SEAT Leon ST Cupra 300 4Drive

Whatever the weather, whatever the journey, SEAT’S understated, and rare, hot estate has been a quick and capable companion

IWAS PREDISPOSED TO LIKING our swift Cupra 300 estate. The Leon Cupra 280 Ultimate Sub8 had given me some memorable drives on ecoty 2015, hunting down and harrying exotica. Sure, our estate didn’t have the semi-slicks, clever locking diff and fanatically honed edge of the Sub8 (the name of which alludes to its Ring time) but it did have even more power – 296bhp versus 276 – and four-wheel drive.

It was a bit of a Q-car, subtle and clean-cut in metallic white, and sharper-looking than the similar Golf R estate, I reckon. And, boy, did it feel fast. There is no manual option with allwheel drive at this horsepower level, but the six-speed DSG is such a slick, responsive ’box, you’re soon converted. It helps the Leon to 60mph in under five seconds and it honestly feels that quick when you go for a standing start and a couple of red-line upshifts.

Early on, I was consumed with the set-up. You can choose between Comfort, Sport and Cupra modes, or you can individually tune steering weight, suspension control, and engine and gearbox response, with settings from soft to sharp, or in Seat-speak, from Comfort to Cupra. It took a good few thousand miles to settle on my preferred settings and, to be honest, it was never quite what I wanted. In fact, the more cars I try with driver-tuneable attributes, the more I wish chassis engineers would just make the key-on mode so good that you rarely want to change it, or only do when, say, you go on a trackday or, in the case of our Leon estate, have a full load on board.

In the end, I went for the lightest steering (why does heavy get confused with sporty?), the sportiest suspension (i.e. tightest controlled but still rounded) and not quite the sportiest engine (because the fake induction noise was brash). That last one I only got to work to my satisfaction when I realised you didn’t have to have the sporty, rather frantic auto gearbox mode that gets activated with it. Simply nudge the gear selector from S to D and bingo: sharp engine, all six gears in play and upshifts punctuated by an audible pop!

It took a journey to Glasgow and back to get fully to grips with the ins and outs of the infotainment and navigation – particularly how to use the touchscreen to zoom on maps, and how to stop satnav voice commands interrupting the DAB radio. My brother, Chris, had to resort to the handbook more than once. On the M74 on the way back I spotted what would prove to be the only other Cupra 300 4Drive I would see for the whole eight months I ran ours. It looked good in dark metallic blue but I preferred our monochrome version.

Economy was pretty decent, at an average of 33.2mpg over the duration. I had expected the Eco drivetrain mode to yield a worthwhile economy gain, given the dull throttle response and lack of spark it foisted on the engine, yet there seemed little gain for the pain. Of more use seemed to be the slick eco stop-start. This cut the engine a few mph before the car came to rest and applied the handbrake so you could sit there, feet off the pedals, and then just press the throttle to go again. Few other systems have measured up.

I exploited the SEAT’S practicality on a number of occasions, loading it with offspring, dog and luggage, and it was perfectly comfortable and refined. Unladen, and when the opportunity arose, it was sure-footed and shockingly fast across the ground. You could sense from its balance that it was evolved from a front-driver but it never allowed any torque to escape. It was chasing a Ferrari 488 that I was driving when a front wheel banged

‘Unladen, and when the opportunity arose, the Cupra was sure-footed and shockingly fast across the ground’

into a pothole, inducing a slight steering shimmy. It turned out to be a bent rim and nipped tyre, which was expensive to rectify – nearly £600 for the wheel alone.

About five months in, I got to drive the frontwheel-drive-only hatch version of the Cupra 300. Were my expectations too high, based on Sub8 experience – and thousands of miles in the grippy and planted 4Drive long-termer? Around the West Circuit at Bedford Autodrome, the Cupra hatch felt sloppy and lacking grip. Not a patch on the Sub8 or even our estate, but hopefully a temporary blip for SEAT/CUPRA.

So, the Cupra 300 4Drive was a fast, capable and confidence-inspiring estate. It didn’t put a wheel wrong during our 11,000 miles (that was us finding a pothole), yet despite its pace and grip, I didn’t take it out just for a drive, as I’m sure I would have had it been a Sub8. But the estate’s versatility suited my needs very well. It was well equipped, surprisingly frugal and not a Golf R. It was a very good car to have in your corner – quick, cool and understated.