Cupra Leon Estate
REPORT 5
£40,535 OTR/£42,305 as tested/£644pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
To expose “sports crossovers” as the silly idea they are.
DRIVER
Paul Horrell
I’VE BEEN HAPPY WITH THE CUPRA LEON WAGON. BUT THEN I HEARD Ollie Kew was getting his mitts on a Golf R The real thing if you will FOMO’s baleful shadow cast itself across my contentment
He’d have a vast bhp versus my car’s weakling Kew also gets his cornering smarts enhanced by a torque vectoring pair of rear clutches and because he has the Performance Pack the software for an actual drift mode I have to get by with a soyesterday passive rear diff Oh and that option allows his car to burst up to mph while I’m limited to
Bar that absent bhp we both have basically the same VW Group engine sevenspeed twinclutch transmission allwheel drive multilink rear suspension and a stage control slider for adaptive damping
Down one of my favourite byways I start in the Golf he in the Leon The VW is impressive The engine pulls hard and with useful bite Its steering is sharp well weighted and reasonably informative But it really doesn’t do anything different from my memory of the Leon Even his expensive optional Akrapovič titanium exhaust doesn’t really sound that great any more than the Cupra’s electronic enhancement does
On the motorway there’s nothing to split their driving positions comfort refinement It’s all terrific They share the VW Group’s infuriating control interface except it’s a small win for me because I have actual switches on the steering wheel I keep accidentally brushing the Golf’s inconsistent spoke touchpads
Over the months I’ve also been ensnared by the Leon’s extra usefulness Its longer wheelbase mm versus the Golf’s adds rear legroom and the boot is beyond comparison at litres versus
I knew I liked the Cupra but I didn’t expect it to be as good to drive as the vaunted Golf R Today I’ve stared down the greeneyed monster