* The Seat Leon ST ... FR.
* The Seat Leon ST's load area.
Seat
Leon ST road test by Steve Rogers
ESTATE
cars aren't meant to be fun...or are they?
The
days of rattley old boxes bought by people who needed to haul tea chests and
sideboards - think they were mainly antique dealers - have been confined to
history, in fact I can pinpoint the very year the estate car market was turned
on its head.
It
was 2000 and Alfa Romeo showed us the 156 Sportwagon, a car that was drop dead
gorgeous with its rising waistline, shallow windows and sloping roof, just like
a coupe. This was the start of a new breed and got rival car designers thinking
outside the box.
Mercedes-Benz
CLS, Honda Civic, Hyundai i40, are good recent examples, and even Volvo, the 'box'
king, has joined the sporty estate club, although now most are called Sport
Tourer, Sport Wagon or Sport Back. The emphasis on Sport tells the story.
Spanish
car maker Seat is relatively new to the club and although the Leon ST is not as
eye catching as the hatchback the sloping roofline gives it a bit of a racy
look.
As
part of the Volkswagen-Audi group the ST is cut from the same cloth as VW Golf
and Skoda Octavia both of which have slightly more carrying capacity, as does a
Peugeot 308 and Honda Civic, but we are talking small margins and Leon is a
convincing story with the tailgate open.
So
what do we need to look for in a good estate car? First up is a full width
opening, no light clusters poking in from the sides, low loading sill, minimal
intrusion from the wheel arches, and fold flat rear seats, not every car maker
achieves that.
Here
the back seats can be dropped by pulling levers in the side walls which is a
thoughtful touch and saves a walk to the rear door.
Leon
ST ticks all those boxes and the good sized boot does not cut into rear seat
legroom which is plentiful, even for taller folk. In fact this is a generous
five seat family car.
Where
does the fun come in? The clue is in the title - FR. We had a bit of fun with Leon's
full title - STTSIEVOFR - which looks like the jumble of letters from the TV
game show Countdown.
Embarrassingly
I could not tell my wife what FR stands for, she offered fast runner, very apt
in this case. A call to the press office revealed Formula Racing which is one
step away from Seat's ultimate hot shot, the Cupra models.
That
said there is plenty of fun and excitement to be had from the FR. The
suspension has been lowered a tad to sharpen handling and that works a treat.
Mrs Rogers immediately moaned about the hard ride but she doesn't get that
there has to be a compromise on comfort, and the ride is not that hard anyway.
So
we have a car built for thrills, but can a 1.5 litre engine provide the performance
back up? Too right it can. This is
Volkswagen's new high powered small petrol engine and combines performance, low
emissions and economy.
As
diesel continues to die a slow death VW has come up with a petrol engine that
gets close to achieving the same strong response at low revs as well as good
mid range pick up. It will never match a diesel on economy but this is clever
stuff with two of the four cylinders closing when cruising and that saves fuel.
I
averaged about 40mpg, well down on what the official figures predict, but I did
enjoy the performance so a little more care should push that to 45-46mpg.
Seat
can pick and choose from VW's parts bin so there are similarities with switches
and layout, and while it is all very orderly and precise it is a touch bland
although the FR benefits from shiny black and chrome dashboard highlights and
soft red penlight strips along the door panels.
What
do you get for your £24k? A lot of safety features, which are all the rage
these days, excellent LED headlights, an eight inch touch screen with
navigation, mobile phone integration for Apple CarPlay, Mirror Link and Google
Android, DAB radio and more.
Unfortunately
Seat's touchscreen does not have the quick function keys either side of the
screen, a sensible feature in the VW Golf, so you have to go into the system to
select a function. At least the heating controls are clearly displayed switches.
The
FR has front and rear parking sensors but for this money I would want a rear
camera and even heated front seats.
And
they could do with sorting out something that must irritate everyone. The two
USB ports are tucked out of site at the back of a cubby in the centre console so
trying to plug in a mobile phone charge lead is a real pain.
Apart
from that go and buy one, you'll like it.
Leon
ST EVO FR Sport
£24,125
1.5
litre TSI; 148bhp
0-62mph
8.2secs; 134mph
55.4mpg
combined
117g/km
1st year road tax £165
Insurance
group 20
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