SEAT Leon Sport: month 3

Arrived: Dec 2008
List price (including options): £18,197
Average economy: 38.9mpg

The SEAT Leon TDI Sport has been -

Continuing to make a good impression. Two tests befell our Spanish hatch over the last month: the dreaded house move and a back-to-back test with a Lotus Elise. Don't worry though - we haven't taken leave of our senses and started devising random and mismatched twin tests, we just happened to leave the Leon at Hethel while we tested the greenest thing to happen near Norwich since Delia Smith's face the morning after that "where are you?" rant: the Eco Elise.

We're loving the -

Fact that the Leon gave such a good account of itself as a practical load-lugging companion, yet didn't feel all soft after driving an Elise for a week. Surely the two things a sporty hatchback must be are fun to drive and good at carrying lots of things when needs be? Well, this month gave the Leon the sternest exams it could fear on those fronts - and it sailed through them both like a big, crashy boat.

It still felt tight, composed and sharp to drive after a week spent enjoying the Elise's heady mix of bone crunching ride and superlative cornering, and it also swallowed more than its fair share of amusingly named Swedish furniture with ease. A tall roof (even with a headroom-pilfering sunroof in place) and easy-to-use split folding rear bench meant that all the peculiarly shaped pieces of furniture deemed not major enough for the removal van were chucked into the Leon - and it handled them all.

But not so impressed by -

Its aforementioned flaws, which remain - and are getting more wearisome as time goes by. Another 700-miles or so of motorway journeying this month meant my resolve to not let the Leon's bounciness bother me finally succumbed - it's getting annoying now. It's not the hardest riding hatch in the world, but then it shouldn't be as unforgiving as it is, really. Ironically enough, the majority of its A-road miles were undertaken during a trip to Luton airport for the SEAT Exeo's launch - a car that turned out to be a rep's motorway wet dream, the opposite of this car. Even the Leon Cupra on 18-inch wheels and ruler-thin rubber rides better.

It's also losing its 'ESP off' button into the centre console, even though it doesn't get pressed that much at all - what with it spending most of its urban miles with two children in tow (they don't like the lift-off oversteer stuff so much). Oh, and I've given up even trying with the iPod connection gubbins under the seat - it's back to stacks of scratched CDs in the glovebox for me. Pah.

We're looking forward to -

Getting the windows tinted and taking it to Superchips... or at least that's what I would be doing if it wasn't going back in a few months. See, in this spec the Leon feels frustratingly short on power - not necessarily because it's lacking it, but because its general setup (suspension, torque delivery, driving position and tactile, small steering wheel) all urge you to drive it much harder than the engine allows you to: it could (and does) handle so much more. Driving it's an absolute joy. Sadly, there's precious little time to actually take it out and do that just for the sake of it at the moment - you know, with no kids, nothing to do and nowhere to go. Hopefully that opportunity will come soon, but in the meantime it's proving a very worthy family runabout.

Mark Nichol