SEAT Leon Sport: new arrival

Arrived: December 2008
List price (including options): £18,197
Average economy: unknown

The SEAT Leon TDI Sport has been -

With other people, but doing what, I don't know. It arrived with 1,347 miles on the clock, and it looked scruffy within half an hour of first sinking into the driving seat. Black - it's the best and the worst of paint hues: beautiful after a good scrub, shabby 200 yards later. I'll never see that £3 spent at the Tesco jet wash again - what a waste.

It's also been to Autoglass. A mere three days into its time with us I noticed a small chip right in my line of sight. Ironically, it's too small to repair, so I'm just going to have to live with the distracting little blight on the windscreen. I have no idea when it happened, but it'll cost about £400 to have the screen replaced - and there's no way that's happening. There's a credit crunch, you know.

We're loving the -

Firmly sprung suspension, the deep sports seats and the frantic urge of 236lb.ft of torque from the 2.0-litre TDI engine. It's too early to tell at the moment, but if SEAT's promised 50mpg-plus fuel economy turns out to be true, the Leon will prove one heck of a reasonably priced (and fun) warm hatch.

The spec's nice too. Unlike many a press-prepared long termer, this Leon is equipped with a few well selected options only, rather than the kitchen sink bonanza of tech often thrown at journalists' rides (including our BMW 330d). Bluetooth phone prep, parking sensors, heated seats and a USB port for my iPod all seem sensible rather than extravagant.

But not so impressed by -

The Leon's motorway manners. The firm suspension means that while it's a fun thing on the North East's back roads, it's crashier than a Richard Branson world record attempt (by balloon or boat) at dual carriageway speeds.

It has a really narrow power band too, which can get tiresome. Peak torque comes between 1,750- and 2,000rpm, and while I happen to like that big lump of torque that arrives all of a sudden, the Leon runs out of steam all too quickly. It's a clattery lump too - more like the VW PD diesel engines of old than the smooth, refined TDI units found in the new Golf.

We're looking forward to -

The SEAT Christmas party. Not just because there'll be more yuletide sangria than you can say “ho ho ho” to, but because it'll give us the chance to find out if the Leon is as tiresome on a long motorway journey as I expect it might be. Newcastle to London in one straight blast should prove the Leon's worth... But even if it doesn't, there are always Northumberland's back roads to come back to, and I already know they'll be fun.

Mark Nichol