featured three

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...

s and four

bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form, it contours somewhat to the human body, but may have a deep seat and exaggerated sides that partially ...

s. The concept SUV was the first project designed entirely by

Luc Donckerwolke Luc Donckerwolke (born 19 June 1965) is a Belgian automotive designer, president, and chief creative officer of the Hyundai Motor Group and the Genesis automotive brand. Prior to joining the Hyundai Motor Group, he was the design director at V ...

, the former designer for

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...

, who in September 2005 was appointed the Design Director for SEAT. Official designs for SEAT of the production model were submitted to the

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

(WIPO) in August 2008, and subsequently leaked. The concept car had suffered radical changes, featuring five doors and the more conventional boot opening. It was by then due to have been released in the beginning of 2010. Several car magazines were quick to turn these official grey-scale pictures into computer-generated images that showed the Tribu in near final form as the

rebadged In the automotive industry, rebadging (also known as badge engineering, an intentionally ironic misnomer in that little or no actual engineering takes place) is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. T ...

version of the

Volkswagen Tiguan The Volkswagen Tiguan () is a sport utility vehicle produced by German manufacturer Volkswagen since 2007, sitting between the smaller T-Roc and the larger Touareg in the company's crossover SUV range. The first generation was based on the ...

. The car did ''not'' subsequently reach production due to rough economic conditions at the time. Development had officially frozen by December 2009, and the firm had still yet to decide whether the car would ''ever'' make production. In March 2014, ''

Auto Express ''Auto Express'' is a weekly motoring magazine sold in the United Kingdom published by Carwow Group. The editor is Paul Barker. History and profile Launched in September 1988, its 1,000th issue was published on 20 February 2008. Its only w ...

'' reported that SEAT were working on a family of CUVs, with an estimated release date of 2016. The vehicles were to based on the

SEAT León The SEAT León (), also spelled Leon in some other languages (named after the city of León, Spain, León, which also means "Lion" in Spanish), is a small family car built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since October 1999.ETKA The first ...

and were inspired by the

Nissan Qashqai The Nissan Qashqai () is a compact crossover SUV (C-segment) designed and produced by the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan since 2006. The first generation of the vehicle was sold as the in Japan and Australia, and Qashqai in the rest of the wo ...

, and would rival it. This proved to be exact with the launch of the

SEAT Ateca The SEAT Ateca is a compact crossover SUV (C-segment) manufactured by Spanish automaker SEAT. The brand's first SUV offering, the Ateca is built on the Volkswagen Group MQB A1 platform and sits in the C-SUV segment, between the Arona and Tarr ...

SUV in March 2016, at the

Geneva Motor Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...

References

External links

SEAT.com

Tribu Tribu may refer to: *Tribu, a ceremonial bell in Tibetan Buddhism *La Tribu La Tribu is a Canadian independent record label founded in 1999 in Quebec. Noted artists * Dorothée Berryman *Robert Charlebois * Les Cowboys Fringants * Dee * Duma ...

Compact sport utility vehicles Crossover sport utility vehicles {{modern-auto-stub