| Long Term Test | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI Sport |
Been anywhere interesting?
Autoglass, regrettably. Two or three days after I took delivery of our black Leon TDI Sport my wife noticed a small chip in the windscreen, which is funny because it's right in my line of vision and until then I was none the wiser. I wish she hasn't noticed it though, because now it's all I can see - yet according to the nice man at Autoglass it's too small to fix. And so it shall remain, like a tiny thorn in my eye. Sadly it's just not worth paying £400-odd to have the entire screen replaced.
Other than that it's business as usual. The Leon will replace another medium-sized, medium-priced black hatchback as daily transport for the four-strong Nichol family - including an 18-month old and a four-week-old. Our other car is a three-door petrol Citroen C4, which has already provided a useful comparison; the two are as chalk and cheese as two ostensibly equal cars can be.
Anything stand out...?
The ride. I love it, but to some behinds it will no doubt be uncomfortably unyielding. The damping only seems to have a couple of millimetres give, and our Sport-spec car's 17-inch rims don't help. Lesser models get a more compliant setup. I'm not complaining though - in the right gear, at the right revs and on the right road the Leon feels like a proper hot hatch with sharp steering, loads of torque and supportive sports seats. I'm impressed.
...and for the wrong reasons?
The firm setup can get annoying at motorway speeds - sometimes it feels like you're piloting the Good Ship Leon on rough seas it's so crashy. I'll be able to test it properly shortly though, and I'll tell you why in a couple of paragraphs.
Other than that, there's not much to dislike. The shape is eminently agreeable, as is the combination of VW underpinnings without a Golf TDI's ubiquity - though it doesn't have that Wolfsburg cachet. That was demonstrated perfectly when I told a certain fifty-something family member what my long-termer would be, and he replied, "what's that? Sounds naff..." Then again, maybe that just means it's a young person's car? Good.
Where next?
The SEAT Christmas party. What better excuse to stretch the Leon's legs than to blast from Newcastle to London for some Spanish-funded Yuletide merriment? Hopefully the windscreen chip won't become a crack on the way there, and hopefully I won't be feeling sea sick before the party has even started. I'll also be able to check whether SEAT's 50.4mpg economy claim is anywhere near accurate. I'm always cynical about such figures - the Leon seems too quick to be a post-50mpg car - but I'll try hard to match it.
