Skip to content

Christmas X−PERIECE in Lapland

Release Date: 23 Dec 2015

Two engineers from the SEAT Technical Centre drive to Lapland in a SEAT Leon X-PERIENCE to personally deliver thousands of letters written by employees' children to Santa Claus

They cover more than 4,000 kilometres across Europe on all kinds of roads

Martorell, 23/12/2015. - A festive atmosphere has filled Martina's house for some time. A fully decorated Christmas tree shines in the corner of the lounge where's she's sitting, busily writing the most special letter of the year. Santa Claus is still days away from visiting her home with presents, but Martina has no time to waste. This year is going to be different, as her letter to Santa is being hand-delivered by Jaume Camps and Jordi Ojeda, two engineers from the Technical Centre at SEAT, the company where her mother works.

Hers will be joining more than 3,000 hope-filled letters entrusted to two men who are used to travelling around the world to test cars on all kinds of roads and in every weather condition imaginable. Every year they travel to Lapland to test new models. "But this time is different", they point out.

A dozen worker representatives are on hand in Martorell with sacks full of letters written by their colleagues' children. They're all waiting for the two engineers to drive up in the car that will take them half-way across Europe – a 180 PS SEAT Leon X-PERIENCE 4Drive 1.8 TSI. After folding down the rear seats, the 587 litres of boot capacity increases to 1,470 – plenty of room for the thousands of Christmas letters to Santa! The engineers get in the car, and while entering Lapland into the navigator as their final destination, they agree that they "have a big responsibility".

The journey begins. They'll have to cover a distance of about 4,000 kilometres before reaching Santa's house. They make their first stop two hours into the trip in the south of France. As if on cue, the fatigue detector recommends that they take a short break. They continue like this for several hours, leaving many cities behind. They reach Germany and decide to stop for a while in Hamburg, where they walk around one of Europe's most beautiful Christmas markets.

After crossing the Oresund bridge that links Copenhagen and Malmö, Jaume and Jordi follow the Swedish coastline until Lapland, in Finland. They've spent the past several hours watching the snow-covered landscape go by and know they're in the final stretch of their trip. Once again the car demonstrates that no road is too extreme for the car, and now they've gone from paved motorways to long, tree-lined snowy back roads.

When they reach Romanievi their trip computer displays nearly 4,000 kilometres of driving. It's only 3 pm but as they arrive at Santa's house in the dark it seems like night-time. The two engineers unload the sacks of letters from the car and admit they're a bit nervous. The time has come; they've made a long journey and are about to deliver the letters to Santa Claus in person, just like they promised all the children they would.

Santa welcomes Jaume and Jordi from his wooden armchair, and they tell him about the trip they've just made to Lapland. "You've come all the way from Spain by car? Unbelievable!", exclaims Santa Claus. He strokes his beard and looks at the thousands of letters that fill the sacks. The engineers ask him to send a video message to all the SEAT employees' children to thank them for their messages. "Remember to be good and I'll see you all in Spain at Christmas!", says Santa.

Jaume and Jordi leave Santa's house. "Mission accomplished!", they proudly announce. And as they drive out of town in the dark with the car's LED headlights lighting up the road, they enter their next destination into the navigator. "Come on, let's go – we still have a lot of work to do", says Jaume, referring to the testing they have to perform prior to the upcoming launch of the SUV. Once again, another challenge ahead.

adding all to cart
False 0
File added to media cart.