The Leon King: A SEAT You'll Want to Drive

Ignore SEAT’s endless PR crap about “Enjoyneering” this and cutting edge technology that. There's only one thing you need to know about the new SEAT Leon; it has full LED daytime running lights. Now you can go out and buy one. The end.

Thankfully SEAT has also made sure that the third generation Leon is no longer as butt ugly as its bloated predecessor. In fact it looks even sharper than Alfa’s gorgeous Giulietta...which is saying something. SEAT itself even goes as far as to say that the Leon’s sculpted flanks are “reminiscent of the tension of a well-trained muscle”. Er, we’ll leave you to decide on that one.

The new Leon should also be kinder on your pocket thanks to improved fuel economy and reduced emissions, partly thanks to a crash diet which has seen it shrink by 5cm and shed 90kg of blubber. Arriving at the end of 2012 the Leon will come with a range of 1.2 to 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engines – which are all turbocharged and pack up to 181bhp. Thanks to a tweaked chassis and stretched wheelbase, the Leon should also be pretty handy on the bendy bits and the performance FR model will also allow drivers to adjust power steering, throttle sensitivity and engine sound.

Somehow despite the shrink in size SEAT have sprinkled some Tardis powder over the Leon so that the boot is over 10% bigger and passengers have more space too. Inside the Leon can now be stuffed with high tech goodies including driver drowsiness detection and a lane keeping assistant which keeps you pointing between the white lines. As for listening to your tunes the Leon can be specced with a 10 speaker sound system with sub. Perfick.