During the first decade of the 21st century, the Ibiza III remained virtually unchanged. However, in 2006 it underwent a restyling to adapt its image to that of the new SEAT range comprising the Leon, Altea and Toledo.

The SEAT Ibiza III was launched at the 2001 Bologna Motor Show in early December and went on sale in 2002. Measuring 3.96 metres in length, its image took up the brand's new styling seen on the Arosa II and the Tango concept car, especially at the front.

The design was the work of Walter de Silva, who had taken over SEAT's design direction with the aim of giving the brand its own independent personality within the VW Group. A new brand image embodied in the new SEAT slogan coined in 2001: "SEAT auto emoción".

So, the Ibiza III, developed on the new A0 platform, took a major step forward in terms of build quality, engine range and dynamic performance. It was the first SEAT model to incorporate the "Agile Chassis" concept developed at the Martorell Technical Centre under the leadership of engineer Jaume Xifré, the architect of the Selex chassis of the Formula SEAT 1430 in the ’70s.

With this generation, the Ibiza celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004, with more than 3.3 million units produced. Shortly afterwards, in early 2006, the Ibiza III received a restyling to keep it up to date until the arrival of the Ibiza IV in 2008.

By then, SEAT's new Head of Design was Luc Donckerwolke, who took up the post in October 2005. His first work for SEAT was the Ibiza Vaillante show car, unveiled at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. It was a styling exercise designed for the comic character Michel Vaillant, in order to promote the launch of the "new" SEAT Ibiza.

SEAT's surprise with the Ibiza Vaillante had the great virtue of enhancing the redesigned Ibiza, which changed both inside and out. On the outside, it featured a more wraparound front bumper with honeycomb grille and twin headlamps. At the rear, the exhaust tailpipe was visible on models with more than 100 HP, and the "Ibiza" trim was moved to the centre of the tailgate. The rear light clusters were dark red.

Inside, the perceived quality of the materials was upgraded. The dashboard was changed, and the steering wheel and gear lever had a new design. The Ibiza was available in five different trim levels: Reference, Stylance, Sport, FR and CUPRA.

The aesthetic transformation of the first three was the same, while the FR and CUPRA had specific and even sportier modifications. The wheels were 15" up to the Sport, 16" on the FR and 17" on the CUPRA.

With these five trim levels and 11 different engines, the SEAT Ibiza range offered 18 different versions. And in 2007 the Ecomotive version was added, with an 80 HP 1.4 TDI engine, which became the most environmentally friendly model in segment B, with CO2 emissions of just 99 g/km.

The Ibiza III was discontinued in 2009, with more than one million units produced. This Ibiza III from the SEAT HISTÓRICOS Collection was registered in 2006 and corresponds to that year's restyling of the third generation.