SEAT Leon Sport: month 4

Arrived: Dec 2008
List price (including options): £18,197
Average economy: 41.3mpg

The SEAT Leon Sport has been -

Performing perfectly well most of the time, which is quite boring as far as long term reports go. However, I'm more frequently hearing the words 'I've got something for your next report,' from my better half these days. 'That's good,' I think, because it means I'll have something to write about a car that I find difficult to get vexed with.

We're loving the -

Leon's drivability, understated-but-sporty looks and its suitability as day-to-day transport for a family of four. I'm not going to go over old ground too much here, but if you've followed this Leon you'll already know that I enjoy much about the way it conducts itself on the road (apart from a frustrating lack of power at times), and its general air of solidity. If I'd put my own money into this, I'd still be feeling good about it.

But not so impressed by -

The aforementioned little things that are just starting to eat into the Leon's rock-like quality in my mind. A rattle from the central air vents that was sporadic is now regular at speeds of 60mph and above, for a start, and there seems to be a mini waterfall camped in there too, gushing about the place randomly.

The boot lining has started to come away too, probably as a result of forcing all kinds of parent-related paraphernalia in there with reckless abandon. Still, I'd expect better, and the material won't easily slot back into place. Then there's the more irksome issue of the driver's seatbelt clip, which gets lost inside the seat if you lift it to it's maximum height, making clipping the belt in annoyingly tricky; not so much a problem for 6'4" me, but my 5'3" wife doesn't like it. Something to do with her nails I think. She doesn't like how the seatbelt sensor in the passenger seat keeps telling her to buckle up her handbag either.

Arguably the most worrying thing, though, is the quality of the paint. When the Leon was delivered I'd noticed that some of its black metallic hue was showing the first signs of 'hologramming' around the C-pillars, but didn't really investigate much. The sun came out recently though, so I took it for its bi-monthly wash. The resulting sparkly car exposed some really bad holograms all over the place - deep lines that show 'underneath' the paint - from certain angles in direct sunlight. It's an expensive thing to fix, and I think it would bother me if I'd ploughed £18k into the car.

We're looking forward to -

Getting into the facelifted Leon to see how much better it is. See, despite the pejorative last three paragraphs, this is a car that I'd still recommend to anyone who wants a hatch. Sure, it's not the best in class at any one thing, but as an all rounder it's very difficult to fault. Only the ride, which is ridiculously hard and which my backside can't seem to get used to, is a problem. Avoid 17-inch wheels and that'll probably no longer be an issue - though I'm reliably informed by a colleague that his 18-inch rimmed Leon Cupra rode better than ours does. I drove that car, actually, though it was too long ago to make a comparison. Still, something to think about...

Mark Nichol