Mind the gap
The Leon’s looks are writing cheques the car can’t cash.
During my time with the Leon, on a very quiet news day, there were various ‘end of an era’-type headlines about the planned closure of the ‘iconic’ Watford Gap services.
As is so often the case, when you read past the headline the story becomes less black-andwhite. Not so much a closure as some rebuilding. (Owner Roadchef plans a remodelled ‘hub’ with more EV chargers, if it can extend its lease.) Not so much iconic as confusing. (People think it’s near Watford, the one just inside the M25; in fact it’s 60 miles north of there, near the village of Watford.)
In honour of its impending closure I drove there in the Cupra. And it turns out to be exactly what you’d expect from one of Britain’s oldest motorway service stations, opened in 1959: ready for a bit of building work and a lick of paint. The Cupra is very much not in need of a lick of paint – its Desire Red colour is a winner. But there is a bit of Watford Gap about it, in terms of the smokeand-mirrors of rebranding. In what way is the Cupra Leon not a Seat Leon? Nothing much.
There will be an electric successor, just as the Watford Gap will get its more EV-friendly replacement, and it will be fine.
Beneath the marketing, the Cupra Leon Estate VZ3 is a hotted-up and tarted-up Golf Estate that isn’t quite as good as the VW. It doesn’t have the fancy rear axle that makes the slightly more powerful Golf R drive so well, but nor does it have the easygoing flow of the non-R Golf. Its turbo 2.0-litre powertrain is sometimes at odds with the chassis, although it gels well if you drive harder. It’s roomy, it’s comfortable, it has good audio and – retro bonus! – it lets you drive at low speed with your seatbelt undone. But then it also costs £45k in this trim, which to me sounds like a lot. Depends how much value you put on the Cupra badge, which if nothing else is great for confusing people.
On my very first drive in this Leon, filling up the petrol tank, a bloke doing likewise with his Discovery came close to seizure when he saw me. Only when he realised I was putting fuel into an actual fuel tank, not squirting it into a socket, did he calm down. ‘Oh,’ he explained. ‘I thought all Cupras were electric.’ Not yet, my friend.