Seat Leon is poetry in ecomotion (From Bournemouth Echo)

Seat Leon is poetry in ecomotion

10:43am Tuesday 30th June 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

SEAT’S Leon represents very good value as a stylish, quick, hatchback whose fine handling and snappy steering provide a tactile and engaging drive.

It’s no wonder the car, in its various guises, has a legion of fans - they may be mostly young or young-at-heart but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Now there’s new model in the range. The Leon Ecomotive, like its sister the Ibiza Ecomotive, is intended to provide as much of the rewarding characteristics of the other models while providing a considerable degree of ‘Earthfriendliness’.

Some hard-liners may say that it’s anathema to produce a green Leon, but then they probably said the same about building a diesel race car… But that’s missing the point. The idea is to sell cars, after all. And at the moment a hatch with the Leon’s appeal aided and abetted by rock-bottom running costs would seem to be one of several sensible paths Seat is currently treading.

There’s no need to repeat the salient points concerning Seat’s Leon except to say it’s a smart, roomy hatchback with good passenger room, sharp handling and competitive pricing.

Factor in that it’s built on the previous-generation Golf platform – which many say is the best to date - and the Leon starts to make serious sense.

And not just for the boy-racer types.

The 1.9 TDI diesel engine was fairly quiet if a little agricultural-sounding. For economy purposes, the gear ratios were necessarily long, meaning performancewise you’re not going to get any fireworks.

It develops 105ps at 4,000rpm and a healthy 184lb/ft torque at a lowly 1,900rpm.

Under about 1,500rpm, a loud and annoying resonance enveloped the cabin, meaning, even if the engine was happy, you soon dropped down a notch to get the revs out of the ‘boom’ zone.

Something else that surprised me was the lack of a fuel consumption computer or gearshift suggestion light of any sort.

Now, I know these are fairly recent gizmos and any idiot can work out their fuel consumption at the next fill-up, but these lazy days you’d expect it – particularly in a car whose name includes the term ‘eco’.

Nonetheless, I thought the car did its job very well. I enjoyed driving it and felt suitably pious at the same time.

The gearbox was smooth, though the ratios were necessarily tall, but I thought the brakes were over-assisted.

After all you’re not likely to be pushing things in this car.

The interior was of the usual good quality we’ve come to expect from the marque and I particularly liked the excellent grip and feel of the knurled rubber knobs. So much so, in fact, that I rather worryingly found myself regularly caressing them, like some dodgy member of the dirty raincoat brigade.

In these environmentally-sensitive and financially-challenged times, a sportilyperceived car with environment-friendly credentials could be just what the handwringing punter wants. We shall see.

Official combined fuel consumption is a wallet-friendly 62.8mpg with emissions of 119g/km, meaning £35 for 2009/10 in VED Band C. Cost is £14,215.

• Print
• Email
• Share