If you had to pick out the current weak soldier in the VW Group battalions, the Spanish branch of the family looks most like the one with the vultures hovering, after not so long ago appearing to be in far better shape—but they’re still being positive.

SEAT President Erich Schmitt told us the good news was that SEAT’s new business model has recently been approved, which means the brand’s future is guaranteed, that there’s serious investment into Spain’s oldest brand, to the tune of £306 million ($590 million) a year for the next few years, and that they are “working with the unions to find positive solutions” to the problem of actually building cars in their Barcelona heartland.

But it somehow felt a bit like a brave face against a fade-off of fashionable status that they hadn’t really seen coming. So what’s the answer? Well, they’re not out of the game yet, and they say that Altea XL in particular had a strong launch this year—so given the way everybody else thinks, what could have been more natural as SEAT’s Geneva concept car than the Altea Freetrack prototype, the inevitable Altea crossover, “a new creation designed for powerful, pure and lively minds. For people who crave adventure, excitement, and passion.”

Or, as they go on to say, “Release all your emotions, feel safe and capable of anything. Are you ready to feel passion and dizziness at the same time? New SEAT Altea Freetrack Prototype, be expectant.”

Well, when the drapes came off we were, but come on, it’s another compact SUV that only looks particularly different because it has a ride height somewhere between a conventional off-roader and monster truck, and in show-unveil mode is in a fairly striking silvery white with acres of highly polished chrome wherever another SUV might have tougher looking stuff—like the door sills and skid-plates.

Oh, and an all-white leather interior looks just right for the serious mud-plugging, too. So slightly mixed messages, just like the opening lines from President Schmitt.

Just to fill in the vital signs, though, it has a 240-horsepower 2.0-liter TFSI engine, six-speed manual transmission, four-wheel drive and 19-inch wheels. It promises reasonable geometry for getting off the smooth stuff, but it would be interesting to see how they stack up with normal ground clearance and maybe less extreme wheels. Truth told, it was a bit of a disappointment—they need to be a bit braver now.